According to Dictionary.com, a latchkey kid is a “child who must spend at least part of the day alone and unsupervised, as when the parents are away at work.”

It comes from the term latchkey (obviously), but it’s a literal key to a your house door either strung around a child’s neck or left hidden under a mat.

My parents opened their own business around when I was in second grade and my brother in fourth. Since they were the star employees, and also the only employees, they always had to be there from 9:30AM to around 6:00PM.

But as kids, we understood that our parents were working hard for us. My brother and I didn’t mind too much, as long as they were there for the big things like talent shows and the seasonal musicals that our elementary school hosted.

This is exactly how it worked every single day since I could ever remember:

1. My brother and I would get out of elementary school and walk home together.

2. He would reheat a meal that my mom already prepared for us,  sit me down to do my homework and Kumon before I ran outside to do God-knows-what.

3. We sat in the living room and watched some good old Dragon Ball Z, played video games, and ran outside with the other neighborhood kids. [please note that these were all contraband in my household]

4. Then we would have to turn off the TV about 40 minutes before my parents got home because my dad did the “hot TV” test, where he would put his hand on the television set to see if it were on during the day.

5. We would plop our little butts in the dining room with homework everywhere, to make it seem like we were working the whole time.

My brother and I thought we were really clever.

But my parents weren’t fooled, at all.

Although they weren’t there physically, they called every hour and made us do our homework, practice our instruments, and do more tutoring work again. Even if we had already done it while they were at work. They were crazy supportive even from afar.

I’m not going to lie though, It wasn’t easy not having parents to come home to every day. Being a latchkey kid taught us that we needed to be tough and independent.

But the one thing I can take out of this semi-crappy situation was to truly appreciate having an older brother that was kind enough to take care of me during some of the most important years of my life.

It’s not a sob story, we just may have grown up a little faster than most kids our age.

Everything we did, we did together.

We are the epitome of a BOGO deal, you buy one and you get one free. I was his sidekick, when one of got in trouble, the other would get the belt too.

And when I mean together, I mean that we took ice skating classes, swimming classes, played the same instruments, and went to art class, hands tightly held.

I truly couldn’t imagine going through being home alone without having my brother. No matter how mean I was to him, he still cooked, cleaned, and helped me with my homework.

Spending as much time and solely depending on each other made way for a relationship like any other. He is my one and only oppa (Korean for older brother) and we were and still are inseparable.

Being a latchkey kid was a blessing in disguise.

I got super friggin’ close to my awesome brother.

Thanks for being my #1, Andrew.

Who are you grateful for?

R