Ancient, tribal cultures, absolutely raised children in a communal way as you say. There's even a saying, "it takes a village to raise a child..." But I'm not aware of any modern cultures that still do that in reality.
Villages and tribes have typically been composed of people who are related to one another.
So another way of saying this is that the extended family participates in raising children.
Not long ago, children were allowed to roam freely in the neighborhood, walk to and from school, and have some essentially unsupervised time to play and be children. The reason this worked well is because they were known to the neighbors, and at least some of those neighbors were looking out for the children, albeit discreetly and not actively. Me and my sister roamed the neighborhood, and at least one Mom on each block would know who to call if we got into an accident or something. There was a creepy guy who invited us to his hot tub, but my sister wisely turned him down, and nothing more was done.
Furthermore, in an extended family, you'll have grandparents to babysit, and cousins who are peers, and in a family with enough children, you'll have older children effectly supervising the youngest ones, changing diapers, doing basic tasks like that. This happens all the time at church, and I see it. It's a matter of Mom and Dad setting good examples and instilling good discipline.
If instead you have a situation of high divorce rates, single moms and single dads going it alone, everyone lives in a separate little dwelling, we barely know our extended family, we live in neighborhoods full of strangers, we all work two full-time jobs, well your support system will consist of paid child care, if you can find it, and if you can afford it. So children are high-maintenance.
And in a family of one or two children, the children won't be learning the basics of changing diapers and feeding applesauce, so if you do raise children, you're raising children who are unprepared to be parents.
>Not long ago, children were allowed to roam freely in the neighborhood, walk to and from school, and have some essentially unsupervised time to play and be children.
Yeah, I see that almost every day where I live. Young kids even take the subway across the city all by themselves. This is normal life in any decent, developed nation.
You've never been outside the United States, have you?
> Not long ago, children were allowed to roam freely in the neighborhood, walk to and from school, and have some essentially unsupervised time to play and be children.
They still are in most safe modern nations.
> so if you do raise children, you're raising children who are unprepared to be parents.
Ancient, tribal cultures, absolutely raised children in a communal way as you say. There's even a saying, "it takes a village to raise a child..." But I'm not aware of any modern cultures that still do that in reality.