How is it that we have more wealth, fewer children, and an inability for mom to take some time off compared to 60 years ago?
Well, for one thing a house in 1967 cost $25K. That is exactly what my parents paid for a three bedroom, 1 full bath house with a 1 1/2 car garage on 4.5 acres of land in a suburb of Buffalo, NY.
We had one car.
Mom stayed home with us FOUR kids. Dad was an owner operator truck driver. Meaning, he was gone away from home sometimes for 2-4 days.
We even went to a private Catholic grammar school. All four of us graduated high school and went to SUNY four year colleges. Which in state tuition room and board was about $2500/year back in the early 1980s when I attended.
We also rarely went out to eat. I never went to Disney World(until I took my son 18 years ago). In fact, I can only recall one or two family vacations.
We also planted a garden every year. So did ALL of our neighbors. We went strawberry and blueberry picking.
In addition, we had two horses and a pony. A barn. We bought hay and grain to feed them.
We never had cable TV. In fact for years we only had a Black & white TV.
I never had my own bedroom until my older brothers moved out. We shared bedrooms. We had one FULL bath.