Ask my mum. She lived just the sort of life you wrote about - minus a few "lovinglys" and plus a bit lot more worrying, hard work and stress...
Instead of her mother lovingly tending her brood from her rocking chair, my mum as eldest had to leave school at 14 to help with the younger ones and the farming, as there was too much for the adults to do alone (all the kids learned to drive tractors in early teens too as they were needed to work). Which nearly put paid to her dreams of an actual career.
Instead of worrying about bills, they worried about putting enough food on the table for all the kids, surviving the next pregnancy (my gran nearly died from childbirth at least once, and lost 2 children at birth or very soon after), illness,... And when they did have enough food, it was mostly bread or potatoes. Why do you think older generations are so good at saving every morsel of leftovers, down to the last quarter onion?
If you think you are "exhausted" in the evening (and then spend it watching TV), try looking after a huge brood of kids AND a farm all day, then sleeping with the whole family (incl new babies) squashed into 2 rooms - or actually not sleeping, as gran was regularly up for half the night spinning wool to be able to dress everyone, as she didn't have time for that during the day. (Time? What was that again?)
Oh and then there was my grandad, he was nearly killed in a farming accident when my mother was still a child (which would have left the family in dire straits), and it was the aftereffects of the accident that killed him later, still relatively young...
Loads of the young men roundabout were alcoholics (incl some of my uncles in later years), as conditions were so miserable and there was little else for them to do...
Somehow I don't think my mum wants to go back to those days - not to say she doesn't realise we still have problems, as she spends a lot of time on charity work and helping people who need it. But however much I moan about my life sometimes, I know we have it so good really!