Did your parents ever leave you locked in the car?

[Redrum_69]

Like the subject says...

Did your parents ever leave you locked in the car with your siblings while your parents went inside stores for groceries or to pay bills etc?

Is it just me or are more and more kids being locked in vehicles while their parents go to work.

Also, what age were you when your parents decided to give you a house key and you could hang out at home after school until your parents came home from work?

[Mile High Mania]

I'm sure it happened while my dad ran in to pay for gas, but I don't recall it being something that happened regularly.

I'd be too freaked out to do that with my kids for so many different reasons.

Latchkey kid - both of my parents worked and my dad always was home around 4pm and my mom by 5pm. So, around the age of 10 or so... I would come home and be there on my own for an hour or so.

Again - I could not imagine doing that today with my kids at that age. The world is a much different place than it was in the early 80s and I don't trust anyone.

[seclark]

never was locked in the car

never got a key to the house, because it was never locked.

i always came home w/my brother and sisters after school. we stayed by ourselves till the folks got home.

this was during the '60s abd '70s though.

now w/my kids:
never locked them in the car, but considered locking them in the trunk.

never gave them a key to the house because we never locked it until they got to their teenage years and started bringing their friends over

we let the kids come home from school and stay by themselves after they got to the 5th grade.

sec

[kepp]

Locked in the car alone? Not that I remember. But, more often than not, I was home by myself after school growing up. That probably started when I was 10 or 11.

[Amnorix]

I don't think the world is that incredibly much different, though certainly that depends in part on where you grew up and where you live now. It will also differ from place to place.

I will say this -- any time any kid gets hurt in any way whatsoever, no matter where in the US it happens, it's front page, national news with live ongoing CNN updates. News was NOT like this when I was a kid, and if someone was kidnapped and killed in, say, Idaho, the most we would've had would be a few minutes on the evening news for a few days.

Heightened awareness is good, but it's also resulting in heightened paranoia.

[StcChief]

Locked in car. Don't need to do that, as SEC Dad would go pay for gas.....5 minutes. Back out. or we walk in with him.

Latch key kids in GS/MS/HS. walked home from school no issues.

60s/70s.

[Frazod]

I was never locked in the car, but certainly left unattended in the car, from an early age. Of course, that wasn't really a problem back in Macon in the 60s and 70s.

[Fish]

I can't remember my folks ever locking the car.... or the house....

I did get locked in the trunk by my younger sister one time while my mother was playing a softball game....

[Demonpenz]

I don't ever remember being locked in the car but our grandpa lived with us because he was old so the parents would leave us with him but our house is huge and he never left his little apt.

[Frosty]

My dad was the master of leaving me in the car for hours. We would go somewhere and he would stop by the office or somewhere like that and tell me he would be back in a few minutes. He would then show up like an hour or so later. :mad: I wasn't particularly young - the earliest I can remember was about first grade.

Second grade was when I started coming home from school and staying by myself until my Mom got home around 4:30. This would have been in the early 70's.

We started letting our kids stay at home alone for short periods a couple of years ago, when my oldest was 9 and the other one 7. They were usually glued to the PS2 the whole time and it probably barely registered that we were gone.

[morphius]

We were left in the car or van a few times, but it was normally our choice and never for very long.

I think 12 was when we were allowed to be home alone, though even then if it was for any amount of time the baby sitter would come over. Which was good, 'cause she was cute.

[The Franchise]

I wouldn't really say that we were locked in the car when I was younger. But if my parents didn't feel like putting up with us in the grocery store...they would leave my brother and I to play in the car while they bought groceries. They used to leave the windows rolled down....which lasted until I fell out of the car window and landed on my face. lol

I can remember walking home from school in the 4th-5th grade and being home alone for about an hour while my parents were at work.

[Jilly]

Locked in the car - no; left in the car for a brief second, yeah.
And I'm pretty sure by the time I was in 5th grade I was left by myself, but I did have an older sister who was semi around....

[Extra Point]

Mom always stayed home, so I didn't need a key. If Mom or Dad ran an errand, like going to the post office, then they'd leave us in the car, unlocked, for the 5 mins that they were inside. We didn't lock our doors until 68, after the riots following MLK's and RFK's deaths.

(Redrum_69, did your Mom give you lots of biscuits and mustard to snack on while being locked in all day, or did she just leave you in the lean-to over the ditch in the back yard?)

[Wile_E_Coyote]

I grew up in a small town, people still don't lock their doors & kids drive the cars down main street

[Mr. Plow]

I was left at a Kwik Shop once playing Mortal Combat for 2 hours.

[BIG_DADDY]

The car wasn't locked but we were in it. NOe often just when they ran in and out of some place. We always went in the grocery store. Mom went back to work when I was 6 and I was given the key. This was small town America though I think our population was like 30k.

[Redrum_69]

The car wasn't locked but we were in it. NOe often just when they ran in and out of some place. We always went in the grocery store. Mom went back to work when I was 6 and I was given the key. This was small town America though I think our population was like 30k.



ROFL..small town america...30,000


Small town for me is like 800-1200 population

[El Jefe]

The car wasn't locked but we were in it. NOe often just when they ran in and out of some place. We always went in the grocery store. Mom went back to work when I was 6 and I was given the key. This was small town America though I think our population was like 30k.

Small town, thats a pretty big town. The town I live in is like 8k people.