Wednesday, July 25, 2012

thoughts while mowing the lawn #1

Why don't people have their kids mow their lawns anymore? 

When I was growing up mowing lawns was the way the boys in the neighborhood made a little extra money.  You could start doing it about age 11 or 12 and a couple of lawns a week and you were rich!  I didn't mow our lawn very often as that was "men's work" but I did have to learn how to do it and mowed occasionally.  

When my kids were little and my husband on travel (which was most of the time) I mowed the lawn myself to save money.  I did have to have my father come over to start the lawn mower for me and then I couldn't stop until it was finished because I wouldn't be able to start the mower again.  Luckily you could do our lawn in about an hour and a half. I wouldn't have lasted much longer.  As the kids grew up they mowed the lawn.  Maybe they didn't always do a great job but it was respectable, and they earned a bit of extra allowance for their efforts.  My son mowed one neighbor's lawn for years.  He just went over when it needed mowing and eventually she would pay him for the job. Sometimes a year later but he always got paid.

Now everyone in my neighborhood, except me,  has a lawn service, even the ones with children of appropriate lawn mowing age.  These are not rich people and I have no idea what the service costs but it can't be cheap.  But they don't bother to ask their children to pitch in and do a bit of work for the family.  The kids are at the pool and when they return the lawn has been mowed.  They probably don't even realized how it happened.  What will these children think about hard work and contributing to common good when they grow up?  This is an important lesson that can be easily learned when they are given the responsibility to see that the lawn needs to be mowed and then to mow it. 

These families aren't doing their children any favors.

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