Time Travelers

Most everyone wishes they could travel in time, some want to speed ahead into the future and some want to travel back in time to the past. I believe that most everyone has a wrong they would like to make right just as I believe that many young people would like to know how certain choices would change thier future. However that is not exactly what I am thinking about, I thinking about traveling back to the past way before my existance to experience a different way of life. I have always beleived that I was born in the wrong era because of the things I enjoy doing and the hobbies in which I choose to spend my free time.
Just imagine what it would be like to live in the late 19th century, in the 1880's. What would it be like to live on the frontier as a new settler in the west? I can imagine myself there getting up before sunrise to start the fire in the woodburning stove and cooking breakfast for my family. Of course the wood is something that would have to be taken care of ahead of time, the chopping and splitting for firewood is something that would have to be done daily. I've done that as a child and as a teenager with my parents. Gathering the eggs and milking the jersey cow is also something that would probably be done ahead of time or would have to be done right after breakfast, depending on the weather and the means of chilling the milk and the production of the hens. Once the family got up thier responsibilities would depend on thier ages and thier physical ability. If my husband had to work in a mill or mine to pay for supplies or medical care that we needed or to pay for our property would also depend on how much the children had to help with. Women on the frontier were consumed by making enough food and clothing for thier families to survive and keeping the home and clothes clean not to mention traveling to the supply store for supplies and food that was not produced at home. Then there are the nurturing, feeding and general raising of the children that was always considered woman's work. If the husband worked or the children were very young the livestock was also added to her duties.
No ME time in that schedule, huh?
I would imagine that when the darkness of night came, everyone was tired and ready for bed. Some school aged children probably didn't get to thier homework, which certainly wasn't much, until after dark because children had to help to keep things going. Gardening was important as well as feeding livestock and maintaining the woodpile. Wood was not just used for heating the home but for cooking and warming water to clean dishes and for taking baths. Animals were not pets but a source of food, domesticated animals like dogs, cats and horses had purposes not just companions or playmates. Cats took care of the mice, dogs took care of alerting when there was trouble, horses and mules carried heavy loads, pulled plows and wagons and were the mode of transportation for supplies. These animals were no more pampered than the people were of that time. Todays pets would never survive as some people wouldn't either.
Childhood was short lived in that time. Toys rarely existed and if so it was a special occasion to play with them or on bad weather days when work outside could not be done.
Can you imagine living like they did? It would be a culture shock for most if not all of the people I know. I, however, would see it as a challange worth accepting.