Families in the 17th century were worse than the ones in these days . But that doesn't mean there aren't any families living a bad life nowadays , for the most part though , houses aren't only a room and noone has to sleep in the same room with their farm animals . Most people now live over 40 years old , vaccines and medicine has evolved a lot in these centuries and children usually live with their parents , unless death or divorce strikes the family apart . most children do not need to do manual labour anymore ,they can take a job at 16 but they're not forced to . parents were way reckless with their children back then , using them as a puppet , but we can see why , the more helping hands the better . life is never going to be perfect .