Oddly that puts the old Roman social conception of children bit more into perspective. They viewed children as nuisance to adults, particularly to men, from what I gather. Not that later European or other cultures were much different.

Makes a cold sorta sense – why even bother getting too close to them if most won't even survive to become a useful adult. Rough world.

Yes. And the change of this view about children was greatly influenced by Janusz Korczak, one of great educators of early XX century. He also was born in Russian Empire, when Poland was part of it. Died in German concentration camp ;(