This is certainly true of the average 7-10 year old kid raised in suburbia by ordinary parents and educated and public school, but childhood and helplessness ha

This is certainly true of the average 7-10 year old kid raised in suburbia by ordinary parents and educated and public school, but childhood and helplessness have been vastly prolonged artificially. Maybe not a 10 year old, but a 12 year old in the Industrial Revolution would have been earning enough to cover his costs and contribute to the family. A 14 year old could also be doing just fine as a mother. It's not as if teenagers' poor life-skills are functions of their age, we just choose not to let them have the requisite experience until they are "old enough." Children are technically capable of much more than we give them credit for, we just would rather they spend time gaining the education to be knowledge workers instead of replaceable cogs in factories. You couldn't just throw an average modern 10-year-old on the streets and expect him to be fine, but it's historical fact that it is possible for children not to be so helpless.