“That was not true in our case. But my mom managed things so as we kids did not know the difference.”
Same for our family, as Dad didn’t “go to work” like most fathers. He didn’t make much — country preacher was primary, and then he was a substitute school bus driver. Neither paid well. But Mom was home all the time and “managed things”.
My post pertained to the overall change in our civilization. Rush had a way of explaining this much better than I can.
My mom and dad’s separate experinces during that period made my mom the money manager 100 times more than my dad. She could “pinch pennies” far far better than anyone else, and made sure the family budget did that, while my dad would spend the last pennies in his pocket to buy his kids something. When we were older we had not yet understood that completely and a brother, a sistet and I were asking our mom wasn’t dad the one who wanted to spend less. She laughed and said “you’re dad would go into debt for you kids at Christmas if I let him”. I think that whole dynamic started from when he was away so much. When he was finally back with his family for awhile, spending on this kids was his way of trying to make up for lost time. As I said we didn’t understand that when we were kids, in part because dad did not easily give away his feelings, not that you could read, unless he was really mad about something. I think that too came from his military experience - you just do your duty, your feelings about anything don’t matter. I talk too much.