“Kids didn’t have convenience foods? What were the little kids cooking for themselves?”
Definitely not us Boomers! Moms were home and cooked real food. We had a family in our church whose mother worked as a nurse and there was no father around. We felt sorry for them because their mom was always working to support the family. Later we learned that dear ol’ dad was in prison for some sex thing with a minor. Other than that, mothers didn’t work outside the home. It was looked on as shameful.
Mom gave piano lessons — at home.
For me it might be rice or oatmeal left on the stove from breakfast, for some reason food could be left out all day and we could eat it, that was before America changed in the 70s.