I feel like latch-key kids are way less of a thing these days than they were in the nineties, basically because most families with kids these days have to have both parents working to afford said kids, so there's less room for criticising women for going back to work. Remembering the debate about latch-key kids in the eighties, I was a little worried about how Ellen's mother would be portrayed going into this, but her getting a job is presented as a good thing. I'm not entirely sure I would be letting a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old stay home alone every single night, but hey, it's a book for kids, not adults. It's kind of like how you're supposed to believe that someone would let an eleven-year-old member of the Babysitter's Club look after their newborn baby.