A Child's Life in the 1930s Compared to Today | Children's Theatre Company (2024)

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A Child's Life in the 1930s Compared to Today | Children's Theatre Company (1)

Posted on September 28, 2021

The life of a child in the 1930s was very different than a child’s life today. With the Great Depression, children and their families were greatly impacted—millions lived in poverty and had very little to eat, let alone money to spare for entertainment. Read more to compare and contrast how Annie may have lived in the 1930s, versus how you live today.

A Child's Life in the 1930s Compared to Today | Children's Theatre Company (2)

School

1930s: School was considered a luxury for low- and middle-income children. Schools were overpopulated, underfunded, and an estimated 20,000 schools in America closed. Transportation was an issue—there were no buses or cars so children had to walk often long distances. Racism was so prevalent that many schools were segregated. Roosevelt’s New Deal promised for greater access to education, but failed on many accounts. During the Depression, many children took jobs to support the family rather than attend school.
Fun fact: In 1937, Chicago schools used the radio for instruction during the polio outbreak! This was the first time technology was used for virtual education.

See Also
The Great Depression Hits Farms and Cities in the 1930sDigital HistorySocial Security HistoryRiding the Rails | American Experience | PBS

Today: Children today are required to attend school from kindergarten through 12th grade and have many options—from home and online education, to public, charter, and private school options. Students in Minnesota generally have access to transportation and segregation has been outlawed nationally since 1964.

A Child's Life in the 1930s Compared to Today | Children's Theatre Company (3)

Communication

1930s: The radio, newspaper, telephone, and mail were all various forms of communication used in the 1930s. In 1934, the first handset telephone was used by independent phone companies. Its official name was the round base rotary dial monophone.

Today: Between the internet, email, smartphones, video and chat phone apps, children have a vast array of methods of communication and sourcing information.

Work

1930s: With record unemployment, children competed for jobs with their elders to help contribute to their family’s income, often forgoing school. Children of the 1930s were at least protected under child labor reform measures of the 1920s, which limited their workday to eight hours and provided guidelines for employment of minors. Many children were self-employed, collecting junk to sell or doing odd jobs for neighbors.

Today: In Minnesota, no one younger than 14 may be employed. However, there are certain exceptions, including newspaper carrier, actor, and model. Minors younger than 16 cannot use power-driven lawn equipment, such as lawn mowers, weed whips, or hedge trimmers. Chores commonly done around the home are exempt from child labor laws.

A Child's Life in the 1930s Compared to Today | Children's Theatre Company (4)

Entertainment

1930s: The greatest form of entertainment for most children was their own imagination! Kids used whatever was laying around to create their own games and toys. Girls made rag dolls and kids played school yard games like tag and jump rope. Most kids had a ball and stick to play baseball or kickball and may have had a bicycle or wooden sled. A lot of families had a radio so kids could listen to children’s programs like “Little Orphan Annie!” The most popular books then were Nancy Drew Mysteries, Mary Poppins, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

Today: Today’s kids have the world at their fingertips with technology. Podcasts have replaced the old radio shows for kids and online gaming has taken the lead over board games. Today’s most popular book series include Harry Potter and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (catch it later this season!), and books now feature children of color (there were no children of color in books in the ’30s).

A Child's Life in the 1930s Compared to Today | Children's Theatre Company (5)

Movies

1930s: Children could only attend a movie theatre to see films. The “talkies,” or movies with sound, debuted in the late 1920s and ushered in the golden age of Hollywood. In 1939, The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind were released and the Mickey Mouse Club was shown on the weekends.

Today: Children today have many options to watch movies—from attending movie theatres that serve dinner to streaming movies at home. Many films are created with computer-generated imagery (CGI) and advanced animation technology, which did not exist then. While Marvel Comics started in 1939, the more recent Marvel Cinematic Universe has become the most successful film franchise of all time.

A Child's Life in the 1930s Compared to Today | Children's Theatre Company (6)

Fashion

1930s: Disadvantaged families couldn’t afford much for their children, so most of their clothes were cast offs and children often went barefoot. Most middle-income boys wore t-shirts with overalls and girls wore blouses and plain dresses. Both would have one pair of shoes and an outfit for special occasions. If you were a child from a higher-income family, you were pampered from head to toe.

Today: Mostly, today’s American children wear clothing that reflects their personal style, and a wealth of options from big box stores and online shopping outlets with a range of prices. There are also more opportunities than in the 1930s for disadvantaged families to have access to financial assistance to ensure children are clothed and fed.

A Child's Life in the 1930s Compared to Today | Children's Theatre Company (7)

Music

1930s: The radio program “Your Hit Parade” debuted in 1935 which showcased the most popular songs of the week. Jazz music evolved into different styles with Swing and Big Band becoming prominent throughout the 1930s. Broadway creators moved to Hollywood and adapted their stage shows for a wider audience on the silver screen.

Today: Children today don’t need a radio to hear music—they can stream whatever music they wish to listen to and even create their own music on apps on smart devices, computers, and virtual assistant technology (for example, ask Alexa to play songs from Annie!).

A Child's Life in the 1930s Compared to Today | Children's Theatre Company (8)

Food

1930s: Food was scarce for a lot of families and many children suffered from malnutrition. If you were lucky to live on a farm not ravaged by the Dust Bowl, you might have grown a variety of crops and raised small amounts of livestock. During the Depression, casseroles and meals like creamed chipped beef on toast, chili, macaroni and cheese, and creamed chicken on biscuits were popular. Jell-o was a cheap protein source and found its way into many cookbooks during the Depression. McDonald’s did not exist until the 1940s.

Today: Today’s farms have largely become monocultures (growing one specific crop or raising one type of livestock), and most are owned by corporations, rather than families. These monoculture farming methods are a large contributor to global warming. However, food today is more readily available through large and small grocery stores. While processed foods were available, but limited, in the 1930s, 60% of what we eat today is made up of highly processed foods. Popular options for kids today are pizza, cheeseburgers, macaroni and cheese, and chicken nuggets.

A Child's Life in the 1930s Compared to Today | Children's Theatre Company (2024)

FAQs

What was life like for children in the 1930s? ›

Family life in the 1930s

Houses were damp and cold with no electricity. Toilets were outside. Many children did not eat fresh vegetables or fruit and got ill. Children played together in the streets and walked to school.

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How are the 1930s different from now? ›

The 1930s were an especially difficult time with multiple challenges and, to all appearances, so is ours. The biggest differences between then and now are undoubtedly: (1) the population explosion, and (2) accelerating climate change coupled with the loss of biodiversity – neither had started in the 1930s.

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How has children's play changed over the years? ›

Across the country, researchers who study childhood say the way kids play has quietly transformed over the past three decades. The freewheeling, untethered days of earlier generations have been replaced by organized activities and afterschool programs. Play time has become supervised and monitored.

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What did children play in the 1930s? ›

Children would share toys such as hoops, marbles and skipping ropes. Other games included tag and hopscotch – which are still played in schools and playgrounds today. In the 1930s, many families were too poor to afford manufactured toys, which meant children would have to find creative ways of making their own fun.

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How is childhood today different than in the past? ›

Children and adolescents have much less free, unstructured, unsupervised time than their predecessors did. Parents are putting their kids much more into adult-structured, adult-supervised activities than they did in the past. The geographical range of childhood and youth has contracted over time.

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What was daily life like in the 1930s? ›

It was very hard then, during the Depression. There was no food, and there were people walking around, asking each other, did they have food, or could it be shared. People had no money to buy seeds or plants or anything like that to plant. WILLIAM HAGUE: I can remember like tail lights shining and the wet street.

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What was school like in the 1930s? ›

School. 1930s: School was considered a luxury for low- and middle-income children. Schools were overpopulated, underfunded, and an estimated 20,000 schools in America closed. Transportation was an issue—there were no buses or cars so children had to walk often long distances.

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How did life change in the 1930s? ›

Reduced prices and reduced output resulted in lower incomes in wages, rents, dividends, and profits throughout the economy. Factories were shut down, farms and homes were lost to foreclosure, mills and mines were abandoned, and people went hungry.

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What did kids do during the Great Depression? ›

City children were often left alone while their parents were working. Children living in cities also worked in factories, sold newspapers, or shined shoes to help their families earn money.

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What was life like for children in the 1920s? ›

Like their parents and grandparents, children in the 1920s and 1930s were expected to help work the fields, tend to the animals, clear land, plant crops, weed, and harvest. Children were also expected to perform domestic labor such as washing clothes, fetching water, and cooking meals.

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How did children play in the past? ›

Kids used to entertain themselves by playing with toys, reading books, playing board games, going outside to explore, playing sports, having conversations with friends, building things, listening to music, and creating art.

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How does children's play change later in childhood? ›

As your child grows, their attention span and physical skills develop and the way they play will change. Your child will get more creative and experiment more with toys, games and ideas. This might mean they need more space and time to play. Also, children move through different forms of play as they grow.

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What was life like in the 1930s for kids? ›

The 1930's were the years of the Great Depression in America. Children and their families were gravely impacted; millions living in poverty - mainly in the southern states. Many families lived in extremely poor household conditions and had very little to eat, let alone money to spare for entertainment.

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What did girls play in the 1930s? ›

The sports offered included tennis, deck tennis, hockey, swimming, volleyball, hiking, archery, golf, basketball, track, and most importantly, live-saving. An important aspect of Women's Sports in the 1930s was the Big Six Board which was responsible for regulating the various departments of girls' athletics on campus.

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Did girls go to school in the 1930s? ›

According to the U.S. Office of Education, the total number of enrollment for women in higher education the U.S. in 1930 was 480,802.

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What were families like in the 1930s? ›

Economic hardship caused family breakdowns.

Marriages became strained, though many couples could not afford to separate. Divorce rates dropped during the 1930s though abandonments increased. Some men deserted their families out of embarrassment or frustration: This was sometimes called a “poor man's divorce.”

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What was life like for school children during the Great Depression? ›

The Great Depression had a huge impact on the education of students' lives. Children living in both the city and rural, or countryside, areas had fewer teachers, fewer supplies, and fewer extra classes offered, and many children quit school to work on farms or in factories.

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What was life like for children in 1940? ›

Children in the 1940s experienced food shortages, rationing, lessons in putting on gas masks, and practised evacuation drills.

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