Senin, 28 Maret 2016

Latchkey Children Are They At Risk?

By Sarah Meyer


In our modern society when both parents work to support the family, this often leaves young kids without parental supervision if the parents cannot afford suitable childcare. These kids are often left unsupervised at home for some time until the parents return home from work. Thus, the term latchkey children was coined to describe these types of kids.

Daycare is priced out of the range of mid to low income parents, so they have no choice but to either enlist the help of family members, or if that is not an option, to leave their children at home unsupervised until they get home. They give the kids a key to the house and hope that they will be okay until they can get to them. This is a risk for the child as well as the parents.

Many of these children watch TV but soon get bored of that and delve into other mischievous behaviors that often get them into trouble with the law. Their parents then must figure out something else to keep them occupied or find activities that are positive in nature to keep their young minds active. There are some after school programs but they usually cost money that parents simply do not have if they are low income.

Sometimes, the child will not feel safe being home alone, or will end up leaving the home to go to a friend's house in order to stay safe. Sometimes children find themselves bored so they either watch television or get into other forms of mischief or trouble outside the home, this usually involves getting into trouble with the law.

With a growing number of abductions throughout the nation, many parents worry about this. They may be able to enlist the help of neighbors or friends to check on their kids, but still it is not the most reliable and trusted source of protection for young kids. Parents are often left to worry and wonder until they get home from work to ensure their kids safety from predators.

Some latchkey kids become troubled in school and often act out through inappropriate behaviors in class. There are agencies across the country who are striving to work with parents of latchkey kids to develop programs that will get them the supervision and activities they need to keep them occupied but they are few and far between and still often costly.

Sometimes there are government programs that are there to help parents bridge the gap in childcare but these types of programs are few and often have stringent income requirements and parents are still responsible for paying a portion of their child's care. There are very few free programs for parents that are low income or in poverty.

It is difficult when both parents in a household are working to support a family and have young children. While there are solutions to the problem of childcare many parents are simply unaware of government programs that can help them with the cost of daycare. If you have young kids, check with your local child welfare agency to see what programs may be available for you often a little to no cost.




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