When you were a latch-key kid what were some of the "This way you'll know it's me." things your parents did while they were away?

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False_Artichoke4310@reddit

We never needed it but our code word was “yellow box.” If anyone tried to pick up our kids for some reason - using these words meant it was safe.

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sgdaughtry@reddit

I’m not allowed to tell anyone what our secret word is. Nice try!

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kuntrycidd@reddit

There was non of this for me in the early 70s. Walk home from second grade , get changed. Go back outside. You didn’t need a key as the door was never locked. Don’t even know if it did lock.

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lol I remember my mom calling the house musing different voices to “test me” ….i was supposed to say she’s in the shower or something, but I could always tell it was her so I’d just say she’s at work 😂. Then she’d lay into me about not following the script. Same thing with the pick up code word - I wouldn’t ask for it and we’d get home and my mom would ask whoever it was if I had asked for it and they’d say no, and my mom would be like why didnt you ask for the password, and I was like because it’s obviously aunt Jane and she’d say something about how did I know it wasn’t someone in an aunt Jane mask, and my smart ass was like they don’t make masks that good 😂

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whatsupgrizzlyadams@reddit

Never happened. We lived in a small town where everyone knew everyone. The town creeps were well known and we're well controlled by the men in town.

elvisndsboats@reddit

I'm too old for this to even have been considered, I think. I just answered the phone when we were home alone! And the only people picking me up would have been family or very close friends. Never occurred to anyone to use codes.

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DcubedWY@reddit

Yep, never heard of this until I was an adult. Schools also had absolutely no security at all. Anyone could walk in. My high school was run more like a college, everyone had to made their own schedules and consider requirements so we all had different start and end times. One semester my first class was 11am, another I was done at 1pm. It would have been hard to do the security thing with kids coming and going all day.

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Few-Pineapple-5632@reddit

There was a program in my area where “safe” houses would post a preprinted sign in their window telling kids that it was safe to run there in case they were being followed by a stranger.

The stupid part was that no one vetted the people that got signs. Anyone could get one.

“Here kid. Volunteer to be locked in a violent sexual predator’s house.”

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Chance-Board-4133@reddit

Never had a password, just took the school bus with the rest of the delinquents.

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DickWhittingtonsCat@reddit

I never heard of this. The school did try to snuff out the mid 80s trend of shirts with the kids name on it because a stranger could pretend to be a friend.

We did all have homemade rope bandoliers with a couple bricks on them to clap on the testicles of anyone foolish to interrupt Rygar.

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notoriousmitch@reddit

Omg regarding! What a game!

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PeyroniesCat@reddit

I just had a different ringtone for her saved in my iPhone.

… I don’t think I’m remembering correctly.

It was an Android.

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Few-Pineapple-5632@reddit

Gotta ask.

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StickaFORKinMyEye@reddit

Sometime I'm surprised we didn't. We used to drive too small half broken big wheels down a semi steep rural road and the only way to stop them was to drive into the ditch.

On the rare occasion I got a heavy breather on the phone we had a whistle right next to the phone. That ended that call. (That was my dads idea because he never wanted me to feel powerless in an uncomfortable situation)

I don’t remember if we had rules about answering the door but I don’t think we did.

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hyestepper@reddit

The whistle. Perfect!

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PsychologicalLab6637@reddit

None. My mom stuck that key around my neck and said I'll see you when I get home.

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youareasnort@reddit

Ha! Ours was the ring once and hang up, too! I also totally forgot about that.

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fadedtimes@reddit

I always answered the phone, no matter what.

I didn’t have any code words. The way my house was setup it was rare to have anyone come to the door that I didn’t know

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bookwurmy@reddit

We never had any of that. We did have to call mom at work when we got home and she always left us a very long list of chores that had to be done by the time she got home. We did have a few emergencies which we mostly tried to figure out ourselves, except one time we went to our neighbor (a nurse).

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infinitee775@reddit

Chocolate as the safe word for strange cars is crazy

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Old_Goat_Ninja@reddit

lol, nothing. When we were alone, we were alone, no one checked on us. No code words if someone else picked us up because no one ever picked us up. We got to, well, everywhere and back completely on our own.

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TwoBitFish@reddit

Only child here. Idk what you’re talking about. lol

The only thing that happened to me when my mom was not home was “the list” of chores she would leave for me to do before I could leave the house. I was a good girl. People pleaser.

No one ever called me. Except for the sheriffs when my dad was pulled over for DUI right by our house (and my mom was out of town). She never knew about it. 🤦‍♀️

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ajbadabing@reddit

My safe word is Pineapple. Oh wait, wrong sub.

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Hands_Of_Serenity78@reddit

gif

That counts!

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Open_Confidence_9349@reddit

No secret rings, I just answered the phone. If they asked for my mom, I said she was in the shower or taking a nap (unless I knew exactly who it was and that it was okay to tell them she was actually at work).

Never had a secret word for people picking me up. I could get into any car with someone I knew and felt comfortable with, but my mom did not send randos to pick me up - I usually knew who was picking me up or from which household I should be expecting my ride.

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bene_gesserit_mitch@reddit

No secret words for me. We answered the phone without restriction.

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shiningonthesea@reddit

I am getting the feeling that my parents had no concern for my safety.......

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BraveLittleFrog@reddit

I remember the warning about never calling mom at work unless there was blood. A lot of blood.

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caarmygirl@reddit

Or a bone that could beSEEN; when I was 9, I broke my elbow roller skating.

No visible blood and all the bits of bones were contained in my arm. About 5 or so hours later, my dad got home. 🤷🏻‍♀️

No one could actually be mad, as I’d followed the rules to the letter.

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u2125mike2124@reddit

Mine was a broken foot and gym class

got my shoe back on

Took it off when I got home

couldn’t get it back on.

16 weeks with a cast because the jerk doctor decided to take a vacation.

Now one foot is a half size smaller than the other.

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Annual_Duty_764@reddit

We never had code words, no secret phone things, my mom expected us to crawl in through the small window on the back door if she wasn’t home when we got home from school or just kind of stay hidden in the back yard. Or, we could go hang out in the carport at my grandma’s house down the street.

My mom was gone a lot, so my sister and I got to know one of my grandma’s neighbors who would make graham cracker treats for us while we hung out in her Florida room.

Tall-Skirt9179@reddit

Buy now we ALL know

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Zivata@reddit

We didn't for phone calls or answer the doors.

Pick ups, we had a family password. No I'm not telling you, I don't want to be kidnapped.

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Direct-Dish1779@reddit

No code words. Never answered the door. Never answered the phone.

Rode bikes all over without helmets. I can't imagine how many active serial killers passed us in a white van and decided to snatch someone else.

About 2 am one night, my friend’s kid called and was all, “I don’t feel safe but could you act like you hunted me down and I’m busted.” “Sit tight, kiddo, I’m on the way.” So I went storming into this house party and grabbed my kid and my kid’s friend was all, “I’m in trouble too, right?” Absolutely. All of you, in the car. Then we went to country kitchen for grease and then home.

We lived out in the country so mostly, I’d call to tell my parents I was staying over wherever I was. They didn’t love knowing that I was drinking but they were very adamant about drinking and driving.

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shedpress@reddit

We have the same “deal” with our teenage son, which he has used, thankfully, in the past few years. Neither my wife or I had this deal with our parents, but the 80s and 90s were much different than today.

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redwbl@reddit

Well before the “latch-key” time. Different world, we came home to a parent less home every day, just tried not kill ourselves or each other, simple instructions.

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Mundane_Permission89@reddit

Our secret word was "purple" because our mom hated purple. 🤣

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Buttercreamdeath@reddit

We had codewords. Don't remember them but it was mostly to keep my bum of a dad from kidnapping us. Not sure why Mom was paranoid about that. He literally lived two blocks away and never had a job or made an effort.

We were the answering machine. Mom was always busy unless she said otherwise. Don't hand her that phone. If she had to take a call she didn't want, it was our ass.

We never locked the door. We lived in the hood but we fed the abandoned starving free-roaming pitbulls. They made themselves home on the stoop. Nobody stepped on the property with them around.

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Sara_Smiles_@reddit

We weren’t allowed to answer the phone. However, if it rang once and then stopped. The next call immediately following would be my Mother. Our “code”

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Present_Type6881@reddit

We didn't do the phone thing, but if I answered the phone when home alone and they asked for my mom, I was never supposed to say mom's not here right now. I was supposed to pretend to go tell her someone is calling for her, then come back and say sorry, she's busy right now, can I take a message?

I was a wait for the answering machine and then my mother saying, "PICK UP PICK UP PICK UUUPPP," and God save you if you were in the bathroom.

Secret rings? Passwords? lol

"I'm going out tonight. There's some ground beef in the fridge; make some spaghetti for you and you brother. Don't stay up late."

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Individual-Army811@reddit

Absolutely nothing. When we were home alone, we were on our own. They didn't call.

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AgathaWoosmoss@reddit

Hahahaha!

LennyTheCrazyInmate@reddit

I wonder if my mom thought she was smart because she let the phone ring TWICE then hang up and call back. I remember answering it on the first ring once and she said "You aren't supposed to answer on the first ring!".

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Reboot-Glitchspark@reddit

I don't even understand these.

Did they not expect you to recognize their voice if it was them calling? Did they not want you to answer the phone and take messages if it was someone trying to call them?

We never had any of those secret phone games. I think our rules were pretty much limited to "if it rings, answer it and take a message" and "don't make any long-distance calls."

Oh, and no prank calls like in "I Saw What You Did" because you never know if you're prank-calling a murderer who then thinks they have a witness they need to eliminate.

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Out_of_Darkness_mc@reddit

Didn’t have any as a kid! Was only told to not be prank calling people because I did it a LOT!!

I did with my oldest!

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fry-something@reddit

LOL.

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TXtogo@reddit

I was not a latchkey kid because our trailer didn’t have a lock on it. We grew up and never locked a door. We didn’t lock the car, the house, nothing - there was no reason to do that at all. There was no crime where I lived, and this is a trailer park.

It might be because it was a trailer park though, I mean if you’re going to rob a house are you going to choose the trailer?

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454_water@reddit

Husband grew up in a really rural area; house doors were never locked and cars were left with the key in the ignition and were also unlocked.

I grew up in a major metropolitan city...everything was locked.

It took us a while to get to the point where I was right locking everything down and he was wrong for trusting people. A lot of this was because of changing times; his aunt and uncle were robbed specifically because they were very rural and their was significant rise in crime in that area and others just because it so remote.

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Hahawney2@reddit

Yes, but in real reality, there’s not that many people out in the country to rob anybody much less travel a mile out of their way just to go to their neighbor and rob them if you went a mile away to go to the very next house, which is as far away is the next house is to us to rob them then you’d have to carry it all back to your house and if they came to your house to talk to you about it, you couldn’t let him in the house, it would be a very uncomfortable situation. I don’t think you could rob your neighbor out in the country and get away with it.

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Confirmationbias10@reddit

My grandparents lived on my same street through a vacant lot so even though I was a latch key kid, it wasn't the same as some of my friends.

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piper_squeak@reddit

Never go anywhere with a stranger without the code!

Seriously. Single mom, young son in the city.

She bought a gun for protection.

Who was that? It was Bob. They had a baby. It’s a boy.

We had a secret passcode for our family. We also had dimes taped on the inside of our jackets, in case we had to call our parents.

Fast forward to the 70s, I'm at an outdoor mall with my friend. Some guy was being super creepy, so my friend and I called my mom.

Not a one.

Hopped a ride with a guy on his way to see his brother graduate marine boot camp. Talked with him while he smoked a joint then hopped back out at my stop.

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yanknga@reddit

Nothing that I remember. Just don’t let strangers in the house and call Mrs Next Door Neighbor if you can’t reach me at work.

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Hell, we used that all the way through college. My parents would watch us drive away and shout, "Give me the signal when you get there!" Long distance calls cost a lot!

I miss those days. :)

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TapeFlip187@reddit

When I was really little like age 4-7 we did the 'one ring hang up'.

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spworf@reddit

Who the heck got picked up from school? My mom wasn't working and we still walked to school and back, carrying a peanut butter bucket full of marbles.

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Pita_Girl@reddit

I’m a stay at home mom and my 10 year old walks home or takes the bus. He decides each day and I don’t care which because it’s honestly insane to be they offer a bus! The school is 1/4 mile away! He’s also in charge of getting his little brother and sister off the bus since the driver won’t let them out without someone there to get them.

We did have a code that when we were ready to be picked up, we’d call collect and my dad would deny it. If we needed to change the plan, then we’d call collect again and he would accept, otherwise he was on the way to wherever he dropped us off. My mom never learned to deny the charges.

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vigorousswirl@reddit

Why would our parents have called us when they were not home? To check up on us 😅? Ride home? I don't think so. I came home alone from school, made my own dinner, watched horror films, washed the dishes and had a nice cup of coffee. Just like any other normal 7 year old.

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Legion1117@reddit

Why would our parents have called us when they were not home?

In our case, it was usually to tell us the neighbors had called and reported our latest antics to her at work and ask WTF we thought we were doing...at the top of her lungs.

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Leading_Ad3918@reddit

It could’ve been because they forgot to add something to the chore list that is already 2 pages in the smallest print ever😂

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Anonymo123@reddit

grew up in a very small rural community so there were no code words... and we always answered the phone when it rang. If someone called for our parents and they weren't home, we'd tell them they were busy and took a message, we never said they weren't there. I was never inside the house when it was light outside, so I am sure i missed quite a few calls.. thats what the tape answering machine was for. We had a close few known family friends that would help get us.. if they told us "your parents told me to come get you", we went with them without question. We never had someone we didn't know tell us that, we would have said no and walked home or to a phone to call home directly.

We have a code word for my son now, but we also have cell phones lol

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jannylou2@reddit

My girls who are now 51 & 48, our secret “password” was chocolate chip cookies.

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DenaNina@reddit

People had code words? News to me!

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454_water@reddit

I think the code word thing came up when I was in 6-7th grade, so way too old to be convinced by a stranger that either of my parents would tell someone I don't know to give me a ride.

Code word. I won't say it as it's still active with my daughter...its now our family wide code word.

Actually had to use it once, I was about 12 or so. One of my dad's coworkers picked me up right at the school bus stop one day. Granted I met him before, but he dropped the word and told me to get in his car.

Here, my dad's girlfriend's ex husband was playing games and threatening that he was going to bring a gun to our house. Didn't want me walking outside up on that. Thankfully nothing ever happened and he never showed.

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xczechr@reddit

No codes in place, but my mother's friend drove the bus for my school and she would drop me off right at my front door instead of down the street at the usual bus stop. She would wait for me to get inside before driving off.

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OUBoyWonder@reddit (OP)

She would wait for me to get inside before driving off.

This was also common practice when I would drop a date off at home after said date. Wait in the car watching her walk to her front porch, wait for her to open the door, get a wave back from her, THEN I would drive off.

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Rough-Patience-2435@reddit

Flip the light switch.

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Our secret password for someone picking us up was “Saints” as in the football team. We had family practice sessions.

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Honeybee3674@reddit

We just answered the phone, and we're taught to say our parents couldn't come to the phone/were busy and to take message.

We had a silly code word. I'm not sure if it was real or a joke, as it was never used. We just weren't supposed to get in a car with anyone (maybe aunts/uncles were an exception).

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scarlettohara1936@reddit

"Mom's in the shower, she'll call you back"

Can I talk to your dad then?

"He's in the shower too" lololol

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Hu5k3r@reddit

Lol. That made me laugh!

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Plenty_Cress_1359@reddit

True!

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NoeTellusom@reddit

We all had secret nickames, including the dog.

We didn't have a special word when I was growing up. We lived on closed Army bases, so I guess my parents didn't think there was much danger for us. Plus, my mom was a stay-at-home mom till we were young teens.

When MY kids were in school, our secret word was "steeplechase" because who is going to accidentally guess that?

PassorFail13@reddit

Seems kind of unnecessarily complicated, rather than just answer the phone and take a wild guess who was on the other end. Of course, if Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 was after me, I'd be screwed.

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FingerDemon500@reddit

I think many of them never strike close to home, so you were pretty safe… probably. Unless your neighbor/serial killer was crazy or something.

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Jerzee_Implant2012@reddit

gif

Thank you! Dang, I just wanted this to be fun, lol.

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-Granby-@reddit

I'm really not trying to give you a hard time. I just keep reading your post about being black so it it would be easy to remember chocolate and I just don't understand.

When the phone rang, we were expected to answer it with "Hello, $surname's residence, this is $individual."

My parents didn't pick me up or drop me off from shit. I was expected to find my own way around the world if I wanted to go play in it.

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Havacookiewhydontcha@reddit

Wow, that’s way more of a system than I can relate to. I think they would have noticed if I didn’t come home by dinner, but that was about it.

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Got my key in 3rd grade and had no sort of secret system. Just “Don’t lose your key”.

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RunsWithPremise@reddit

Never had any of that stuff.

I was left alone quite a bit, but it was a small town and I was pretty self sufficient from an early age. It was the kind of town where a lot of people didn't lock their doors.

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VanillaCola79@reddit

I got into cars with strangers because my mom sent them. Surprised I didn’t end up on a milk carton.