If you stop to think about the six and seven year old children in our culture, you may immediately picture a group of first graders running around a classroom pasting things to the wall or throwing tantrums because someone has that nice red fire truck that they only want out of jealousy. For one of these children to take the responsibility for an infant would be out of the question. In our culture, we do not put responsibility on young children, because it is culturally accepted and learned that the children will inevitably fail and the mistake could be vital. We think that they will fail either from previous experience, or because we never raised our children to become the responsible people that the Samoan children have become. The girls of this age are also learning to take their role in society as a female. They are learning to weave, tidy up the house, and bring water from the sea, when they are not tending to the children. It is important for a girl to be a productive worker, as her reputation, and maybe her marriage will depend on her skills one day. Mead mentions that there are a few cases in which the boys will take care of children, but are usually relieved of their duties at an earlier age. "Where small girls are brusquely pushed aside, small boys are tolerated and become adept at making themselves useful" (Mead 2001; 20). The boys are given a chance probably based on their physical strength, which can be more productive to the community than the practice of child rearing or any of the other "girls"" tasks. The boys are taught early that they have the opportunity to play a higher, more prestigious role in the village than the girls. .
The children that the nurse maids take care of are very rarely, if at all, disciplined by their mothers. Mead mentions that when a child is upset, or throwing a tantrum, the caregiver will often just remove the child from the mother, as not to disturb her.