LATCH KEY KID

WORKING MUM v STAY AT HOME MUM

 As I was born the youngest of five children, I guess I was the one that broke the camels back.  The family obviously must have been struggling financially as all I can remember is my poor Mum working most of my childhood.

Firstly she became a kindergarten assistant.  Yes, thats right at the kinder I attended and guess what, as a result I was kept down an extra year so she could spend time with her baby. With this I was always the eldest in my grade which I hated as the other kids thought I had been kept down and picked on me.

So after having spent two years at my Mum's kinder, my first day of Preps was started by being driven to my friend Laurel's house.  Laurel's Mum took the two of us to school which was very kind of her but at the time I hated it because I wanted my Mum to take me for the first day of school.  I remember being so upset that at morning recess Laurel and I decided we had had enough, so started walking home.  Unfortunately the canteen ladies caught us and took us back to our teacher.

When I was in the younger grades I remember always going to a friends house after school until Mum arrived home.  When I was in about grade two or three I hated school so much I pretended to be sick so I could go home.  Mrs. Rowlands a friend of our family used to take me to her house which I loved, so this made me do it all the more. She had a large family also and I was treated like another daughter. During the school holidays and when I was sick our neighbour Mrs Anderson would mind me and she used to take me on outings.

After Mum finished working at the kinder, she then started minding two little boys for a doctor in South Yarra.  Mum didn't have a license so went everywhere by public transport. I enjoyed going there to play during the school holidays, then my eldest sister would pick us up and drove us home. Mum also looked after another doctors little girl every now and then.

As I grew older when Mum was working I had to come home to an empty house.  I was so scared thinking every little creak was a monster coming to get me. We had bushes out the front which I hid in sometimes for safety.  I had a very vivid imagination.  I think it was shortly after my eldest sister was married that Mum stopped working at South Yarra, then had a few odd jobs around the local area.  This was good as she was home after school for me and I was safe.

When I started secondary school Mum looked after two children from the local primary school in their home.  So I would walk there after school most nights and we would catch the bus home at 6.30pm when their parents arrived home.

Being a latch key kid made me determined not to do the same to my children.  Bruce's Mum was a stay at home mum, so I was fortunate enough to be at home for when my children arrived home from school with their afternoon tea waiting.  It was the time we shared all the news of their days adventure at school. I always looked forward to the school holidays to spend more time with them and go on outings. The only down side I lost all my work skills and wasn't able to get back into the work force until 2005 BUT I wouldn't change it for the world.