Girls were instructed to nurture their dolls as they would nurture their children in the future [2].

"They can be scolded, and advised, and kissed, and taught to read, and sung to sleep, and any thing else the fancy of the owner may devise."

 

Boys were instructed to play violent and competitive games such as King of the Castle, the object of which was to push another boy off of a mound and take his place [4].

Such games demonstrate that adults expected boys to ready themselves for the competitive world they would soon encounter through play.