Growing up in rural Oklahoma during the depression was no fun at all. Child labor was the norm in my family. My mother and grandmother would gather up all the cousins, force the girls to put cream (edible cream from cow) on their faces and to wear a sun bonnet and long sleeves and join them in the field hoeing cotton or the garden or corn.
A suntan was considered low class and your pretty fair skin had to be preserved at the cost of sweaty misery and the smell of cream souring on your face.
Many years later, I was laughing about this and my dermatologist said I should be thanking my grandmother for protecting us from skin cancer. I found many of the things we did during that time laughable. My cousins and I caught 4 large catfish with our bare hands and carried them a quarter of a mile home with them finning us all the way. It was supper!
It wasn't until the forties that my parents were able to be financially stable. FDR was a savior for the rural poor and his farm -Tenant loan enabled my parents to buy their own home. That bit of help enabled them to pay more than their share of taxes later. I really wonder at people who can't see the connection between a bit of a boost and it being paid back later.
Be that as it may, I wouldn't trade that time away. We worked for the good of our family. My mother and her two sister and their families all moved in with my grandmother and grandad. We were grounded in reality.
It was wonderful having aunts and cousins available at all times. We learned the value of money and that it required effort to get some.