? for those with a current or past teenager – Others as well.

For those of you who have a teenager or even a soon to be teenager, Do they mow the home lawn. One thing I’ve noticed a LOT this summer. Everyone I see out mowing lawns ( Those that still have a live lawn to mow ) are all adults. I could not tell you the last time I saw a kid pushing or even riding a mower. When I was growing up, you never saw a adult out mowing a law. Even those without kids seemed to have a kid mowing their lawns. Some paid one, other seemed to just have a friendly neighbor with a kid that was told to mow it for them. I will have to admit, my daughter never mowed the lawn often when she was a teenager. Then again we only lived in a home that we had to mow the lawn for 2 years during her teens. I have several neighbors who have 1 if not several teenagers and I have never seen one of them mowing their lawns. Just curious if others have noticed this as well.

My 12 year old mows the lawn, picks up dog poop and weed wacks. Kids need chores and structure. Most folks these days baby there kids and it shows out in public.just give them a tablet and your parenting is good, no need to teach work ethic or nothing

Bearcat89 wrote:

Keeps need chores and structure. Most folks these days baby there kids and it shows out in public.

I believe that you are correct on BOTH !!!

Dang you caught my spelling error or smart phone error. Keep was supposed to say kids.

My teenagers are long gone but yes they had chores to do. The neighbor family across the street has a young boy who mows their front lawn. He is not a teen yet, the handle on the walk behind mower is about even with the kids shoulder. He and his sister are also out there helping their dad clear snow in the winter time.

I like mowing, but have been letting my 15 year old drive the JD as it will help him learn to drive.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Dang you caught my spelling error or smart phone error. Keep was supposed to say kids.

As someone who often makes those same types of errors, I get good at understanding what people meant to say, even if they typed something else.

I should say my son has normal daily house hold chores just like when I was his age. Bed needs to be made, room clean, dishes loaded in the dish washer and put away, dogs fed watered and let out. Along with some miscellaneous other chores. He does get a weekly allowance when all chores are done right and with out a reminder. ( I still remind him and let it slide.)
On top of that he earns money working side work with me. A couple Saturdays ago he was the 3rd guy on a 100ft gutter install and a buddy and I each flipped him 100 bucks. For less then 2 hours work.
I raise him to be respectful and have a good work ethic as well as a good head on his shoulders

I kind of figured that those here would have a higher % of kids who mow lawns and have other chores than the norm these days.

bigcrappie wrote:

I like mowing, but have been letting my 15 year old drive the JD as it will help him learn to drive.

This was Mason last week driving my new ram down the back dirt roads

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Bearcat89 wrote:

raise him to be respectful and have a good work ethic as well as a good head on his shoulders

Good for you !!! I never doubted that you would. You just seem like that kind of a guy.

Very few kids mow in my neighborhood mow. Out of 4 next door neighbors with mow age kids only one of them does. It boggles my mind. What else are kids for? In my family kids were slave labor. Now so many of them sit on their assess playing with their phones and coddled by their parents. Do these people have any idea what kinds of adults they are creating?

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>bigcrappie wrote:</div>
I like mowing, but have been letting my 15 year old drive the JD as it will help him learn to drive.

This was Mason last week driving my new ram down the back dirt roads

Hey now. That 9 and 3 handhold position on the wheel will probably get docked points on a drivers test. At least I believe that they still teach the 10 and 2 position. Then again that may have changed.

suzuki wrote:

In my family kids were slave labor.

You must have been a farm kid When I was growing up, I kind of thought that about all the farm kids I knew.

I have 3 teenagers at home and only my oldest has mowed occasionally. He is 16 now and for the last 3yrs had worked summers with his grandpa doing excavating work and now this summer has been a block tender on a concrete crew and helps on his girlfriend’s family farm. He has the most work ethic of my 3. My other 2 won’t push mow and I don’t trust them to use the rider. I know that’s my fault but I would spend more time arguing with them about mowing than the time it would take to do it myself. My middle boy(14) is just lazy and will take any punishment for not doing things than actually try to be helpful around home but he did get a job at the local bar as a dishwasher by his choice. I hated mowing my parents lawn growing up but I mowed my grandparents lawn once a week when I was a teenager.

Apparently, they don’t teach 10 and 2 anymore, it’s 9 and 3 (airbag safety). My son recently went through training and told me this. He then asked me why I always drive with just 12 (one handed)?

I mowed the lawn regularly when I was a teenager. My brother did too. It was mandatory along with other yard and house chores. I agree with Bearcat, they need duties and structure. Either chip in or ship out. Show them the door if they refuse.

Many of my neighbors have kids that are of able-bodied age and not ONCE have I seen these kids outside mowing the lawn, shoveling/snow blowing snow, raking leaves, etc. They all hire a service to do it. Everyone must have money to blow so they pay someone to do it rather than having their kids do it.

I will add all 3 of my kids help with leaves in the fall and shovel snow. Just mowing seems to be an issue.

My boy mows the back yard after I go around the obstacles with the rider. He clipped the shed and removed the mower deck one year. I don’t trust him by the front curb.

My daughter mowed the lawn for many years. Still does at 22 but not as much as she has 40 hr full time job and waitresses on weekends as well. Son who is 9 will start in a year or 2 but has jobs around the house. Work ethic is important and my daughter has it in spades as long as a shovel not involved.

every one of my kids (aged 14, 11, 6) do chores. Mostly they are tasked with doing dishes, laundry, feeding pets, cleaning their rooms, and picking up their crap thats always in the yard.

is this another one of those “pat ourselves on the backs” threads meant to reinforce how much better we are than “the others” and how much worse this generation is than our own?

fishthumper wrote:

August 24, 2023 at 10:06 am#2220572
For those of you who have a teenager or even a soon to be teenager, Do they mow the home lawn.

Oh hell yes they mow the lawn. Not only OUR lawn, but they mow:
– Elderly neighbor’s lawn. Not paid.
– Lawn at the rectory. Not paid, obviously.
– Lawn of the guy 2 houses down (they get paid for this one).

We are also in the middle of a massive tree-cutting project at the rectory and at church to try to get rid of all the dead ash trees on the properties. 25 of them in total. Not fun, but the boys have been a great help.

I’ve told them straight up, you boys don’t think I had kids so I could continue to mow my own lawn for the rest of my life, do you? And they both answered correctly on that one! So they inherited both intelligence AND good looks, the lucky kids.

My oldest is about to turn 15, my youngest is 12. The youngest is a machine guy and would happily mow 7 days a week if he could. The elder is easygoing and doesn’t really mind one way or the other, but he really likes the detail work with the trimmer and blower, which is hilarious because he has his headphones on and he’s singing along while he trims and blows, which is funny to watch.

crappie55369 wrote:

s this another one of those “pat ourselves on the backs” threads meant to reinforce how much better we are than “the others” and how much worse this generation is than our own?

Only if you make it into that. Mine was a simple observation. Nothing more !!!

My nephew is a teen now. I’m Gex x latchkey no rules make your own money even if you are only 7. My sister is definitely millenial. He had to learn the controls of a car and my sister wouldn’t let him outside because of the smoke. In a car. Iv’e offered to pay him 20$ a shot to mow my lawn that takes me about an hour. No go. The little kid next door offered to take the job but he’s only 6.

The only way I know of to keep a post near the top is for it to have the most recent replies.
Wrong post !!!

crappie55369 wrote:

every one of my kids (aged 14, 11, 6) do chores. Mostly they are tasked with doing dishes, laundry, feeding pets, cleaning their rooms, and picking up their crap thats always in the yard.

is this another one of those “pat ourselves on the backs” threads meant to reinforce how much better we are than “the others” and how much worse this generation is than our own?

Nothing like taking pride in pushing your kids to be the best they can. You caught me off guard with that clown question
If i don’t pat myself on the back, I don’t think any one else will either.

My kids all have chores including mowing the lawn and my 17 year old works too. It takes an act of God to get them to take care of the dishes. It’ll either be needed to be loaded or unloaded and one or the other will say “he never told me” meaning the brother. Each time I say open the damn door and look

Kids are 12 and 9, they have indoor chores (that they sometimes deign to complete) and I’ve had them both on the mower. Honestly CAN they do it, sure. Do I have time to wait fir them to finish, (usually twice as long as it ACTUALLY takes) and then go fix all the mistakes, without killing a whole afternoon? Not usually. That and I don’t trust the 9 year old to not cause an explosion of some kind. I’ve made an effort to let my older son take a bigger role, but as the offspring of a hard core yard nazi I seem to have a hard time ceding control

I enjoy mowing. Therapy I guess. Mine have done it, but I usually don’t give them the chance. Pump some good music through the headphones and ride around the yard on a beautiful summer day, I’ll take that. Takes me about an hour on the rider.

Greg Krull wrote:

I enjoy mowing. Therapy I guess.

I agree, I don’t mind doing it either. And I have a walk-behind self propelled mower. Honestly if I’m mowing the lawn fairly regularly that means we’re getting rain. Which is what I would prefer over a drought.