Oh Grow Up!
Childhood and the Church
We find differing voices in religious matters. Some said children could commit sin (lie, for example) and therefore should begin attending confession and do penance. Others placed the age of sinfulness closer to puberty.
There was discussion over the proper age for confirmation. Some said confirmation should come early. If the child had not yet been confirmed, the argument went, how could he or she received Last Rights? For all knew that children were at risk of death. Our only sources for these considerations didactic works, which are notoriously unreliable as a guide to actual practice. Our sources simply don't give us much to work with here. The best that can be said is that we do know from later centuries that local customs often diverged from official teaching.
The Value of Children
Children were indeed valued and were regarded as innocent. That's not modern. It can be found as far back as the Bible. Children were regarded as simple and sincere.
When we see popular movements such as the Pastoreaux or the Children's Crusade, commentators are particularly moved because the participants were children. The fate of Lambert Simnel, age ten, was lamented in part because of the innocence of his age, and he was spared worse punishments because of his youth. The "children's plague" of 1368 was regarded as especially tragic precisely because so many children died. We can document countless accounts of anguished voices over the loss of a child.
In short, the common notion that people in the Middle Ages either did not love their children, or that they did not regard childhood as a distinct and charming stage of life, is simply wrong. It says more about ourselves than it does about the Middle Ages.