Until recently, you had personally known everyone, for years, who you might hand your child off to for a few hours.

We have things like licensing because we're handing off our children to perfect strangers, and want some level of assurance that it's not going to be a disaster.

We are only handing them off to complete strangers because the informal system has been driven underground by laws that only allow the state licensed bureaucratic monopoly. If state licensing was optional and people were allowed to run neighborhood businesses I bet you would see something very different.