Gen X, We Raised Ourselves - Latchkey Kid Tee
Quality Guarantee
Secure Payments
Veteran Owned Company
Free Shipping $75+
Gen X, We Raised Ourselves - Latchkey Kid Tee
- Vendor
- WitMonger - Printed & Shipped From USA
My key lived on a shoelace from second grade on. I let myself in at 3:15, ate a sleeve of saltines for dinner and watched whatever was on until a car pulled into the driveway. Homework was supervised by the cat. Cuts were cleaned with whatever was under the sink, and the scabs were gone by the following Tuesday. Nobody called it independence. Nobody called it anything. A funny Gen X shirt for the generation that signed its own permission slips and turned out mostly fine. My kids have a tracking app and a snack schedule. I had a key and a vague sense of when someone might come home.
THE FINE PRINT
GEN X arched over a grinning boy in a backwards cap, mid-stride, a house key on a cord around his neck, a backpack on his shoulders, a skateboard under one arm. A scraped elbow, a scraped knee, no bandage. WE RAISED OURSELVES arches underneath in slab-serif capitals. Cracked, worn finish. No full stop.
Quality Guarantee
Secure Payments
Veteran Owned Company
Free Shipping $75+
ASKING FOR A FRIEND
What is a latchkey kid?
A latchkey kid is a child who comes home from school to nobody and lets themselves in with their own key, usually because the parents are at work. The term goes back at least to the 1940s and became a label for many Gen X kids in the 1970s and 80s, when two working parents and single-parent homes became common. The key was usually on a string. Nobody lost it twice.
What years are Gen X born?
Generation X is usually defined as people born from 1965 to 1980, the range the Pew Research Center uses; some sources move the edges a year or two. They came between the baby boomers and the millennials. Most of them still remember exactly where the spare key was hidden.
What age can a child stay home alone?
Most US states set no legal minimum age, and only a handful write one into law; safety groups often suggest about 12, depending on the child's maturity and how long they will be alone. Parents are expected to judge readiness case by case. In 1983 the test was whether you could reach the cereal.
