I decided that we need to push Ethan to be more independent about mowing the lawn this year. He is getting older and therefore bigger and is more capable of doing it on his own, than in the past when he was smaller. Kyle has trouble mowing the lawn because of his bad ankles and his allergies, and I really have a hard time doing everything for everyone all the time, so I was really anxious to have Ethan step up and learn to help with the yard work so I can be doing other things without worrying about my yard falling apart. Kyle and Ethan and I talked about lawn mowing as being worth extra money too. When I was young, about 10-11 years old, I mowed the lawn at our house in Fullerton and I got $2 for mowing the backyard and $3 for the front yard, because it was bigger owing to the fact that we were on a corner lot. Kyle and I decided that our front yard would be worth $3 and the backyard $5 since I believe they are both larger than what I had to mow as a kid. So Ethan got to mow! I had to start the lawn mower for him, he could pull the starter string, but not hard enough and fast enough to make it turn on.
This week Jeremy decided HE wanted to try mowing, so I said that I would let him mow the front. Ethan wasn’t too happy about this because that meant Jeremy earning the money instead of him, but really Jeremy needs those opportunities too, and if he WANTS to mow the lawn when it is in need of mowing, I’m NOT going to say no!
It was very hard for him to push the lawn mower, especially when he came to an uneven part of the ground, but he did it with minimal help from me. I had to help him turn it around and show him how to line it up so that he wasn’t skipping any grass, and I had to help him get the lawn mower out of a few ruts. He was very worn out when he was done, so I had Ethan do the backyard this time, and I don’t think Jeremy is ready to be mowing the lawn on his own regularly yet, but I think we will let him try every now and then and eventually it will get easier for him. 🙂