#FJB #FTWDP
Still remember it being lonely.
Boomers? I always thought of this as more a Gen X thing.
There is such a thing as too much independence. đ
my husband hated being a latchkey kid- then his parents went out on Saturday nights and he was alone again.
when we got married and had kids he always wanted me home when the kids were there.
Didn’t you guys play with each other outside and ride bikes, hunt for snapping turtles and shoot BB guns and throw rocks and play baseball and football with each other and have rock fights, play marbles and trade baseball cards and coins out of your coin collections and climb trees and swim wherever there was water, play army?
Idiotic Boomers trying to remake themselves as Gen X. Boomers had a concert in the woods where they had a drug-fueled orgy in the mud and founded a religion about it named Woodstock.
I was a 60s latchkey kid. I’d come home and watch Dark Shadows and listen to Motown.
“Latchkey” is unusual. Did I decipher this correctly to assume this applies to kids who had to let themselves into the house with their own key?
Werenât the Boomers kids the latchkey kids
Most Boomers weren’t latchkey kids, but they were raised to develop these traits. (And then they raised their own kids to be whiny blobs.)
I had a friend that was a single parent latchkey kid. One day he was making some food and had a fire. Took the pan outside and got a good grease burn. He was always way behind me in school despite being a year older.
My grandad was a latchkey kid before it was popular to be called a latchkey kid. Nine years old in Queens, New York, on his own, no TV either just a radio.
I was born in 1947. My mother was a housewife, who did laundry for the old German couple next door, and helped clean house once a week for another neighbor down the street, so she was never far from home. My Dad was the old-fashioned type, and wouldn’t let her get a regular job. My father worked for the NY Central his whole life. My oldest sister was 7 years older than me. My second-oldest sister was 5 years older than me. My only brother was three years older than me. I was the baby of the family, so had to learn to get along on my own because my siblings were all in school. My last sibling died in 2014. We grew up in Rochester, NY, and never locked our doors at night. Fat chance of doing that now.
My childhood was right out of the Little Rascals, just a bunch of unsupervised kids running around getting into stuff all day long.
1. Independence wasnât optionalâit was survival.
2. Problem-solving became second nature.
3. Resilience was built into their DNA.
4. Time management was learned the hard way.
5. Self-sufficiency became a badge of honor.
6. Emotional toughness came with the territory.
7. Adaptability became second nature.
8. Creativity flourished in quiet moments.
9. A strong sense of responsibility developed early.
10. Resourcefulness was key to getting through the day.
11. Confidence grew with every small victory.
Now consider this is the same generation the Depression and WW 2 generations considered to be spoiled and weak. It seems like each generation is subject to degeneration.
Ummmm, no. Boomer here.
Mom was mostly home running cub scouts and girl scouts. No latch keys at all. Dad came home for dinner every night and ran boy scout troops, little league and fishing trips. Set routines on homework, tv viewing and outside play. Come in when it’s dark, otherwise, roam the neighborhood with pick up kick ball games IN THE STREET, climb trees, catch frogs and tad poles, build forts out of cardboard boxes, expected to join school clubs and athletics, few outside paid for clubs..... Bike or walk to school, stop at the 7/11 for snacks... Good times...
Boomers were not latch key kids.
That was Gen-X.
Gen-X was not raised by Boomers. They were raised by Depression and War Babies.
Boomers raised the Millennials.
Gen-X raised Gen-Z.
There is some cross over of course but most people seem to think everyone born before 1990 was a Boomer.
They were not.
I mostly learned about music. With unfettered access to my mom’s library I had a lot of fun. And I learned not to like people, people would interrupt the music.
Late boomer (early 60’s). Mom was stay at home until Iwas about 11-12 when she decided to do her own thing. It became my favorite tome of day, coming home to an empty house, having friends over, snacking, watching tv.
Mom and dad came home about 6. Loved that 3 hours of freedom.
Microwave snacks, VCRs ( they weren't available until the the mid 1970s! ), etc. all HOGWASH!
Sadly, many Boomer kids were raised using the idiotic Dr. Spock Method. So a lot of them were coddled to some degree or another.
The kids that grew up in the "SILENT" and "War Baby" generations fit all of the superlative attributes given to the Boomers!
Girls had Home Ec in school, boys had shop, and in many schools, both had at least one year when they all had both.
Life was somewhat regimented, in that there were set meal times, set homework times ( always after dinner! ),set bed times.
Kids played games ( that had been taught them by parents, grandparents, and older kids ), had art in school, actually read books and listened to the radio, which also stretched the imagination.
And they were taught to save AND be responsible!
#FJB #FTWDP