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Growing up in the 80s and 90s due mostly to ominous news stories I remember as a kid being very sad that all of my friends with divorced parents would have to live lives of crime and be criminals, or otherwise bad people.
This, of course, didn't happen. And the "divorce epidemic" ended, now people get married later, get married less often, but are more likely to stay together.
The horde of "latch key kids" failed to ruin society and no one ever talks about it.
Sometimes people lament the fragmentation of news sources. They long for the days when everyone just watched the same few networks. And yes. ABC news in 1987 was less extreme than Fox News is today in many ways... but I think we've blocked out a lot of the nonsense that *everyone* watched and took as gospel. For example: that "crack babies" exist and were going to cause a crime wave. Really the whole way they reported on drugs..."The Gays" (exotic and disturbing people) DIVORCE and Single Moms.
What even is a "latch key" anyway? I've never heard that term used in any other context so I've assumed it was some kind of tragic child-friendly door lock. I also remember, as a kid, I thought the main problem with "latch key kids" was that they didn't lock the doors properly and The Crime would get them.
Many major media sources are still terrible in some ways... and some are worse-- but I don't think the golden age was all that golden.
In the UK front doors often have two locks, a Yale type and a Chubb. The Yale has a latch which sets the lock as open, closed but openable with one turn of the key, or needing two turns of the key.
Often, in daytime, the Chubb is left unlocked and the Yale is set so the door can be opened with a single turn of the key. At night the Chubb is locked and the Yale latch is set to need two turns.
The Yale key is referred to as the latch key.
@regordane @futurebird To Americanize this, the latch key is for the lock embedded in the doorknob or door handle. Contrast to the deadbolt key. As deadbolt locks are often sold in a set along with the latch lock, those may actually just be the same key. (American locks are usually Schlage, Yale, or Kwikset.)
@regordane @futurebird you also don't need the key to open the Yale one from inside, you turn the knob.
@regordane @futurebird Holy shit! I had no idea there was a real thing called a latch key! Thank you!