 When assessing Lady Rosebery 's behaviour to her children it should be remembered that she lived in an era of plentiful <unk> , wet nurses , <unk> and governesses which the upper classes employed as the norm . These people were employed regardless of the mother 's affection towards her children ; it was <unk> that a <unk> would nurse her own children , and to do so would have been breaking social conventions . Hence her <unk> lack of attention to her children was not unusual – she was following the upper class conventions and " stiff upper lip " philosophies of her era . However , in spite of their prolonged absences from their children , the Roseberys do not appear to have been very distant or remote figures in the earliest stages of their children 's lives . Margot Asquith records how Rosebery loved to play and romp on the floor with the children . 
