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...
Sounds a bit like my growing up. It was a lot like Norman Rockwell’s America. My Boy Scout years were like a chapter out of a Disney movie back when they were good; Fred McMurray, Vera Miles and Kirk Russell in Follow Me Boys!
My best birthday ever was when I was five and got my very own Ithica .22 rifle. Hunting Quail with Dad and his war buddy started at daybreak in the frost or snow or rain. The route was along the river, across a cold marsh, up a mountain and another three miles back to the truck packing a Stevens .410 shotgun. About an 8 mile hike every Saturday morning all hunting season. I was a tired little fellow but cherish it. Sure didn’t hurt me!
We drove as soon as we could push the clutch and see over the wheel. My brother had two tickets before he had a license.
So many memories that would be thought unreal today. My Dad went out on his own at 13 hitchhiking from Kansas City to Portland to see an Aunt hoping for better than KC in the Depression. He made it back home to join the Navy and go to flight school at 17 trying to get in the war.
We seldom came home to fend for ourselves until we were over about 13 and had our first jobs and started paying taxes. We were mobile then with a motorcycle. Girls began work at 16 with a car.
I thought everyone grew up like I did and had great parents like mine. When I grew up and went to college and work I found very few did.