Actually, in the fourth grade, I rode the city bus home from school to our hotel in Moscow, asked to concierge for the key, and went up to our hotel suite by myself where I usually read a book alone for about an hour. We were four people in two rooms, and this was the only privacy I ever got, and I loved it. I was ten, spoke decent Russian, and wasn’t really alone, because the hotel was full of people who could help me. I had a Moscow city bus pass I was very proud of.
I was 10. I was allowed to walk up one flight of stairs to the little buffyet and buy tea and something to eat, but my mother usually left something for me.
It’s worth noting too, that starting in the sixth grade, I had to leave when everybody else was just getting up. I had an alarm clock. I’d get up, take a shower, eat breakfast while watching Gilligan’s Island, then leave on my bike when everyone else was getting up.
Also, the Sunday paper had to be delivered early in the morning. I got up and did it while everyone else remained snug in bed. Once I was done, I’d put in a Sara Lee coffee cake, make tea, and be eating breakfast and reading the paper when everyone else got up.
I’m 63, and I had a SAHM from the era when that was the rule, not the exception. I honestly can’t remember if I ever had a key to the house, but I think I probably did as a teen when I would occasionally be out late.
Fast forward - I was a working mom, so from about age 9 on, my daughter was a latch-key kid. We always lived in very safe areas and she was rarely alone longer than an hour. She survived, so I guess it was OK.
Yes. From the age of say 9-14. Then again from 16-18; until I went to college, using the strictest definition. Though from 15 onwards, I almost always had some activity after school every day,
No - the door was never locked until parents went to bed.
1950’s. Kids everywhere.
Only one or two required us to ring the doorbell and ask “Can (kid’s name) come out and play?”.
Unless the kid was being punished by not being allowed outside, the default was “Come in when called and come in at sundown”. My name, address, and phone number were etched into my brain.
60 years later, and I still remember the address and phone number - yes, the Word + number type phone number:
“CRestfield 7” - now “277”. We have gained much since then, but the idea of kids being perfectly safe when allowed outside to be kids was a huge loss.
And when kids prefer to stay inside playing on a computer of one kind or another instead of playing “King of the Hill” or hopscotch?
Shudder. all I can do is shake my head a shudder a bit over that particular loss.