History

The concept of children and childhood as precious is a modern sentiment made possible by the conquest of infectious disease

When half of children died before adulthood, it was emotionally impossible to become too attached to them:

Founder, The Roots of Progress (rootsofprogress.org). On book-writing sabbatical, trying not to check social media including DMs

I always remember my grandmother talking about losing a couple of her siblings like it wasn't a huge deal,you just expected it to happen.