So my mom didn't believe my cousin she got locked out in the 80's.

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silentsinner-@reddit

I had a house key but my parents would lock the front door when they were smoking weed with their friends. I didnt put it together until high school for...reasons.

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Always locked out. My parents booted me out on their way to work and I wandered all day, rode my bike, drank from the hose, landed at whatever mom's table in the neighbourhood had pity on me that day so I could eat something, all summer long until suppertime.

Sometimes, though rarely, I went to someone's house that was prearranged, but usually not.

I absolutely was not alone in this. There were anywhere from just myself up to 7 or even 10 kids sometimes, though maybe half of us were lockouts.

But it absolutely did happen and for a few of us, it was a daily thing.

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Accurate-Survey6985@reddit

Yeah.

Get home.

Wait if no one home

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Sunsfever83@reddit

Many a night spent outside, locked out of the house.

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VanillaHuel@reddit

My cousin's parents discovered him asleep on the back porch in the morning.

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SnarkHabit@reddit

My mom did it to me when she got pissed off at me when I was 7, 8 years old. I took it pretty hard.

I hadn't really thought about this until now, but I'm wondering if that had some impact on my obsessive need to be completely independent from my parents as soon as it was feasible.

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Icy-Violinist5865@reddit

I got locked out because parents left home and forgot I was out. And I didn’t get a key until older. I would go around and try to find a window cracked open that I could try to force open. Alternatively climb fence and just hang out on backyard deck and wait.

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lady8godiva@reddit

Right. They "forgot".

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BoldBoimlerIsMyHero@reddit

we weren't trusted with a house key, so we were to use the garage door padlock key, but sometimes I'd forget the padlock key, and I'd have to break into the house. I'd climb the fence (gate was locked), then pry the screen off the window and wiggle the window open. I remember once I sang at sunrise service on easter (I wasn't a church goer, but I was a singer in our college chamber choir, and we were paid to sing at sunrise service), and when I came home, the screen door was locked and I didn't have a key for that, so I had to sit on the porch until my parents woke up (different house with more secure windows).

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KrofftSurvivor@reddit

I kept a stool hidden in the bushes in front of my bedroom window...

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TNTmom4@reddit

We lived where my dad worked and next door to his boss so they would have looked BAD I’d they had.

I DID forget my key on senior prom night. I had to climb through our apartment window . Got caught by the security guards! 🤣

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LazyDramaLlama68@reddit

Until the street lights came on. If you said you were bored Mom would find something for you to do, and it was usually extra chores

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Western-Corner-431@reddit

Hey cousin! Yup, locked out.

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friartech@reddit

Who used the door?

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wyohman@reddit

How did you stumble on the two moms in America that didn't do this?

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Dull-Geologist-8204@reddit (OP)

One mom if you go by what I wrote. My aunt definitely did this.

That said none of my friends parents did this either. We stayed outside and drank from the hose because we knew we would be stuck doing chores not because we were locked out. If you ran inside to grab something suddenly you had to wash dishes, vacuum, and take out the garbage.

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EggSpecial5748@reddit

In the summer we were locked out all day

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Shot_Construction455@reddit

We were locked out starting at very young ages and I was "responsible" for my sister. I got hurt when I was 9 and ended up needing an ambulance and she still wouldn't open the door until multiple kids were screaming and banging on the door about how much blood there was everywhere. Then she was pissed I was bleeding and wouldn't let me in the house to drip blood on her floors since a different parent had called 911 for an ambulance. After that, she stopped locking us out but getting belted for coming in and out "too often" effectively meant we were. She went back to work when I was 11 and my sister was 9 and we were both thrilled to come home by ourselves even if it meant we had to clean the entire house daily and cook dinner.

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FongYuLan@reddit

Ah. Now this is my mom. She’d push me out starting when I was age 5 as punishment. When I got older and had a key, but forgot it, my mom would not open the door. Once I got stung by a bee and my foot was swelling up and I had to beg and plead to be let in.

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Active_Recording_789@reddit

My god that’s horrible

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ReddyKilowattWife@reddit

My husband’s parents had a strict 8:30 pm curfew. If you were one minute late, you were locked out until morning. He slept in his car many nights.

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Dull-Geologist-8204@reddit (OP)

How in the fck did this get crossposted multiple times in my name in the same sub and I didn't do it.

I made one post about this and this isn't it. Also I wouldn't use that flair because I am gen X.

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RavenRead@reddit

Latchkey kid here. No parents around. We were locked out plenty of times. But that was typically because we forgot our keys. We broke into the house on those occasions.

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TheMightyJess05@reddit

Probably not what you mean but during the summer we would be sent out of the house and my mom would lock the door so we couldn’t come back inside. We would have to knock if we needed the bathroom.

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Frankthabunny@reddit

My brother and I went through this as well.

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Lemon-Cake-8100@reddit

This is exactly what OP means 😊

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jhope71@reddit

Locked out for punishment? Or locked out for the day to force outside play? I had both. My mom would make me go outside instead of staying inside all day reading. So I’d take my book outside. 🤷🏼‍♀️Then, when I was a teenager and rock music became satanic, I got locked out and a packed bag was left outside for me because I went to see the B-52s after being told I couldn’t. 🙄

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Oldebookworm@reddit

I’d just bike to the library. I lived there, practically

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Rare-Handle7268@reddit

gif

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jhope71@reddit

I would’ve, if we didn’t live 7 miles out in the country!😂

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Middleisleft@reddit

I was told to go outside and play. We lived in a city too. I used to go read at the library because they had good weekend hours.

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LuceLeakey@reddit

This story is about my older brothers, not me. But one summer, we packed up the trailer, done in the station remember and left on vacation. My older brothers didn't come with us and I didn't think anything of it because I was just a kid.

I found out about 40 years later that they had no idea we were going on vacation and my parents just left them behind. They also left the door locked so the boys couldn't get in without breaking in. I have no idea what went on in our parents heads, but they were not very responsible.

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Rare-Handle7268@reddit

What the actual FUCK

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btach1323@reddit

When I was little, I wouldn’t say I was locked out exactly but I did get the “either in or out” warning. I had to pick one and if I chose out, I needed to stay out. Apparently leaving and coming back in the house more than once was an irritant that my mother couldn’t tolerate.

Later on, I lived with my aunt for my last year of high school. No key, no alarm code. I couldn’t leave for school in the morning without waiting for someone to come turn off the alarm. After school, I had to come in the side gate and wait on the back patio until someone came home. I was 17, a good kid, quiet, had good grades and never got into trouble. Absolutely zero reason to treat me like I was a criminal that couldn’t be trusted to be alone in the house.

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Rare-Handle7268@reddit

I’m sorry. That sounds awful and you didn’t deserve it

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Tangled-Lights@reddit

My mom didn’t need to lock the door; she was scary enough we wouldn’t have risked sneaking in.

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Rare-Handle7268@reddit

I was thinking “why don’t I remember if we were locked out”

It was because we stayed away from home as long as possible. We didn’t want to go in

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Historical_Bath_9854@reddit

If the doors were locked, we had to use the cellar door, and could go upstairs, because grownup stuff was happening.

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verstohlen@reddit

I always think of Donnie Darko's teacher now whenever I see, read, or hear cellar door.

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Zen_Hydra@reddit

My mom would occasionally lock the screen/storm doors at home (which could only be unlocked from inside) after everyone had gone to bed in order to prevent me from using my house key to sneak back in after one of the many occasions I was out getting underage blitzed during high school. I was usually too drunk to care about any consequences, and just rang the bell until someone let me in. I grew up in the rural Midwestern US, and there was an explicit dearth of safe and/or legal activities to keep young people out of trouble.

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Accurate_Weather_211@reddit

We were never locked out. The only room my parents locked was their bedroom because they didn’t want us kids “pilfering” as my Mom called it. Having said that, if our curfew was midnight, my parents would lock the door and we would have to wake them up to get in. My Mom would always stay up until we got home though. It happened to me once and my older brother once.

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bitkitkat@reddit

My mom never locked me out, but she was never home working 2-3 jobs and would beat my ass bloody if I lost the key, which I always did, so it just kinda worked out that way. I eventually figured out how to break into any house we lived in though.

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GimmeMyMoneyNow@reddit

I got locked out. I used to sneak out at night through the patio sliding glass door. One morning trying to come back in, it was locked. Thanks, mom.

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Nice_Rope_5049@reddit

Ooof, I read a book about Paul Bernardo, the guy whose wife helped him assault and kill young women. There was a teenager who got home past curfew, so her mom locked her out. Bernardo (by himself) was out lurking and saw her sitting outside. Sat down with her, chatted, shared a cigarette. I’m pretty sure she was the one whose body parts were found inside makeshift concrete blocks when the local lake ebbed.

Her mother was sick with guilt.

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Zestyclose_Media_548@reddit

I have never forgotten this story and it makes me so sick to my stomach. So sad.

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Quix66@reddit

I was sent out to play. But not locked out or told not to come back until such-and-such time. We were in and out until curfew.

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introvertednurse75@reddit

This was my experience as well. The neighborhood kids and I loved to play all day and we would run around the neighborhood all day and come in when the streetlights came on. But I was not locked out. I had friends that said they weren't allowed in or at least we couldn't go in.

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user86753092@reddit

We weren’t locked out, but we were sent outside and told not to come back until later.

My mom denies this, but she would tell my sister and I that she “smelled gas” and we needed to leave the house while she investigated.

My sister and I made elaborate plans for what we would do if the house blew up with mom inside. How we’d both gain super human strength to carry her to the neighbor’s pool. Which was the only way we would get into the neighbors pool.

We also have photographic “proof” of “child abuse” the two of us fighting for a tiny bit of shade in my granny’s Florida yard in July. If we weren’t forced outside, we wouldn’t have been there.

The “gas leaks” only occurred during her soap opera 😂

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user86753092@reddit

Also, my family never locked any doors. My mom had a weird phobia about it.

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Main_Paramedic_292@reddit

Didn't have key to the house until I was working at 15. Before then, if mom was home and the sun was out, we were outside where we wanted to be. If she wasn't home, we waited on porch.

We did not eat anything without asking. There was no being bored. That wasn't allowed.

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_JahWobble_@reddit

I grew up in a subdivision that was built in the late 60s. There were about 300 homes built by the same guy and there were 5 floor plans. I don't know how we figured it out, but our neighbor across the street had a lock keyed the same as ours. So any time I was locked out I'd go across the street to Mrs. M's house and ask to borrow their key. If Mrs M wasn't home, I'd go two door down to Mrs R's house and she would give me a snack and I'd hang out there until my mom got home.

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discgman@reddit

Wonder why Gen X kids know how to break into homes? We were experts

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Lemon-Cake-8100@reddit

My parents would go on "date nite" & take me to some woman's house to "babysit" me - she had kids (not my friends!). As soon as my parents drove off, she shove us all outside, lock the door & say Come back at 10pm!

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Live_Today1943@reddit

The neighbor kids next door got locked out. I only got locked out if I missed curfew.

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chamrockblarneystone@reddit

My mom did not lock the door, but I did not want to go back in there because my unstable mother could be in a mood. If she’d just been in my room, it could mean a beating with whatever came to hand. Worse she might be on a cleaning spree and you’d get pulled in for that, which may or may not end in a beating.

It was similar for a lot of us, so we got on our bicycles and pedaled for miles or built forts in the woods. We could go anywhere we wanted from 9am to 7 pm and no adult would have a clue. God we had a lot of fun.

We live on as island so a lot of our escapades included water. I’m glad no one ever drowned.

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Quix66@reddit

Birds-of-a-feather mothers.

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GenerAsianX1992@reddit

When I would ditch high school, Mom would lock all the doors.

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Netsirk_queen@reddit

Not to say "complaint." Being feral has served me and all my brothers and sisters well in life. My first 11 years we lived where there was no "winter" to be concerned about, and there were a lot of us kids, one bathroom, small bedrooms filled with bunk beds and not much else. Too many kids and not enough space for "toys," although for holidays and birthdays we always got things we could play with until they broke- like the cap gun we got tired of waiting for our turn with, so a hammer and the sidewalk made the same satisfying noise and smell. That smell! The scent of childhood. On daddy's work days we all got up early and were sent off to roam right after he backed out of the driveway. All year, until we were old enough for school, but even then the remainders walked behind us, followed us to school and then on to their adventures. Often met us after school for the walk home. Kindergarten was optional, so we were about 6 years old when we started first grade. As an adult, I looked it up, and it was one and half miles to school. Back then, we were unbothered.

But the door was locked behind us. Nobody was getting inside until dusk, and we'd better be there for the headcount when the door opened!

We're all very self sufficient now.

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Retiredgiverofboners@reddit

This was fun to read! ❤️

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Silly-Dot-2322@reddit

It really was! 💕

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rhad_rhed@reddit

I got locked out, but it was my own fault. Either 3rd or 4th grade, I was walking the 10 or so blocks to our Philadelphia home alone & my parents put a house key on a shoelace around my neck that I refused to wear, so their solution was “fuck it, wait then” until someone got home.

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One_Local5586@reddit

My mom locked me out in the middle of a snow storm because I didn’t wipe the counter to her satisfaction. We got locked out all the time up until 12 or so when my dad found out about it.

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SquirrelsNRaccoons@reddit

My stepdad set a curfew for my younger brothers (I had already moved out), and if they weren't home by curfew, he threw sleeping bags out on the back deck and locked the doors, so they'd have to sleep outside overnight. Hey, at least they got sleeping bags.

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iloveairportsushi@reddit

I never got locked out. But I grew up near a serial killer who targeted high school girls. One of his victims was locked out because she was late for curfew, sitting on a street curb, and he picked her up. Her body was found some months later.

Google Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

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WhyLie2me18@reddit

I don’t know if the door was locked. I never tried opening it. We were told not to come home until dinner and that’s what we did.

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TreaclePerfect4328@reddit

I can remember hearing ABC wide world of sports smelling crappy weed and Dad giving us coconuts and locking us out of the house. Drink. Snack. Activity 🥥

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Educational-Ad608@reddit

I’ve never heard of such a thing. The concept is entirely odd to me, and would not have believed it as a genuine phenomenon if I hadn’t read about it here.

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Andyman1973@reddit

We were allowed in for lunch and bathroom only. Got caught peeing in the bushes when I was 5/6. After that, mom started to let us in to use the bathroom.

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Maleficent_Bit2033@reddit

My sister and my cousins got locked out of our grandparents house for being a minute late. Luckily, my cousin's house was next door so we stayed there, their parents were gone on vacation. We solved our own problem and my grandparents got a talking to, it never happened again.

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0_IceQueen_0@reddit

My mother locked the door purposely if you came home past the time she set. She'd guard it too. I think she reveled in the fact that my brothers would be scared straight at staying out overnight with zero money. Scared them until they decided to go to their friends and slept there lol.

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chamrockblarneystone@reddit

I could pop every lock on basically every window and door in my house. Since my house was a Levitt that means I could break into many houses and know their lay out for miles around.

The problem in my house was sneaming back in. My dad covered the back roof in barbed and chicken wire to stop us.

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Plane_Experience_271@reddit

Mom gave my older sister the key . It wasn't a problem until she got a boyfriend and stay after school with him. When that happened I would have to sit on the porch until someone came home. After a few times I started leaving my bedroom window unlocked, so I could get in the house, luckily we never got robbed.

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OnehappyOwl44@reddit

If we missed curfew the door was locked and that was it. It only happened once, I spent the night on the porch in a lawn chair. I was never late again. I was about 14.

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KaitB2020@reddit

It wasn’t on purpose. I forgot my key. I got lucky and my window was unlocked. I was able to climb in. Good thing, too, poor dog needed her walkies. That was my job soon as I got home was to take her around the block a couple times.

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juliettelovesdante@reddit

Same here. Arrived home to an empty house as usual. No key, no luck. We had those little windows all across the garage doors. One of them was plexiglass. You could push it in & wiggle thru & the door between the garage & the house was never locked. That window was plexiglass because my older sibs got in that way too. I can't believe any of us ever fit thru those tiny windows either.

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WishieWashie12@reddit

Latchkey kid without a key. Sitting on swing in backyard, drinking water hose while waiting for someone to get home.

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freakymack@reddit

Oh hell yes. We were shoved outside and the doors locked. One time my brother got his baseball bat and smashed the door in cause he needed to poop. And when my parents figured it they were buck naked cause they were in the bedroom humping. My brother took off running and yelling MY NAME IS JAKE AND MY PARENTS ARE HUMPING! We were both traumatized.

Needless to say yes on the weekends we were locked outside until dinner.

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FrancinetheP@reddit

What do I have to do to meet your brother?

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freakymack@reddit

Haha, he’s in California living his life! I can hook You up.

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FrancinetheP@reddit

I’m on the east coast so it might be tough. Just tell him his youthful antics made the day of a random internet stranger.

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freakymack@reddit

Will do. He was a hoot to grow up with. Lots of adventures we had while locked out.

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Ute-King@reddit

Did what?

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Dull-Geologist-8204@reddit (OP)

Locked her out of the house so she couldn't get back in.

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Cardinal101@reddit

What, as punishment for something?

Regardless, this would be considered abuse, even back then.

I don’t think deliberately locking kids out of the house was a common thing for Gen Xers growing up.

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Starkville@reddit

What? No. Never. We had a key, and my parents would never have done that anyway.

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Quirky_Commission_56@reddit

I was never locked out. My parents made sure I had a key. I still have it somewhere, but it certainly wouldn’t work because I imagine that the first thing the people my parents sold my childhood home to undoubtedly changed all of the locks.

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jaime_riri@reddit

Oh yes. Locked out for as long as I can remember. I feel like as early as 3.

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CityCabCat@reddit

I was never locked out no matter what time I got home

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Reader47b@reddit

We didn't lock our doors until I was about 12. And then we always kept a spare key hidden in the Comet can in the deacon's bench. So I was never locked out.

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Severe-Reality5546@reddit

I was never locked out for the purpose of keeping me out. The only time I was locked out coming home from school was when my mom was out running errands.

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Spud_Lyfe@reddit

My mom kicked me out in the morning and locked the screen door behind me. I could get her to let me in for a couple minutes a few times a day, but only if my potty dance was on point.

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ChaosTheoryGirl@reddit

I did not have a key to get in to the house. I had to wait outside until my parents got home. Sucked for sure!

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Silly-Dot-2322@reddit

We were definitely "latch key" kids, but alwayssss allowed full access to our home.

We had some neighbors who locked their kids out of the house all day, while the parents were at work.

One day we all snuck in to their house. We made spaghetti, and we were playing. The step dad came home early and flipped out.

They had a very protective doberman. Thankfully she liked me, I booked out the back door faster than I've ever ran before.

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makeup1508@reddit

I don't think we ever locked the doors until my mom married my ex-stepdad & moved us across town--to a much nicer neighborhood ironically.

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makeup1508@reddit

My niece and nephew have said that they had neighbors that were locked out of their house by their mom all day during the summer in the 90's & early 00's

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jthmniljt@reddit

We were locked out all the time. Mom would have to run errands and she say we could stay but we stay but not in the house. There was a lot of breaking into the house. Busted my self up falling through the basement windows onto the floor way below. Broke a couple of screens too. lol. But it happened all the time. No where to go to the bathroom unless someone’s mom or dad would pity us.

Wow. What a memory.

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Full-Friendship-7581@reddit

We lived in the middle of nowhere growing up. We never locked the doors.

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JustMeOttawa@reddit

Our doors were rarely locked during the day, if the front door AND side door happened to be locked we ALWAYS had the basement window unlocked.

I do know a few neighbours who were locked out so if the weather sucked everyone would come inside our house.

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Bear_Salary6976@reddit

We were always allowed into the house, however, we would have been kicked out if we were playing video games or watching tv. We were always allowed back inside to get lunch or go to the bathroom. Despite that, we still often drank from the water hose because it was easier than going inside to get a drink and safer than facing a parent who decided to get mad at you for something you may or may not have done.

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Braincloud@reddit

In the 70s and early 80s, once the weather was warm enough, on days my mother was home we were kicked outside and the screen doors were locked behind us lol. I have tons of memories of standing at the screen calling for my mother to let me in because I was hot/thirsty/had to go to the bathroom. Most times that call was not answered. Honestly I can still feel and smell the screen from having my face pressed up against it lmao.

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Puzzleheaded_Bug_280@reddit

I I KNOW that smell! Lol

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Braincloud@reddit

Haha right? Slightly metallic, slightly like dirt and the outdoors, and just a touch of neglect 🙃😄

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human8060@reddit

The doors were never locked but we were not welcome during the day, which was fine by us. The neighborhood moms took turns feeding us lunch (also outside) and we didn't come home until it was time to get cleaned up for dinner. For me, home wasn't a fun place to be so being told to leave was the best thing ever.

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HistoricalFuture6389@reddit

From 10th grade until I moved out 6 months after graduating I never had a key to the house. It was taken and given to my younger sibling who was not in the same school. So I would get home and wait for hours for someone to get home, sitting on the porch.

The entire summer vacation was me being locked out if I left and came back before my parents got home because my siblings were with sitters.

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Formal_Plum_2285@reddit

Wait what??? This is insane. My parents showed me how to remove a window in the back if I ever lost my key to the house.

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amnichols@reddit

My mom would hide a key and the garage door opener if she wasn’t home. My kids know where the hidden key is too.

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redhawkdrone@reddit

Same, it’s funny to see someone else post this…today, I can unlock a door with my phone.

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PoolRamen@reddit

With the current state of smart locks you probably don't even need a phone lol

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redhawkdrone@reddit

Nope, fingerprint. It has actually saved me a ton of grief as my 80 year old mother can no longer lock herself out of the house, forget to close the garage door or not turn on the heat/AC. Magically, the genie (me) ensures her house is being heated to cooled.

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PoolRamen@reddit

Oh that's exactly what I meant. The mechanical side of these locks are garbage, so you can bypass the electronics with basically no effort. Pure security theatre.

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fireworksguaranteed@reddit

My aunt would lock us outside in the morning. We came in for lunch and then it was back outside until dinner. We had a kiddie pool to stay cool and a water hose to drink from. No sunscreen. No shoes. No supervision.

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JacquieTorrance@reddit

All.summer long, we'd be locked out during the day because my mother didn't like hearing the doors banging in the house with kids running in and out. That's WHY we had to drink hose water (and for some reason always thought that's what the Gen X reference was for). We weren't allowed to run in and out for water or any else.

Around supper time she'd unlock the doors so it would look normal by the time my Dad came home for supper and we'd come running in. We kept lots of our toys and of course our bikes in the garage...along with BB guns, bows and arrows, lawn darts, firecrackers and other things. She literally did not want to hear from us til supper and unless you could prove you were bleeding uncontrollably or had bones or organs showing...she did not want to hear it and told us to learn to deal with whatever problem we had, ourselves.

The idea that a parent would helicopter or give kisses and cuddles to children that were already walking was so alien I think any parent that did it would have been looked upon as soft in the head. Our parents expected the neighbors, teachers and school principals to whoop us on their behalf if we mouthed off or misbehaved. And if you didn't know something offended someone, you learned pretty quick and not a single adult would take a child's side who wanted to argue that they just didn't know what they said/did was bad. The parents were blamed for not teaching the kid in the first place. That's just how the whole world worked back then. You learned "on the job".

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Aumpa@reddit

Oh wow. I drank hose water just because it was convenient when playing outside. I didn't think that was like the only way to drink for some kids.

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Toadinnahole@reddit

We drank hose water because it was Arizona summer and our water came from a 150' well - water so cold you got brain freeze!

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JacquieTorrance@reddit

Even now I can conjure no real concept of the "hose water was a choice" luxury 😄😄

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sony1015@reddit

I too lived this lol

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BigFitMama@reddit

4 years old, middle of high desert wilds, door was locked - core memory

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moneyman74@reddit

I think once or twice I came home to a locked house but there was always an unlocked window to attempt

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RoundLobster392@reddit

I found out years later my ex did this to my kids

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YouMustBeJoking888@reddit

Wasn't locked out but it was clear I should be outside and not bothering my parents if the weather was nice. It was ok to come in for food once in awhile, but beyond that, stay out of their hair.

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Naive-Garlic2021@reddit

And don't track dirt into the house. Or walk with wet feet across the kitchen linoleum. ;)

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Oldebookworm@reddit

We had a no bleeding in the house” rule

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ravenval@reddit

I'm 58f. My parents had a single mom neighbor who did the locked out thing about 30 years ago. She had three small kids, locked out in the morning and all day until evening. The kids would beg the neighbors for food and just be running all over the neighborhood all day. I believe child services were called several times. I don't know what happened to them, since they moved after a few years. That was the first instance of being locked out I'd ever seen or heard of. Thanks to the internet, I see it seems to be more common than I ever knew.

As for my own childhood and that of my siblings, we often chose to be gone all day, riding bikes, walking, etc., but were always allowed in the house whenever we wanted.

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sony1015@reddit

Oh gosh, on summer vacation we were up by 7 , did chores, ate breakfast and was locked out by 830. Lunchtime was usually a platter of pbj Sammie’s and koolaid outside with the door locked. The door magically unlocked at supper

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MicheleRSimon@reddit

Witnessed it happen to my older sister. She stayed out past curfew and my mother put the chain on the door and told her to go back to wherever she was so she went to her boyfriend's house. I was 7 years younger so it made an impression on me. I became the golden child. :(

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Throwaway7219017@reddit

While I wasn't locked out, I was strongly encouraged by my single mom to spend the entire day outside getting fresh air.

Jokes on her, I was usually smoking.

I would love to find out why that generation of parents was so un-empathetic and cold to their chidlren.

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Chancevexed@reddit

Because they weren't deciding to have children when it was right for them. They were following a capitalism road map. Finish education, get a job, get married, start pumping out babies, replace the workforce.

I'm not absolving them, just explaining women were treated as walking incubators and men were worse than useless as fatherhood was earning a pay cheque.

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LuckyAd2714@reddit

I never was but my friend Frank and his brother were

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noseleaptilbklyn@reddit

Yes. In the summer between lunch and dinner. We had to knock to get let in for the bathroom or get a drink of water

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TheRealWulfgar@reddit

Once summer vacation started, my mom wouldn't let me in the between breakfast and dinner. I could sometimes make a case for lunch, but usually it "Get out! Go play!"

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LavenderSpaceRain@reddit

My friend tells the story of how her husband locked their daughter out, and wouldn't let my friend open the door. Her daughter was on the other side of the door screaming and crying to be let in, and she was crying on the inside of the door wanting to let her in, but her husband wouldn't let her.

Needless to say that daughter is now grown and doesn't have a whole lot of contact with her family these days.

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Imaginary_Penalty_33@reddit

Once I hit middle school my mom took a part time job. I often cane home from school or an afternoon roaming around to find the doors locked and mom gone to work. I do this think she intentionally locked me out, but we only had 1 spare key and my sister and I always went our separate ways.

I became very adept at breaking in to our house.

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undeniably_micki@reddit

I was good at breaking into my house as well.

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Sweetness_Bears_34@reddit

I don’t recall our door ever being locked. I don’t know if anyone even had keys to the house. We lived across the street from a lake and would spend all day there

We would just drink water from the hose outside if we were thirsty

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RebekahR84@reddit

90s for me. All day, no water. Hot as hell. We would use the gas station restroom.

When I grew up, I realized it was even excessive for the time (no water, no restroom.) I also understood what my mother was then. She would be drinking and doing all sorts of drugs during the day.

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thewatchwinder@reddit

from morning till night. "go outside and dont try to come back in unless yer arm is off and spraying blood all over". that was my mom's summertime pep talk

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little_boots_@reddit

I was not ever purposely locked out. I would lose my key or accidentally drop it between the wood slats on the deck and not be able to get it out, after walking back from the bus stop in the afternoon. It happened to me a handful of times. I just had to wait for someone to get home.

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MiltownKBs@reddit

Our neighbors locked the boys out and kept the girl inside. Never saw her, I assume doing chores. The boys would shit and piss in their garage, like in a corner. Disgusting.

Hardly saw the mom either. But the dad was a pastor in a church and was also a clown in parades. He would toss candy to kids and the neighborhood kids would throw it back at him trying to hit him in the face.

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Retiredgiverofboners@reddit

😳

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Dull-Geologist-8204@reddit (OP)

Hmm I didn't post this though it's under my name?

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TheFilthyMob@reddit

That's not good.

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Eisernes@reddit

If there was no school I got kicked out first thing in the morning and told to return when the street lights came on. I was in elementary school when this started.

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Retiredgiverofboners@reddit

Dang that’s harsh!

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LissaBryan@reddit

There were two girls in my neighborhood who were locked out first thing in the morning and only allowed back in after the street lights came on, which was after 9 in the summer, even though her parents were always home.

They were fed only if someone in the neighborhood took pity on them and gave them lunch. They peed outside behind bushes, and would often get chased away by snarling homeowners.

One of them got injured once by a bicycle chain and all of us kids were crowding around like the world's worst field medics. One kid washed out the cut with hose water. Another volunteered to run home for a bandaid. The girls debated whether it was worth the spanking they'd get if they knocked on the door to ask their mom if they needed to go to the doctor.

Yep. The 80s were hardcore, man.

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DoookieMaxx@reddit

My mom would lock the house doors at 8am on weekends …we weren’t allowed back until evening.

As a teen I slept in the back porch at least a dozen times because I’d snuck out and couldn’t get back in.

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Hmmyeahnobuddy@reddit

We were fed breakfast and then pushed out the door into the backyard. We were too little to roam with the big kids at 4 and 3 but my mom was definitely not listening to our noise indoors. We had a good yard with fun toys and a huge jungle gym so it wasn’t too bad unless it was hot. We were in Texas and this happened year round.

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Shar950@reddit

Never because the doors were never locked, not even during the night while we were all sleeping.

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Solid_Association_49@reddit

Grew up in a very small rural town. I know our doors had locks but we never used them or even saw keys. We’d go away for a week and not lock the doors. Cars were never locked and if the keys weren’t in the ignition you couldn’t find them. Never realized how good we had it until I moved to a large center and had to buy a car alarm. Completely different world. I miss how quiet and simple it was then

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lunicorn@reddit

I didn’t know my cousins used Reddit. All of the above unnerved me when I visited them, as I came from Southern California.

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Ms_Understood99@reddit

I was able to squeeze through the doggie door until I was about 12. After that I just hid a key.

My core memories are less about being locked out than about waiting hours to get picked up ..from school, the mall, dance class…my mom didn’t work much either, she just kinda…forgot? Or lost track of time?

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platypusandpibble@reddit

My mother didn’t lock us out because she was a real estate agent and was working 14+ hours per day. (Don’t feel bad for her - she loved it and actually happily chose to work those hours. Most of her time was spent schmoozing rather than actually selling anything.) I think she was probably just afraid of seeming like a bad parent in front of the neighbors.

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gmhelwig@reddit

This one is entirely my fault: Just gotten my driver's license and mom and dad trusted me with the car all day, provided I picked both of them up from work at the end of the day. So, did my errands and all, dropped stuff at home, and then headed out to pick mom up from work. I noticed the trash cans needed to be put away, so I put the car in park, locked the door, got out, put the cans away and ... locked my keys in the running car! I needed to break into my own house to get the spare car key!

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pickleddresser@reddit

My mom locked me out in winter once. I went outside to play in the snow and tried to go inside when I was done. Door was locked. I rang the bell & pounded on the door intermittently for a long time. Finally gave up and sat on the steps. When my dad came hone from work, we found the door was magically unlocked. My baby sitter used to lock us outside in the summer. She put a pitcher of Kool Aid & a stack of paper cups on the back porch & told us we were only allowed inside to use the bathroom & eat lunch.

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ihatepickingnames_@reddit

I was locked out in a thunderstorm once because I kept coming in/out. The rule was stay in or stay out once my mom cleaned the place (which was every morning unless she was puking/hungover in bed). It was pouring rain and I had to take shelter on one of those metal sheds that was unlocked in the neighborhood.

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abstractraj@reddit

We lived in the suburbs. Never even locked the door

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ToroTexan@reddit

I was probably 15, missed my curfew by a lot and came home to locked doors. We had a two story house on a sloped lot, main living area was the second floor, had a large deck on the back of the house that was about 30 feet up. I scaled one of the deck supports to get up on the deck, knew those doors would be open. The next morning my mom wanted to know how I got in and what time it was, I told her the door was open when I got home. She figured out what I did a couple of days later, the doors were never locked again.

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Trolkarlen@reddit

My dad locked me out once so I went to the neighbor’s and called my grandma. She called him up and asked him what he was doing. He was livid that I’d gotten her involved, but he never did that again.

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Optimal-Ad-7074@reddit

early 2000s, one of my fellow baseball moms told us about locking the front door on her out-past-late son and going to bed.

she left the back door open for him but he never even tried it. just meekly slept in the car port until she woke up and got ready for work the next day 😂

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itwillmakesenselater@reddit

sobbing "I. Slept. In. The. Car. Port. Last. Night!" sobbing becomes wailing and gnashing of teeth

"Why didn't you come in the back door?"

sobbing stops instantly

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delusion_magnet@reddit

My story is complicated because my mother had an addiction problem. I was locked out regularly when she didn't want to be bothered.

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Dull-Geologist-8204@reddit (OP)

My aunt was an alcoholic so that tracks.

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delusion_magnet@reddit

Very sorry. It sucks.

Yeah, so when she got out of control, I was placed in foster care, and the foster mom would lock me out when she watched her "stories" (soap operas). I wasn't allowed to watch TV that wasn't "appropriate," which meant Sesame Street and cartoons as a pre-teen.

Sometimes I wonder how and why the majority of us stayed semi-sane.

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Particular-Pain8848@reddit

My parents didn’t lock us out but we had a babysitter who did it to us.

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LadyNorbert@reddit

My mother's ex-husband used to threaten to do this because I kept coming in to (checks notes) use the bathroom. I don't remember if it actually happened, though.

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ave427@reddit

Numerous times because I would forget to put the key back in its hiding place. I would just wait in the garage (doors didn’t close), play outside or if the weather was bad, go to my elderly neighbor’s house to call my mom. I didn’t want to stay at her house for any length of time because her adult son creeped me out and the trailer smelled weird.

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craftydistraction@reddit

There’s (somewhere) a photo of me in 10th grade, taken by my best friend, as we sat in the hallway outside my apartment waiting for my mom to get home. She was really late and we were out there for hours. This was the incident that led to me finally getting my own key. 😂

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Old_Goat_Ninja@reddit

I never got locked out but I’ve been locked in many times.

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Tired_o_Mods_BS@reddit

Isn't it funny that punishment for our generation was losing our right to go outside and play? I don't imagine kids today would blink at such a thing. It's all "I'll take away your phone/ ipad" these days. Making them go outside and play is their punishment. 🤣

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syzygialchaos@reddit

My dad and his brothers were locked out every day growing up. I never thought it was crazy, but my mom found it barbaric

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trickfred@reddit

Step father grew up on a farm, and I was an introverted outside-averse nerd. He decided that being locked outside on a Saturday would help 'fix' me and be good for me, but that just taught me to leave a basement window unlocked. When that was discovered, I got brave enough to climb the porch railing up to my second floor bedroom window. And once high school hit and I had friends to hang out with, me pulling all nighters and just climbing into my window in the morning became a simple and common thing.

Thanks, arsehole, for this and other 'problems' that encouraged me to learn problem solving early in life.

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Silver_Breakfast7096@reddit

I was never locked out. But I was free range a lot.

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Quirky-Web-8120@reddit

I remember being locked in the backyard with my brother a couple of times but we were pretty free-range most of the time anyway. My mom would tell us to stay in the backyard and lock the door but we would be down the block before she was done turning the lock.

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ancientastronaut2@reddit

My mother didn't exactly intentionally lock me out like you're talking about here, but a handful of times in jr high and high school, she ran late while out shopping or whatever and I had to sot in the backyard waiting for her for an hour or so. I wasn't allowed to have my own key and just had to deal with it.

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Consistent-Tie-4394@reddit

My older sister was in charge through summers, and she'd kick my friends and I out of the house and lock the doors if her friends came over. It was fine though because we'd just get on our bikes and ride to wherever we wanted to hang that day.

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Blankbetty11@reddit

Nobody ever locked me out on purpose. I remember staying at my Aunt‘s house one summer and she made me choose- inside or outside- so I wouldn’t be running in and out all day.

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Other-Razzmatazz9677@reddit

My brother got locked out in the backyard when he was fairly young. I don't remember how old or how long but it made me sad. I got locked out at 16-17. That just pissed me off & I stayed with friends for a few days. Apparently they expected me to beg to be let in

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marge7777@reddit

After Paul Bernardo no one ever did this again.

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_53-@reddit

My wife was thrown out of the house on several occasions with all her brothers and sisters! I was only tossed out a couple times, nowhere near my wife! My mom took out her anger with the spoon! That must have satiated kicking me out!!