I'm happy to hear more about your life and certainly did not mean to imply that your parents must have been unhappy. I'm particularly sad to hear about you mother being killed.

And I'm sure there were other folks who were happy in the 50s as well, but the fact remains, the social dynamics and strict demands for a highly genderized binary was the direct catalyst for both Playboy magazine (encouraging men to throw off their roles) and the women's movement where women sought to throw off their roles as well. As with all of this, there's nothing at all wrong with wanting to behave in any particular way or have any certain family configuration. The problem is due to that being demanded with nothing else being seen as acceptable - which was very much the case in the 1950s.

“At every turn, popular culture and intellectual elites alike discouraged women from seeing themselves as productive members of society. In 1956 a Life magazine article commented that women “have minds and should use them . . . so long as their primary interest is in the home.”

“In 1953 Hugh Hefner founded Playboy magazine as a voice of revolt against male family responsibilities. Hefner urged men to “enjoy the pleasures the female has to offer without becoming emotionally involved” — or, worse yet, financially responsible. By 1956 the magazine was selling more than one million copies a month.”

So, glad that you are now living a pretty idyllic life, which I'm assuming is largely on your own terms (or it would hardly be idyllic). I'd like everyone to have a greater chance to make what they can of their life based on their interests and aptitudes without artificial barriers to that.