What age for First House Key?

[Lockdownbear]

Thinking about a thread by an employer suggesting parents WFH can not be keeping an eye on their school aged kids and they should have childcare in place which to me is just nuts. I'm thinking back to days of old and the 'latch key' generation.

I got my key when I was 10, I can't imagine giving my 10yo a key. However he is more than capable of entertaining himself while I work. I just wouldn't trust him completely alone.

How old were you when you got your key and how old were your kids?

Secondary as I have a younger child so at primary I always picked them up because I had to be there for one of them anyway!

I was seven. Mother went back to full time work, and my older sister didn’t get home from secondary school til 4.30. So I let myself in at 3.30, and was home alone for an hour each afternoon. That was in 1963.
My own DDs were nine and eight. Their village school was just 200 yards away. I got home about one or two hours after they did.
That was over 20 years ago. I think nowadays children aren’t given any responsibility until a bit older.

I think I was 11, got it when I started secondary school. I don’t think I was left home alone much though, my mum only worked out of the home part time.

I probably would’ve had one earlier but I had a younger sister so my mum picked us both up from primary school.

I got mine when I was 8. Purely because we had been on a school trip one day, got back early and were sent home (my dad claimed it was early, he could have just forgotten of course) No one was at home, I walked along to my grans and they weren't in either so I sat outside my house for about an hour until my dad came home. He gave me an emergency key the next day.

@NotGenerationAlpha

The need for a 10 yo to have a key is they walk home themselves *@Gatehouse77*

With so many of us working from home, it’s different from when we are commuting. It means DH and I don’t have to pick up or pay a childminder for after school care. She can let herself in if we are stuck in a teams meeting.

I was stating what we did in my family and answering the question in the OP.

8/9 - for both me & my son. Why leave it later?

We had a key hidden under a stone in the garden from me being around 7. My mum got home 30 minutes after me, back in the 1970s.

My older kids had a key from Y5 in case they wanted to go straight home instead of going to the park with the youngest around 10 years ago. So not latchkey children as such.p at that age. I didn’t work later than they got home until the youngest was 11, the oldest 16 and on the same bus home from school. Even then they were only home 45 minutes earlier than me.

11

We have a very discreetly hidden away secure key holder that locks with a code (two really, as the one by the front door has the key to the garage and then it’s hidden again in there to get the key into the house). When older, we will let the children know the code. They will need to be old enough to also then go on and disable the house alarm so the police don’t turn up which gives me equal fear of them not doing so and confidence about somebody else getting in. Although I am considering changing it in the future so I can remotely let them in if needed.

My 9 yo has one,

I finish work at 2.50, 20 minutes drive home, kids finish a school at 3 and have a 10 minute walk home but it takes the 30 as they dilly dally. DS1 has a key just in case I am home after them. He hasn’t had to use it.

I was 13 half way through senior school I kept asking for one I hated waiting round at my aunts house, made life so much easier as I could get in with my sis and get out of our uniforms start the chores etc really helped my mum out a lot us being able to come and go as she worked 3 different jobs at the time.
Don't think she would of gave us a key if we were any younger she didn't really trust us alone in the house after we got burgled.

Year 6, in preparation for secondary.

When they need one and are responsible enough to look after it. DS was getting to school independently at 11, so needed a key. DS2 doesn't and therefore doesn't need one til next year - when he's 13 when he will.

DD might be 20 before she gets hers!

Never. I left home at 21 and had never had a key to the house. It was an utter pain in the arse, particularly when I started having a social life at 17/18. Luckily my younger brother had a room above the front door and a well thrown pebble would get him up and he'd let me in. Wasn't allowed to stay out overnight, either....Christ, my parents were cunts.

I think I was 12, going into secondary school. Might even have been nearer 14/15 as DM was always home at that stage. DBro's definitely had theirs earlier, about age 10, when all the girls had gone to secondary and they occasionally had to come home alone together (1 in 5th class, other in 6th class).

Dd also got hers in 5th class, as she had started coming home alone. We had built up to it over months though and she was ready for it, and we only ever gave her the bottom lock (only lock the top 1 now when going away for a decent length of time). She's now mid teens and has never lost it or had a problem.

I have no idea when I got an actual key (12 maybe?), but I was certainly home all day every day of the school holidays or any sick day from school from 10. By 12 I was doing 3 nights by myself while my mum when on work trips (no family who could take me and my dad was largely absent). I was fine. I did fall down the stairs one trip and dislocate my knee. But I had the sense to drag myself to the lounge, elevate it, put frozen peas on it, and wait until she came home the next day (this was pre-mobile phones and email so had no way of getting in touch with her while she was travelling unless she called me). Sounds horrible, but really was fine and she still left me alone after all that drama.

No keys for our kids. Biometric lock with code. They’ve been unlocking Yale since they could reach and remember the code.

Still not ‘enabled’ to come home without us but both under 14.

Dd was 10.
She used to walk home in the last year of primary school and let herself in (I could have been right behind her, but she wanted to be the one to unlock the door)
Now she is in year 7, and it lives on a lanyard with her locker key.
Deffo going to look at getting a keysafe I'm a nightmare for leaving my keys at home.

10 and a half. My DD is very sensible.

I got mine at 7. That's the age we start walking to and from school where I am from.

9 or 10? No older than that.

My DS is 11, he got a key at the start of year 6 when he started walking to and from school, which is less than 5 min away. I would leave him for up to about hour on his own (but not after dark) and several hours with older sibling.

Must admit though we also have remote access cctv and motion sensors so I can check as well as having mobile phone tracking.

It’s not my children I don’t trust however it’s the area we live in.

Around 9 0r 10.