Do your dc mow the lawn? At what age?

[5LittleMonkeys]

My dh has been teaching my two oldest dds (12 and 11) to mow and weed-eat the lawn the last few weekends. We also do lawn care for a neighbor twice a month and they pay us. (My dd are excited about earning the money for this)

 

So, I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she actually asked me if I was crazy! She said in her opinion they were far to young to be mowing and weed-eating the lawn. She said it was way to dangerous. I explained that they wore appropriate clothing and eye and ear protection and that dh was supervising them. I told her that my dds were quite physically capable and mature enough to take it at a serious endeavor to earn money.

 

Once I started thinking about it I realized that in our neighborhood, where there are lots of kids, I NEVER see anyone's kids mowing. It's always the parents. It got me wondering though...do any of you have your dc mow your lawns? How old were they when you taught them? Just curious.

[TravelingChris]

Yes, my 13 mows the lawn with our reel mower. (We have a very small lawn). She was doing it last year when she was 12 too. My one dd never did it since she would have been the main mower when we lived in a house with yard service. My son mowed a lawn when he was 14, I think, because befoire that we either had no lawn or yard service again.

[Skadi]

My parents had me mow the lawn as soon as I was strong enough and tall enough to have control of the mower (I think I was about 8). We will be doing the same for our kids. I suspect that not letting kids mow the lawn has less to do with safety and more to do with a culture that dictates parents not intrude on their kids' "happy childhood" (e.g. playing videogames all day). I think the odds of an eight year old who has been taught basic safety measures being eaten alive by a feral lawn mower are pretty low, but kids will probably still tell you that manual labor is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. ;)

[Surlygirlie]

My son started mowing our lawn last summer when he just turned 8. I will grant that we have a reel mower/push mower so I am a little less leery about it.

 

The neighbors have a gas mower and they started letting their 12 year old mow last summer as well.

 

It probably just has to do with your comfort level and the amount of trust you have in your children to not do anything glaringly stupid.

[DarlaS]

They can use the riding mower when they can reach and know how (and when!) to use the brakes.

 

For a pushmower, they must be able to turn it around without backing over their own feet.

 

They need to be a certain height to use weed whacker (so as not to be holding it at an odd angle).

 

The age seems to be 12 - 13 for my kids. My oldest ds was taller than his younger brother at that age and has been the only one using the rider so far. I'm about to buy a zero turn to remedy that.

[Jennifer in MI]

My oldest started doing neighbor lawns at 9 with a reel mower.

 

My two oldest boys mow our current (bigger) lawn with a gas mower. They started around 10.

 

I was mowing the lawn on a tractor at 10!!! I don't see anything wrong with it!

[Jean in Newcastle]

My answer is in the thread from 2 weeks ago. . . http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170290&highlight=mow

[dirty ethel rackham]

My hubby teaches the kids when they turn 11 - or when they get big enough to control the mower after that age. My boys have been mowing the lawn with supervision since then and they mow other people's lawns for money. Dd is not quite 10 and has a very slight build so it may be a while before she does. It really bugs me to see my friends knock themselves out doing yard work while their kids are inside playing video games.

[MamaT]

My boys have all started on a push mower at 9. The riding mower depends on when they are heavy enough. My skinny 11yo is almost there.

[mammaruss]

I think it depends on the child.....

Our youngest ds will be helping us out with mowing this summer - on the riding mower. He has been driving our "ranger" around since last summer and is quite responsible. Our riding mower does have a safety feature so that if ds does start to lift his bottom off the seat, the engine will shut off. We will not allow him to cut on any of our hills or around any of our water.

[Rhonda in TX]

My 13 and 12 yo have been mowing for a couple of years. DH still supervises, but they do most of it. DH does all the edging and weed-eating.

[JVA]

We have three acres- most of it is flat but there are a few rises with trees spread out on the 'hill'. Our 13 yr old ds has just started to use our zero-turn tractor on the flat, square parts. He can't handle the ditch or rises yet..... either one of the older boys will do those or dh or I will. One of us stays outside nearby while he's mowing the flat field. Just in case. So far, so good. I predict by the end of summer, he'll be able to handle most of the property.

[Kate CA]

My dh has been teaching my two oldest dds (12 and 11) to mow and weed-eat the lawn the last few weekends. We also do lawn care for a neighbor twice a month and they pay us. (My dd are excited about earning the money for this)

 

So, I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she actually asked me if I was crazy! She said in her opinion they were far to young to be mowing and weed-eating the lawn. She said it was way to dangerous. I explained that they wore appropriate clothing and eye and ear protection and that dh was supervising them. I told her that my dds were quite physically capable and mature enough to take it at a serious endeavor to earn money.

 

Once I started thinking about it I realized that in our neighborhood, where there are lots of kids, I NEVER see anyone's kids mowing. It's always the parents. It got me wondering though...do any of you have your dc mow your lawns? How old were they when you taught them? Just curious.

 

Very normal to us. We started at age 10 - girls and boys.

[KathyBC]

Oldest ds began using the gas mower at age 12.

[astrid]

Molly started mowing with our gasoline powered mower when she was 8. All our neighbors, I'm sure, thought I was a) crazy b) the world's worst mother and c) abusive for making Molly work outside in the sun, doing manual labor.

Shrug. No such thing as a free lunch in this house-- even the dogs work.

 

The truth is, Molly really likes to mow the lawn. This year dh got a reel mower, the old fashioned kind. He's reducing his carbon footprint. :-) She likes that too, although it's harder work because she has to push it harder than she does the gasoline mower.

 

Astrid

[Carol in Cal.]

But that was back in the day, and we had a non-motorized mower.

 

I thought that DD should take over using our gas mower when she turned 13, but DH nixed it. He thinks that those mechanized ones are too dangerous. I looked for a non-motorized one for her to use and was unable to find one for sale. So she is still not mowing the lawn, almost a year later.

[kokotg]

DS just mowed the lawn for the first time yesterday; he'll be 9 next month. He's really been wanting to do it (to earn some extra money), so we let him give it a try, and he did a great job. DH was outside supervising the whole time.

[2squared]

For us, it will be as soon as they are heavy enough to keep it from killing and tall enough to reach the pedals. Dd isn't tall enough yet. I am trying to stretch her out. :D I will still have to do the trimming for quite a while since we have a little forest out there.

 

I had the same rule growing up. As soon as I was tall enough to reach the pedals, I was driving our tractor. The only difference was that I was driving a real tractor raking a hayfield. I think a lawn mower is pretty tame to my experience.

[Lolly]

My dh has been teaching my two oldest dds (12 and 11) to mow and weed-eat the lawn the last few weekends. We also do lawn care for a neighbor twice a month and they pay us. (My dd are excited about earning the money for this)

 

So, I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she actually asked me if I was crazy! She said in her opinion they were far to young to be mowing and weed-eating the lawn. She said it was way to dangerous. I explained that they wore appropriate clothing and eye and ear protection and that dh was supervising them. I told her that my dds were quite physically capable and mature enough to take it at a serious endeavor to earn money.

 

Once I started thinking about it I realized that in our neighborhood, where there are lots of kids, I NEVER see anyone's kids mowing. It's always the parents. It got me wondering though...do any of you have your dc mow your lawns? How old were they when you taught them? Just curious.

 

Mine do. First one on riding mower at 12. Next two riding mower at 11. Last one riding mower at 10, pushing at 11, tractor (a fairly good sized real one) at 12. Now, at 13 he is responsible for the yard and does it when I am not even home sometimes. (Not the tractor though!)He also does maintenance on the push mower. He can even start the blamed leaf blower which is impossible. Don't know what I would do without this kid right now!

[mcconnellboys]

I think that if they are physically adept and have adult supervision it is fine at this age.

 

My older son has a ton of sensory issues, so I really was afraid that he'd manage to mow his foot off. My husband taught him after he got into high school and he's been doing it ever since.

 

My younger son may begin learning next year (he will have just turned 13). I hesitate with him because he has control issues and some obsessive/compulsive issues that might cause him to reach under a running mower even though we've cautioned against it, if you know what I mean. He seems always to second guess me on any direction I give him when I leave him alone. For this reason, I just don't know if I can trust him, either......

[djsmom]

All 3 of our boys started mowing at age 9...push and riding mower.

[NanceXToo]

I don't think your kids seem too young. I can't remember for sure but I'm pretty sure I was somewhere between 11 and 13 when I started mowing lawns, and my brothers were probably between 10-12 when they started trying to offer to mow the neighbor's lawns to earn some money!

[natalie]

My dh let my oldest ds try last summer when he turned 12.

 

I promptly stopped that when I looked out the window and saw ds on the riding lawn mower, leaning back relaxing with his hands behing his head, steering with his FEET as he started to go down a hill in the back yard :eek: !!!

 

Every time dh mows the lawn, ds mentions how much fun it was and asks when he can do it again :lol: !

[MamaAkins]

My oldest daughter (age 12 1/2) has been mowing our lawn with a self-propelled push mower for the past year and a half. We have a 1/2 acre (mostly flat, but with a lot of stuff in the back yard to work around (swingset, two buildings, fencing, trampoline, etc). She does the mower, but does not do any weed eating.

[5LittleMonkeys]

Well thanks for all the replies. I think it's safe to say that contrary to what my "friend" thinks I am indeed NOT crazy. At least not on this issue anyway. :D

[happi duck]

ds began at 11 with supervision and now at 12 mows from start to finish (electric push mower)

[KJsMom]

I know of 2 boys from church (different families) that have their nearly 9 year old boys mowing on a riding lawn mower. Both of these boys have 4 wheelers and are tall enough to use the lawn mower, so I guess it depends on the kid.

[Alison in KY]

Nine here, but he was supervised really well. Hubby actually mowed a boundry area down for him so he had to stay within that area. Now he's 11 and doing it mostly by himself, both push mower and riding. Girls will probably be later because they aren't interested in doing it.

 

One of our rules is that the other kids cannot come into the yard where there is mowing. We also keep a pretty good eye on our son.

 

When our 11 year old was just a baby, we were driving home and saw what we thought was our neighbor boy and my nephew goofing off out on the lawn. Turns out my neighbor had just backed over my nephews foot with the riding lawn mower. We scooped him up and raced to the ER. I'll never forget someone picked up his big toe :001_huh: and put it in the floorboard of our car. I could not take that big toe into the hospital...had to get someone from ER to come retrieve it. BLECH! It turns out that they boys were doing a bit of chase with the blades running!

 

Alison

[Elisabeth in IL]

We started our oldest at 10. He was only given the back yard to do though. My second son, now 10, wants to be trained to mow. I actually think that he will do a better job then his brother.

[EKS]

My son has been doing it since he was 12.

[seibert4kids]

My ds started on the riding mower at age 11 (or 12?) and my other ds started with the push one just this year at 10.5. As a mom, I'm kinda nervous about the safety issues with lawn mowers, but dh feels comfortable with them doing it (and has taught them well, I might add). It's just that I personally know of multiple "lawn mower accidents" with ADULTS using the mowers, so the children's use does unsettle me a bit, but I'm trusting my dh's judgement!

[OhM]

they wore appropriate clothing and eye and ear protection and that dh was supervising them.

 

This is the key. Both of mine started mowing at 10yo - a simple gas engine push mower (no bells & whistles.) Dh taught them about proper clothing, the dangers involved with using the engine, and what to do in typical dicey situations - most involved "just let the kill switch go" :)

 

They share responsibility for the lawn now. They don't use the weed-eater yet, mostly because that's dh's toy.:D

[fivetails]

Okay, I'll be the odd duck. ;)

 

I won't let either of our kids anywhere near a lawn mower.

 

Of course....I also won't let *myself* anywhere near a lawn mower....:tongue_smilie:

 

they scare me.

 

as do chainsaws and big woodworking tools and anything else with the ability to remove a limb or three. :eek:

[charlotteb]

My DS starting mowing the lawn at around 11 years old. He does just fine. Like your son, we make sure he's wearing appropriate clothing, gear, etc.

Years ago, boys were doing work before 11. I think it's all part of the "Children should just have fun, not work" line of thought. I say "phooey" to it!

[pryde55]

I started mowing my parent's lawn when I was 11, before the days of bagging mowers. So, whatever you ran over (rocks, sticks, etc.) cam spewing out the side. Then, I had to rake up the whole yard & bag it all! My 11 yr old has been introduced to mowing, with the appropriate safety items being taught to him by my husband. The other day, he asked if he could mow. I would have taken him up on it, except it was going to rain. A self-propelled mower with an auto cut-off switch/latch would be a safe way to go.

 

As for everyone else in the neighborhood, I think that they'll be asking you how you got your kids to do the lawn/yardwork while theirs are gaming or watching TV.