As an "elder millennial", I too, saw this happen. I grew up in a very middle class home. About the only thing we didn't regularly do from the list in the OP, was modest vacations.

My dad was a teacher.

We didn't have anything overly special, but we had what we needed and we were not struggling. I have two siblings, and the entire family was a family of five. My mother did not have a job throughout my childhood and well after my teenage years, and I'm the youngest.

Now, I can't fathom having a kid. I can barely pay to keep myself alive.

Looks to have been brigaded by some fasc types with next to no post history tbh

Which is also why there's suddenly a lot of deleted comments, they were patently obvious and the mods deleted that shit

I'm a middle-aged american.

When I was a kid, my high school educated dad worked in a machine shop and I had a stay at home mom. There were 3 of us kids. Back in the late 80s my parents bought the 4-bedroom home with a 2-car garage on 1+ acre of land that they still live in today. The size is still great for hosting holiday gatherings and with the extra bedrooms they can have play rooms for the grand kids and an empty bed for when my brother visits from out of town.

Once I was in high school and could be home alone, I remember my mom getting a job for a few years.

Today, I have a small family and my wife is a stay at home mom and helps at our son's elementary school and stuff. But there are some differences!

My family is smaller, 1 kid vs 3.

My education and field of work are much higher up the percentiles. I have three university degrees from big schools and work in tech. He was a high school educated machinist that eventually worked his way up into management when I was older.

My house is smaller. I own a small single-floor home with no basement or garage, a standard 1/4 acre lot, and I live in a blue collar neighborhood that's sprinkled with elderly folks and young families.

We have two cars and they are both basic non-luxury brands and they are both over 10 years old.

I was intentionally being pretty conservative with my finances, and to be fair we were in a pretty good situation with an emergency fund and no non-mortgage debt and all that. But then in the past several years I've had three different financially cataclysmic events where any one of them would have obliterated the safety buffer. Two of them were thanks to covid.

Today I am in the same house and in much better health and mental state, and I even have a much better job, but our finances are a fucking nightmare.