[watwut]

> For almost the entirety of human history, 12 was old enough to get a job and look after a family.

And a lot of those kids ended badly, exploited and literally had no future. The people who could afford it, did not had their 12 years old working in factories nor being responsible for "looking after a family".

In good times in family farms, the kids contributed to work basically from 5 years old (and yes, 5 years old had higher incidents rates then they have now). But they were not treated as adults at 12 at all.

[tensor]

The ultra wealthy in that time never looked after a family as kids or adults. They had servants who did. That was not and is not "normal", it's a weird edge case.

[watwut]

There was also middle class and people who are not wealthy, but can afford to met have 12 years old responsible for whole family.