Your age when starting lawn cutting (boys, college, sister, dad)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was probably around 8-10. We had one of those whirligig push mowers and it weighed a ton. I still have it, so I know I'm not exaggerating when I say it weighed a ton. My dad finally bought a gas powered one sometime in the 1980's a year or two before I moved out!
My nephew is almost 40 years old and his father (my 72 year old brother) still will not let him mow the lawn, even though my brother is in ill health and shouldn't be getting on and off the riding lawn mower. So my guess is his son will take over maybe at age 45 or 50 (or when dad passes away).
I was around 8 (1950) we had the old reel type push mower. I started a business mowing lawns for 50 cents and an extra 25 cents if you wanted hand trimming with a hand clipper around the house. I had a LOT of customers. In a couple of years I made enough to get the first gas powered mower in town. Then my business really took off. Now I have a 1/2 acre and use my 35 year old John Deere 318. Much easier.
The worst part was having to pull the starter cord! It would slap back sometimes and leave a whipping scar on my leg.
No how no way would I let a kid use the riding mower. My BF was 17 when he did summers with a lawn service place. They had strict safety regulations so he knew what was expected and how to operate them properly.
At about 12 I started using the walk-behind mower to trim after my dad went through on the riding mower - we had 3/4 of an acre and quite a few trees. By the summer just before my 15th birthday I started using the riding mower myself and trimming too. We had a neighbor kid mow before I started in and my dad was ticked because he mowed in high gear to get done faster!
I don't recall any "safety measures" - it was a standard International Harvester (?) back in the late '70's. The only thing was that I had to wear tennis shoes- never sandals. My sister had a scary mishap when she was really young where she ran up to my dad while he was mowing and almost had all her toes cut off - only thing that saved her was the heavy rubber sole on her tennis shoes.
Still wondering about these people who think it is a form of slavery or punishment to have kids help out by mowing ::
I will play a bit of devil's advocate here.
I'm going to assume that when you bought the house, you didn't ask the kids if they wanted a house with a yard or not. Since they had no input into your decision to have a lawn in the first place, maybe they shouldn't be forced to mow that lawn that they had no say in getting or not.
I don’t remember and that was mostly my brothers job anyway but I doubt that the ages when people in the 1950s did things is a great gauge. Parents can be overprotective now for sure, but there are also some things that are just smarter than how we used to do it.
We don’t own a mower as our yard is 3 acres and we hire someone but my kids mow for their grandparents...the 12 and 14 year olds. My youngest pulls weeds and does other yard work for them.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.