Home: mowing kids, what age to start?

[RobinFinderson]

For those with past and future lawn mowers, how old were your kids when you started them on this duty, and/or what age do will you start young mowers down their landscaping career path?

[Clark Addison]

About 12 years old for us. I have mowed our lawn about 2 times in the last 4 years. It is nice.

[thesaint258]

IIRC I was eight or nine when my dad had me start mowing. He had me do the open spaces that didn't need much maneuvering with the lawn mower. By ten or eleven though, I was doing the whole yard.

[marsupial]

Good question. I think of this every time I am out mowing. My son is almost 9. I have a hard time imagining him operating a mower right now.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Robin: get one of those Toro mowers with the self-propelled system that is activated by forward pressure on the handle. You push and it moves, you stop and it stops. Very easy for kids to operate.

[kccougar]

I'm struggling with this one. My older son got his first job mowing the lawn across the street while it was empty and for sale. The quality of the job wasn't critical so it was a good way to start. He's done that for a couple empty homes before moving on to a single woman's home down the street.

My younger son just turned 12 and he REALLY wants to mow lawns - mostly because he sees his older brother making "bank" and he wants in on the action. Problem is that he is a little guy and I'm not sure how well he'd do with a lawn mower, even at 12. Also, mowing someone else's lawn (that still lives in the home) is not something you want to just jump into with no experience.

My wife keeps bugging me to have the 12-yr old mow our lawn for practice, and I should, but I'm kind of weird about my lawn. I don't have the perfect lawn, but I do really enjoy having a nicely mowed lawn so I've always mowed it myself. I'm really close to letting him do it though.

[wuapinmon]

Robin,

I'm guessing this is a push mower, right? Is it powered? I'd say that Little Robin is probably smart enough and mature enough for his age to mow your little SoCal yard. I don't think he could handle my yard. Too many roots, ditches, mole holes, trees, and other obstacles. I almost ran my own foot over in June because of a damned pine root knuckle.

[New Mexican Disaster]

8 or 9 with a little supervision. I have had my daughter doing it for a while during allergy season when I really can't go outside at all. She likes it and she likes a little coin that I throw her way.

[Moliere]

For those with past and future lawn mowers, how old were your kids when you started them on this duty, and/or what age do will you start young mowers down their landscaping career path?

If he's smart, he'll charge you $25 a week and hire an illegal alien to mow it for $15.

On a serious note, my son will start mowing my lawn when he is 12. He's small (it's genetics) and I don't want him handling a machine that could easily handicap him if misused. I'll probably have him start mowing easier parts of the yard first and then quickly have him do the rest after he gets some experience handled the mower.

[beefytee]

My eight year old isn't quite strong enough to get the push reel going.

[Moliere]

If he's smart, he'll charge you $25 a week and hire an illegal alien to mow it for $15.

On a serious note, my son will start mowing my lawn when he is 12. He's small (it's genetics) and I don't want him handling a machine that could easily handicap him if misused. I'll probably have him start mowing easier parts of the yard first and then quickly have him do the rest after he gets some experience handled the mower.

I've been getting numerous PMs for an update to this so I thought I'd give in and indulge everyone...

My son has been begging me to let him mow the yard. He's 11 and still small but growing fast. Anyway, 2 weeks ago I had him mow the backyard, which is tricky as we have many obstacles back there, and he struggled a bit knowing how to line the mower up and pulling it back out of tight spots. Well, last night I had to mow again and he again begged me to have him help. I let him mow the backyard and the kid did a great job. I'm seriously impressed with the improvement over his first time helping and I think I'm to the point that I'll let him maybe try the front yard in a month or two. If this progress holds up, I may only have to trim my yard for the foreseeable future (like 15 years).

So I'm basically saying that I may have mowed my backyard for the last time a month ago. Yes, last night was a good night as I sat on my bench in the backyard holding my dog as I watched my son mow the yard. MJ even shed a little tear as she watched her young man go through this rite of passage.

[dabrockster]

My son has been begging me since he was 7 years old to mow the lawn. After he turned 8 this past Nov. I decided this coming summer we would give him a run at it. We are outside with him usually tending to the Garden and keeping a watchful eye on him. I was very proud of him the first time he mowed the whole lawn last month.. But he does not do it all the time. We usually allow him to mow the backyard and then we take over at times..

He wants to do everything that includes power tools.

[Rickomatic]

I am not sure why anyone would want to mow their kids?

[wuapinmon]

Self-propelled lawn mowers can be very dangerous if you're not strong enough to handle reverse properly. I'm all for teaching kids how use machines, but a self-propelled one needs a special lecture on how not to run over your foot due to carelessness.

[statman]

Ten is a good age to start. But don't expect any kind of a decent job before thirteen or fourteen. Something about a child's brain that doesn't even see uncut blades of grass. Seriously. They don't even know they did a piss-poor job...

And I agree that self-propelled is probably a bad idea for kids under about 14, unless everything is flat. And rear-wheeled self propelled is more dangerous that front wheeled.