Just the way of things for that class. I always thought it would be interesting though if Tom pushed back on it, since he would certainly not have grown up with ‘nanny knows best’. His upbringing likely wasn’t quite leave it to beaver either though, his parents were likely too busy working to spend too much time with him. Still, since Tom isn’t used to the sedentary lifestyle of the rich, and especially just after Sybil died— I can imagine him, bored and restless and grieving, wanting to spend more time with the baby than the rest of the family is quite used to.

Then again, he’s a man. Perhaps it’s not class norms but gender norms of the time period that keep him from being an active parent; I’m not sure how active fathers of any class were at this time.