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How do you Profesional mowers feel about kids mowing? Does it affect business any?

Kids are not allowed to mow until 16 in my neck of the woods. I take my grandson with me some but all he does is slow me down. Would I hire a 16 year old? Not unless he could prove he would be on time all the time.

Neighbors across the hollow have their kid mow their fenced in property on a Cub tractor. Kinda reminds me of a young me.

I meant to say kids can't mow commercial till 16 unless they run their own business. We also can not even start a commercial mower before 7 am. You can not load equipment on a trailer before 7 am. I know someone who got a ticket and fined $150

Wow, do you live in a Home Owners Association complex ?

No that is a city ordinance.

Tough one, sounds like. I'm outside of the city, in the county, farm country. But only 6 miles from city needs & supplies etc.

No mower police around here, do what ever turns you on. Children and mowers to my own personal feelings is a big NO. I think there is labor laws that regulate at what age you can hire a child to do any work for hire. As to your own children its all common sense in which some people just don't seem have. I had girls with no interest in mowing grass then or now so they never got need my mowers.

Probably be a better world if parents had kids mow the lawn again as weekly chores.

BWH said:

Probably be a better world if parents had kids mow the lawn again as weekly chores.

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Agree 100%, but today a kid could turn their parent in & they'd be the one in trouble. That just ain't right.

7394 said:

Agree 100%, but today a kid could turn their parent in & they'd be the one in trouble. That just ain't right.

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Is that before of after they finish suing the school for homework trauma.

Minimum age for working a farm impliment down here is 14
There is currently a law suit going on because an 8 yo flipped a quad & killed his best mate.
Because it was on a farm OH & S are prosecuting the farm owners.
The Quad was on the farms books and had a tow hitch so by definition it was a "farm impliment"
The worst bit is the deceased kids parents are not suing they accepted it as an unfortunate accident.
The state is prosecuting and the farm owners will be up for millions.
If the same thing happened on a vaccant block of land then it would be OK.

As for starting times 6 am to 6 pm if any one doing the work is drawing a wage , 5 am to 8 pm on your own block or doing a freebie.
Varies a little because local authorities can shorten those hours.

My parents ran a fruit farm. As a family we had to work on the farm. That included running and repairing farm equipment at a very young age. There no laws that I know of that say different in this country. I guess that is why I went into the repair field.

My father was a General Contractor, so anything I wanted required me working for it. Which I'm grateful for him teaching many various things. What equipment we used (excavators & trucks etc) we also worked on. Actually I cut my teeth on wiping his tools off after he was wrenching. I was around 8 or 9 yrs old.

Got my 1st car @ 14 yrs old, a 1953 Chevy 210 Deluxe with a spun rod bearing. Dad figured that might be more interesting to me than the street corners.

A common sort of up bringing.
We were dirt poor but dad had a fellow greyhound trainer with a car yard so I got "finance special" trade ins that could be persuaded to run till the rego expired ( no hope of passing ) for the value of the remaining rego.
Fixed & drove them for years

I would welcome any kid that mows.

We literally cut all we can cut and at times some have to go lacking because we can't get to them. For every yard we lose to anybody, other commercial, or kid or anybody else we turn down two more that we can't get to.

I can't hire a kid to work because we cut so much and such a fast paced way but love to see one running his own business and will help one in any way I can.

I had my first yards when I was 10. Course there were no full time adults then that cut grass that I knew of anyway back then.

As courtesy we never go into sub divisions before 8:00 AM.

We cut commercial properties that are not close to houses at daylight. In fact at times we unload in the dark and wait for it to get light enough to run or run under the lights if there are lights around parking lots etc....

Pretty sad for sure, as a kid growing up on a farm me and my 5 brothers worked hard but at the same time for the most part it kept us out of trouble. At the time we wished we could mess around all summer like other kids but as the years passed it become evident the valuable education we gained, not only good work ethic but the mechanical ability that followed me throughout my life has proven to be financially rewarding as well.

But fast forward 50 years I quite sure if my parents were raising my brothers and me today my parents would be serving time for it?

BWH said:

But fast forward 50 years I quite sure if my parents were raising my brothers and me today my parents would be serving time for it?

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If your parents were abusive they should of been locked up. Yes I had to work on the farm but my parents weren't hard core to the point of being abusive to the point of having to be locked up. We worked on the farm as a family. I can still remember all the good times we had also like the old swimming hole, fishing, hunting, etc. yes we did some bad things also but who didn't.

Interesting topic. :thumbsup:

I was never forced to work. It was what our family just did. When you are raised that way, it's what you expect, to help in whatever task was delegated to you.

I'm grateful I had to 'earn' my first bicycle & etc etc. Valuable lessons I did not realize till much later in life.

After I modified that bicycle from a 20' bike pedal sprocket to a 26" sprocket & longer chain, my Dad got pretty mad until my Uncle stepped in & told my Dad that I was just trying to be more like Dad. Tearing equipment apart & trying to make it better.

I wanted the bigger front sprocket for quicker acceleration from dead stop. It worked.

7394 said:

Interesting topic. :thumbsup:

I was never forced to work. It was what our family just did. When you are raised that way, it's what you expect, to help in whatever task was delegated to you.

I'm grateful I had to 'earn' my first bicycle & etc etc. Valuable lessons I did not realize till much later in life.

After I modified that bicycle from a 20' bike pedal sprocket to a 26" sprocket & longer chain, my Dad got pretty mad until my Uncle stepped in & told my Dad that I was just trying to be more like Dad. Tearing equipment apart & trying to make it better.

I wanted the bigger front sprocket for quicker acceleration from dead stop. It worked.

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The actual value of money is something that seems to be totally dead & buried now days .
There were 4 of us and we all had "chores" to do on a daily basis.
A touch sexist by todays standards and if you didn't do your job, mum did not do hers so had to make your own dinner or do your own washing.
One learns very quickly that there is no freeloading.
Been working all my life and do not regret a minute of it, hard work is it's own reward.
However as a repair agent it always amuses me when some one comes in with a quality piece of kit the decides that they don't want it fixed because they can buy a lump imported land fill for less.
OTOH I am slowly getting a lot of top shelf equipment for next to nothing

And I started cutting the grass with a sythe and trimming the edges with a machette.
I was 14 when we got our first push ( reel type ) mower then dad a a run of good luck at the track so we got our first petrol mower & outboard engine when I was 16.
My sister still has that mower 52 years latter and it still runs like a top, still on original bore although I have modified the blade holder to take latter model blades.
She was offered $ 2000 a while back by a collector 1/3 rd her age.
He nearly died when she responded with "this mower cost 6 months wages when dad bought it so if you want it that is what it will cost you, 6 months wages.

bertsmobile1 said:

hard work is it's own reward.
.

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Not true at all, the person with the biggest and best story's gets the best rewards in life. A good salesman will always make more money then a working man.

The saying "Hard work is its own reward" is about the values it teaches you, not money.

reynoldston said:

Not true at all, the person with the biggest and best story's gets the best rewards in life. A good salesman will always make more money then a working man.

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Only if you consider money as the only reward

You need money. I got mine from working with my hands. There are a lot of people out there that they make it with there brains which isn't nothing wrong with that. Anyway you look at it without money it will be a real hard life. The more money you have the more comfort you will have. I know some people that didn't save for retirement and now have to work in there retirement age to just get by from check to check. Yes money is the only reward that I ever worked for not values.

When you say kids what is the age cut-off?
5?
10?
15?
2?