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[MasterMorality]

As amusing as it is, watching mothers wade into battle with their offspring strapped to them, it's not unknown for the parent to die and the child to be left laying a heap of corpses...

A six month old baby in my fort just got mixed up in an attack and was hurled from it's mothers corpse down a, luckily, unfinished pit. It's now horrifically mauled and crawling around the place dragging both broken legs and one arm behind it, I assume looking for it's still living father.

Still, it strikes me as amusing when several inhabitants stand around watching, or just blithely walk past, the mauled girl dragging herself through corridors and stairwells, not once looking to pick the child up and get it to either medical care or it's next of kin.

What I would propose is some kind of further evolution of the parenting instinct.

If a child is misplaced, then other members of the community should seek to reunite the kid, if they have at least a passing acquaintance with it's mother or father.

If one of the two is dead, then it should be taken to the survivor.

If neither are left alive, the child should have a chance to be taken in by another member of the community.

If the child is injured, it should be hauled to a hospital.

Actually, just picking up injured people of any age, if hauling injured is active, should probably take a certain amount of precedence. I know dwarves are kind of hardcore, but just leaving a person to die of various horrific injuries in the middle of a field is fairly impressive.

[Mister Always]

Maybe dwarves don't have a "parenting instinct" the way humans do. A baby loses both its parents? We'd wheel it off to an orphanage or a foster home, but maybe dwarves just go "though break, kid, let's see if you can survive until you're old enough to feed yourself". Maybe they go about it more like animals. If it ain't strong enough to survive its orphaning and mangling, how's it gonna survive, well, anything else really?

[Tharwen]

They already do that, except that they tend to be busy when they walk past, so they have to complete the current job before they can take on the 'recover wounded' job.

It would be nice if seeing an injured dwarf interrupted them in the same way as a harmless wild horse did...

[Argonnek]

Actually, I noticed in one of my fortresses that orphaned babies got fed and watered by non-parent dwarves. They also had a tendency to off themselves before maturity, but I digress.

[Forumite]

Two forts ago, a miner and her child got caught in an ambush. The miner charged heroically and died. The kid crawled inside all the way to the hospital, where he was fed and looked after. He had quite horrific injuries, but I think he survived to maturity.

[Valdrax]

I would like to propose an daycare/orphanage workshop or zone.  It'd be nice for parents on military duty to have a place to take their kids.

(Maybe also find some use for milk & toys.)

[MasterMorality]

Maybe dwarves don't have a "parenting instinct" the way humans do. A baby loses both its parents? We'd wheel it off to an orphanage or a foster home, but maybe dwarves just go "though break, kid, let's see if you can survive until you're old enough to feed yourself". Maybe they go about it more like animals. If it ain't strong enough to survive its orphaning and mangling, how's it gonna survive, well, anything else really?

Hmmm, yeah I thought about the same thing. Apparently, looking at the other replies, this type of thing does happen, but it's overridden by just about every single other thing in the game, so it's not noticeable.
Maybe a mechanic, like the empathy and empathy range (maybe the empathy could include this), could be introduced to the creature RAWS that decides just how strong their natural parenting instinct is likely to be which would then affect how likely they are to stroll on past on their way to work, or stop what they're doing and help a guy out.

[malvado]

It would actually make sense to include a Nursery or Children daycare Area that would need toys and some other things to function well.

[Girlinhat]

Let's be sure we understand the difference between "baby" and "child" here.  A baby is carried until just near the end of baby-hood, when they can be seen toddling after their mother.  Babies do not receive medical treatment and are known to become insane if the mother dies, causing them to die like any other terminally insane dwarf.

A child is a young dwarf who you cannot assign labors to, but is otherwise identical.  They can own rooms, perform jobs, get medical treatment, be given food and water, and all the other dwarfy things.  It's just a period where they cannot be given labors (assign from default deconstruction/lever/harvest) but are considered real dwarves.

Babies need some work, maybe.  I rather like the brutal parenthood.  And don't act like there's not plenty of babies.  They pop out mid battle if your population is flirtatious enough!

[antymattar]

Actually as I remember, In most all mythology dwarves have greater fammily ties than humans. Losing a relative was a terribly sad event to them.

[tolkafox]

Aw, I thought this was a well written proposal for the appeal of current child labor laws for dwarves. Probably not all of them, but if those little buggers can pick plants off the ground then by golly they should do some crafting, milling, and wood burning. Quit making parties during sieges you little brats, and go milk the cows!

But I have to disagree with the OP, children are useless and should be left on the battlefields to die. You have to wait 10 years before they're useless haulers, and then another two years before they're combat ready and willing to die for their fortress.

[roflgar]

Think of the children?!


You sick freak.

[Di]

Well, the children might be useless booze-consumers but I believe mothering instinct should be heritable: when mother dies seeking infant jobs are queued on father, if he's dead as well then to oldest surviving sibling of baby and then maybe to a dwarf with highest empathy or to a mother's ghost (ghost babies are already carried around by their mothers so why ghost mother can't take care of her orphan?)

[Khym Chanur]

Maybe dwarves don't have a "parenting instinct" the way humans do.

The dwarves do react when a child-snatcher is detected.  Though that might be more because the snatcher is a goblin than because of any desire to protect the children...

[612DwarfAvenue]

You're suggesting we coddle and spoil the babies? You undwarfy bastard.

If the kid can't survive a simple thing like being used a meatshield, then it is of no use to the fort.