Actually they were better off, stay at home mom who ran the business downstairs (A convenience store) and raised the children while my Grand Father went out and worked a job.
Ended retiring to a orange farm in FL...go figure...
They had “wealth” meaning the means of producing income, not TV’s and other “Stuff”.
I suspect your wife could stay at home as well if you were willing to live the way they did. And staying at home was a major job back then.
No TVs (one, maybe).
No DVDs.
No VCRs.
No cable.
No satellite.
No Internet.
No cell phones (heck few phones period).
No computers.
Modest basic car (not his and her cars).
No fast food.
No dining out except special occasions.
Basic house without HVAC.
No house insulation - what’s that?
No double pane glass - what’s that?
No health insurance - what’s that?
Prepare your own food.
Grow your own food.
Hunt your own food.
Can your own food for winter.
Skin and clean your own food.
Make your clothes.
Repair your cloths, when’s the last time somebody darned their socks?
Repair your shoes.
Clothes washing machine - what’s that?
Clothes drier - what’s that?
Dishwasher - what’s that?
Microwave oven - what’s that?
the list is long... And those are just things I could think of off the top of my head... Electricity wasn’t all that common either out of the cities.
My grandparents and my wife’s grandparents had outhouses when they where young adults... They didn’t have indoor plumbing.
So those “stay at home mom’s” back then had a bit of work to do each day far beyond the children.
We take a lot for granted these days. It comes with a price. When we look back we only see what was good, not what it was really like. Ask people who grew up then which they would take now.
Simpler - yes, easier - no.
So figure your monthly house budget removing all of these expenses and see how much it really takes to live like they did.