This is not a depiction of a village, this is what happens when the village no longer exists and everyone has to live in isolation from any social safety nets. Or to put it another way, Neoliberalism.
Nah, in a village you’d see kids at work with parents sometimes too. Usually you’d have some kind of daycare situation, but sometimes that’s not an option.
I can totally see a village shop where the owner is there with a baby, and the kid kinda grows up in the shop.
We aren't talking about rasing a kid in a literal village within a Neoliberal society. "It takes a village" is an idiom about how the entire community should help to properly raise a child.
The saying emphasizes that a child’s upbringing is a communal effort involving many different people and groups, from parents to teachers to neighbors and grandparents.
The whole idea underscores the belief that the collective involvement of a community is essential in achieving a certain goal or completing a task, like raising a kid.
Essentially, it’s a friendly reminder that asking for help with hard things is okay because many hands make light work.
That seemed to be in the past, at least the distant past, the way things worked.
A smith took his son to his "office." The kid watched. Then the kid got older, and curious. The father imparted his wisdom onto his child, and eventually, the son took over for his old man.
Hence, a family line in one business.
Or to look at another way, why people still carry the surname of Smith, Miller, Baker, etc.