What do ya'll think it was like living in the old days? Say 1880s

Let's just say average family, small town Louisiana, this time period we will stick with white people, for obvious reasons. You think people then were happier or much more pissed off everyday? Did dads spend anymore time with their kids back then as today. Got to thinking, 2 of my son's friends mentioned their dads sit on their phones and laptops almost the entire time they are home from work. I was thinking about times way back, like Little House on the Prairie, where the dad was teaching his daughters about life and living on the land.

Perhaps dads and moms were always too exhausted irl though back in those days to be fun or funny parents with their kids. So you had to worry about illness more, manual labor just to survive, but perhaps living in the country you had peace with the land, more of a present in the moment life? I wonder if people joked around and goofed off with each other like we do today, or especially before social media turned and made every one so dang serious.