latchkey

Related to latchkey: latchkey children

latchkey child

A child who is home alone after school or in general because their parents or guardians are at work. I know it makes me sound horrible, but I just don't want Tommy hanging out with those latchkey children from down the road. Being a latchkey child was tough at times, but it taught me the value of self-reliance at an earlier age than most.
See also: child, latchkey

latchkey kid

A child who is home alone after school or in general because their parents or guardians are at work. I know it makes me sound horrible, but I just don't want Tommy hanging out with those latchkey kids from down the road. Being a latchkey kid was tough at times, but it taught me the value of self-reliance at an earlier age than most.
See also: kid, latchkey
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • latchkey child
  • latchkey kid
  • stand the sight of (someone or something)
  • bear the sight of (someone or something)
  • I never!
  • well I never!
  • (well,) I never!
  • sound asleep
  • boom out
  • jangle
References in periodicals archive
And if Maasch's schizophrenia was not the latchkey to modernism's mania--emanci pated expression--then what was it?
Education secretary David Blunkett wants the extra time to boost sports and fun activities - as well as ending the problem of "latchkey kids" coming back to an empty home.
And if you're the parent of latchkey kids, there are even security systems that Mil alert you when your children aren't home on time.
Remember that a great many of us grew up fending for ourselves in day care or as latchkey kids.
She calls her 32-year-old husband her "latchkey lover" and she caused a storm this year by putting prepubescent teenage girls on the catwalk in sexually provocative outfits.
The manager of one complex initiated a latchkey program to keep young students busy after school.
Those with children, not surprisingly, want computer services, and there is general support for having the library play a role as a safe haven for latchkey children and adults who are functionally illiterate.
The types are: (a) suicidal, (2) sexually abused, (3) physically/emotionally neglected or abused, and (4) latchkey.
Latchkey children--youngsters caring for themselves at home--is not a new phenomenon.
Since bustersoften grew up as self-reliant latchkey kids, many are already making plans to save up money independently.
Latch as verb means "To close or lock with or as if with a latch," and a latch is "a fastening, as for a door or gate, typically consisting of a bar that fits into a notch or slot and is lifted from either side by a lever or string." From this arose latchkey (1825) and -- just 50 years ago -- latchkey child, sometimes called doorkey child, the socioeconomic label for "a young child of working parents who must spend part of the day unsupervised (as at home) -- called also latchkey kid" (Merriam-Webster's 10th).
For a $15 annual fee and $25 per month per household, Latch Key Kids Kare will verify that children have returned home from school and will be a personal contact for "latchkey" children who need assistance.
"Latchkey" children, who fend for themselves after school until their parents return from work, do about as well socially and emotionally as youngsters receiving adult supervision following classes, according to two new studies.
The tape begins in an average neighborhood where a latchkey child is home alone.
The Grant will be used to provide meals to children in the agency's Latchkey Children's Project.