J and myself were discussing this a few weeks back, and we both decided we'd neither of us have made it through our childhood.

I've heard it said that children weren't valued in the early years because it was there was a high chance of them dying (oh! Not another child! Send it to the midwife and if it makes it we'll pick it up in a few years...) but that seems terribly unlikely. Incidentally, I've picked up a book from Oxbow called The Archaeology of Childhood which sounds like a curious read.