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Notes -
Discourse on the latch key phenomenon only briefly occured in the 50s-60s in Sweden and didn't amount to much. It completely died down once the municipalities were required to offer after school activities.
As far as I'm aware the majority of kids just went home anyway and that was completely normalised. Practically everyone had a key and went home before their parents from like age 10.
This has been going on for some 60 years now without any drama.
Same here in Finland except from 7-8 years old unless one parent was stay at home or had only a part time job. We were surprised when we found out kids in US stayed so late at after school activities and figured it’d be very exhausting if we had to also do that.
I'm an American. Starting age 9 I had my own key. I biked from school to home. Sometimes took the bus. Got home a lot earlier than my parents.
I came home first after walking from Elementary school and just opened the door because it was unlocked almost all the time. We never had a break-in.
Lest this seem too idyllic, my parents did start locking up when an old woman up the street was murdered in a home invasion.
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