[HarryT]

But attitudes have certainly changed since the 19th century due to the dramatic decline in the child mortality rate. In early 19th century England, roughly 1 in 4 children died before reaching the age of 5. That meant, not that parents loved their children less of course, but it was certainly not considered a "calamity" to lose a child (as is probably the prevelant attitude today), but merely a fact of life that one had to accept. That's why the death of children is such a recurrent theme in 19th century literature, both adult and children's books. Pretty much every child would have had brothers or sisters who had died.