As early as the 19^th century, some observers understood that humans are pouchless marsupials. They noted that it took nine months after birth before a baby person could move his or her little body enough to find the tit. It was like gestation was really 18 months, but birth had to occur halfway through because otherwise the baby’s head would be too big.

But it wasn’t until the 21^st century that folks started to see human childhood as a genuinely separate state of being, from which one matures to adulthood. Children have different sleep and illness patterns than grownups. They enjoy dizziness and can’t tolerate alcohol or ether. They really do experience time as a slower phenomenon than they will when they’re grown; that boredom is not just an act. As much as humans are pouchless marsupials and tailless monkeys, we’re like frogs who hatch disguised tadpoles.

It was the research of Levy and Gold that first pointed this out. They identified the vulnerable stages of the childhood lifecycle, and they listed the demons against which we must guard.

They asserted that it’s all about SIDS and SADS. You can vaccinate or educate against the other dangers.

SIDS was old news by then. Tragic in its consequences but rarer than it had been. Folks understood it could occur in a failure-blink of the respiratory system. They followed the “face up to wake up” slogan and then corrected for flat-head syndrome.

But Suicidal Adolescent Dream Syndrome was unknown and unnamed till 2028. Levy provided an estimate of its incidence and Gold described it as a failure-blink of the psychological system. Together those women prescribed a remedy.

They established that separate housing for folks by age group or disability or occupation or orientation didn’t promote wisdom or tolerance. And they showed that trying to eliminate bullying would be as futile as trying to burn all the spinning wheels.

It was after the publication of their research that inclusive housing really took off. Situated where they were, near Bath, they built the first development that deliberately mixed grandmas with teens. It’s clear now, looking at the success of multi-generational housing arrangements, that this is how the movement started.