Julie slowly walks the two blocks home from school every day.
She comes home to an empty house and watches cartoons until her
parents get home.
When Julie hears the garage door opening like clockwork at 6:30
p.m., she runs to her room and opens her binder.
Julie slowly walks the two blocks home from school every day. She comes home to an empty house and watches cartoons until her parents get home.
When Julie hears the garage door opening like clockwork at 6:30 p.m., she runs to her room and opens her binder.
Although “Julie” is a fictional character, there are many so-called latchkey kids home alone after school until their parents get home from work.
This can be a three-hour span with almost half of county residents working out of town, but a lack of affordable day care leaves some parents with no other option.
There is nothing new about children being home alone. The phrase “latchkey children” originated in the early 1800s when kids who were responsible for their own care wore the key to their house tied on a string around their necks.
Depending on the child, being home by themselves can teach them responsibility and independence or it can be trouble.
“They want trust and a little independence and (parents) have to test that a little bit,” said Deborah Botts, the county’s chief probation officer. “Kids will always test their boundaries – that’s their job. When kids get bored, they get into trouble.”
Across the country, about one third of all school-age children – an estimated 5 million between the ages of 5 and 13 – are latchkey kids. Once kids reach middle school, parents are more willing to leave them alone and give them more responsibility.
Every child is different. The optimal situation is a child who has chores and homework to finish by the time their parents get home – it keeps them busy and shows trust, Botts said.
Stephanie, a senior at San Benito High School, has been a latchkey kid since she was in first grade. Her sister is six years older and their parents made sure to keep the girls busy with chores like dusting and vacuuming.
“My parents each worked, so they didn’t have much of a choice. They couldn’t afford a baby-sitter,” Stephanie said.
It’s also important for parents to build connections with neighbors so kids have someone to go to in an emergency. Neighbors can also act as watchdogs.
Leaving children home alone also opens the door to delinquency.
“(After school) is the prime time for them to be getting into mom and dad’s alcohol cabinet as well as using drugs,” Botts said. “When you have 48 percent of the population working out of town, you assume 48 percent of students are home alone.”
Stephanie’s parents worked in San Jose and Gilroy, but made sure Stephanie and her sister knew emergency numbers and not to open the door to strangers.
When asked if she’d leave her children home alone after school, Stephanie said no.
“Not now. It’s a lot less safe now than it was 10 years ago, especially 10 years from now (when I’ll have kids),” she said.
With small budgets and grants, schools are trying to offer after-school programs so kids are supervised until their parents get home each day. Schools across the county try to partner with organizations like the YMCA to give students activities to participate in after school, said Peter Gutierrez, assistant superintendent of the Hollister School District.
“People want to live somewhere nice to raise their family, but they both have to work and commute,” he said. “It’s a real challenge in our society with both parents working.”
