latchkey

America had its latchkey generation and, along with that, a growing sense that the world is a dangerous place, especially its wilder parts.

From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026

I was a 1980s latchkey kid, and some of my favorite memories involved coming home from school, choosing something to heat up from the freezer and watching family sitcom reruns.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

"Dinosaurs were more like latchkey kids," Holtz said.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 27, 2026

The exchange arrived in Season1, Episode 2, as Meghan detailed how she grew up as an average American latchkey kid who ate a lot of fast food.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2025

He and I are going to help Mom practice every single night, which is why I’m sitting at my desk instead of watching after-school TV, which is a birthright of every latchkey child.

From "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead

Buzzing around them are children who frolic unsupervised far into the night, wearing latchkeys on strings around their necks because there is nobody at home to care for them.

From Time Magazine Archive

Even young female wraiths, demanding latchkeys, refuse to obey the frowning face of the clock, and engage in light-hearted ebullience to make the ghost of Mrs. Grundy turn a shade paler in horror.

From Humorous Ghost Stories by Dorothy Scarborough

As they were not on a main road, the door was not kept latched, and so they had no latchkeys.

From A City Schoolgirl And Her Friends by May Baldwin

"Anyhow, they have latchkeys," retorted Ruthven Smith, with what for him might be considered gaiety of manner.

From The Second Latchkey by A. M. (Alice Muriel) Williamson

If the people inside the house will run the place as we want it run, they may stay inside and we will keep the latchkeys in our pockets.

From The New Freedom A Call For the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People by Woodrow Wilson