Yep, I was one of the kids who had a SAHM, but things were really, really too tight financially. Food was rationed, we kids usually had two pair of school pants per year (and by spring they were highwaters), we had one pair of tennis shoes per year (some years we had to wear them to church too), and we had to wait for things like eye glasses. At points, we were on food stamps, and we got the government cheese and butter.According to them, my parents said they could have lived just on Dad's income, but things would have been so tight, it really would have been miserable . . . The extra income meant potato chips in our lunches, and ice cream for desert after dinner. It ment family vacations to a cabin on a lake each summer so we could go fishing and swiming, and once, even a trip to WDW. It ment mom and dad could save for their retirement so my brothers and I don't have to support them, even if they get sick or disabled . . . It meant that they could help pay for our college should we choose to go . . . And they were both still there for my brothers and I.
My own kids are much better off financially (though I am careful to give them much less than we could afford to give them), and they ALSO have two devoted parents. In fact, my mother has told me several times that I'm a much better parent than she was.