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I've seen a lot of people let their young children ride their mower around their yards. I believe the youngest I saw was 5 years old. How young is too young? I personally wouldn't do it because they could get hurt really bad and I don't want to have to live with that.

I've got several neighbors that do this all the time. It is extremely dangerous. Someone locally, a few years ago was doing this. The police where driving by at the time, saw the guy mowing his lawn with a little kid sitting on his lap. He was charged with child endangerment. Don't know the outcome. I know another incident where the kid squirmed, fell off his dad's lap, and the poor kid lost a foot. I don't understand how people can even think of doing this.

BlueGrass said:

How young is too young?

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Lawn mowers aren't designed to carry passengers, period! Kids have no business on a mower until they are old enough to operator it themselves. I'd say in their teens.

We had a cub cadet model 106 when I was growing up and I started guiding it around the yard at 2 and was mowing by myself at 9. Had to slide off the seat to reach the clutch to start and stop and had to push with both feet to start it. Started driving tractors about the same age. i understand the safety factor but I wander is it safer for the kid to be on the mower, or sneaking out of the house and getting backed over like the little boy in Cleveland that started this whole can't mow in reverse situation. I think it should be based on the maturity level of the child.

ILENGINE said:

We had a cub cadet model 106 when I was growing up and I started guiding it around the yard at 2 and was mowing by myself at 9. Had to slide off the seat to reach the clutch to start and stop and had to push with both feet to start it. Started driving tractors about the same age. i understand the safety factor but I wander is it safer for the kid to be on the mower, or sneaking out of the house and getting backed over like the little boy in Cleveland that started this whole can't mow in reverse situation. I think it should be based on the maturity level of the child.

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I completely agree, in my experiences growing up, there were some kids that were much more immature than me that weren't allowed to mow their lawns. My dad used to tow me around in the Yard Cart while he mowed, Much safer than on the seat in his lap.

I used to mow when I was about 12 years old. I did know the seriousness of the situation because my Dad watched me about the first dozen times I mowed. He would stop me and tell me what I was doing wrong if I did anything the least off. I learned quite a lot from him and he would have never let me do it if he knew I wasn't mowing safely.

My dad used to stand me up on the John Deere and let me steer or so I thought. I was maybe 4 or 5. I still remember doing this. I love to watch the sickle bar move back and forth it was so cool. I am 60 now so I guess I made it ok. He also took a red wagon and put a bale of hay in it and put a saddle on the hay bale. We thought we were on a real horse. On my lawn tractor I don't think it would be to wise.

No.

Children should not ride on mowers - ever. There have been 2 deaths in my area in the last 5 years from kids falling under the deck when they fell off. There is a family that lives behind my mom's house that allow their 5 year old to sit on the front edge of their ZTR with his feet on the deck as they mow. I cringe every time I see it.

It would be irresponsible to let a 5 year old use a chain saw, why would the mower be any different.

I'm 31 and started riding with my Dad on the same 214 I have now at age 2. Started to drive it myself when I was 7-8. I took it to the county fair for tractor pulls at 10, the youngest allowed by the fair. I also grew up on 243 acre farm and we had a coal mining company, so I was around D9's all the time. I think it has to do with the maturity of the kid. I understood what happened under that deck and had a fear of putting my hands under it.

Riding with your feet on the deck of a rear engine is teaching the kid disrespect for equipment, that is asking for it.

My daughter is 2... loves to sit on the tractors, but nothing to do with them when they are running!

I just started letting my son mow the yard last year. He's 12 years old and he did a very good job. As a parent you should know when it's the right time to let them mow. I explained to him the dos and don'ts before I let him get anywhere near my mower. He used to watch me as a younger kid when I would cut the grass so, I just knew when the time was right.:smile:

rekees said:

Lawn mowers aren't designed to carry passengers, period! Kids have no business on a mower until they are old enough to operator it themselves. I'd say in their teens.

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I have to agree, I would never let my sons ride on a mower with me. That's just irresponsible behavior. When they get old enough to understand and when they are tall enough to operate it, I will show them how to mow. Until then they aren't coming anywhere close to my future mower.

I sometimes think that in many cases, the parent letting the kid ride has little to do with the kid's desires but everything to do with the parent's. They want to have their kid ride with them to fulfill some fantasy they have built up over the years and in doing so, they put their kid in a hazardous situation to satisfy their own desire. When anyone tells them they are putting their kid into a hazardous situation, they become very defensive and out comes the long list of reasons they use to justify their actions. Their ability to differentiate between fairly benign situations and truly hazardous ones seems to evaporate!
I was allowed to ride on the tractors once I turned 10 and I started to use the tractors (by myself) on the farm when I was 12 and by the time I was 13, I was putting in just as long a day as the men did when doing summerfallowing. It wasn't much longer before I was more capable than they were when it came to handling the tractors. (They weren't the best, and I had a knack for it! :biggrin It was a good age (12) for me to start because I had grown enough by then to reach all the controls...and I never ever had any close calls with any of the equipment on the (1440 acre) farm. I honestly can't say if that was due to good planning or luck, probably a mixture of both, but the fact remains I never had any close calls.

Just my :2cents: :smile:

My father has a ride on lawnmower and when he takes the kids for a ride he hooks the trailer up and loads them in there and drives them around the yard, that way they are contained in the trailer and they are safe.

Wow- 5 really? That is dangerous I think. My daughter started to help my dad (gramps) when she was 11. She started here at 12. I think it's a good age. She has been riding her 4-wheeler since she was 9 or 10.

Five is way too young. My son is almost four and I would never consider allowing him to ride the lawnmower. I have only just let him got on the ATV this year.

I am 47 and rode a cub cadet at 4 years old...i didnt mow with it till later on, i just rode around on it.......it keeps you out of trouble. My son has rode for a long time and he is 15 now. He begs me to mow and weed eat all the time....he understands the danger and is extremely careful and has been for some time....i must say he does a great job on the 4 acres that he does mow....

Well I guess if you are just riding on it, then 4 or 5 is fine. They can't mow of course it's too dangerous. I would allow them on a rider way before they could operate a push mower.

i have taken my 5 year old and my 9 year old autistic daughter for a drive around the yard on my mower but never with the deck on ..I have a cart for them now and they love that even more ...Will i let them cut the grass heck no ....

It isn't a responsible thing to do to say the least. It isn't a toy for goodness sake. It's a tool with moving blades. Anyhow, this is one safety measure that each would-be owners of mowers should be mindful about.

My 10-year old mows the easy areas (flat, level, no obstructions). My 12-year old mows everywhere. It is a money-earning job for them, and they treat it seriously. The one time the older one goofed around, that was the end of mowing for him until the next year. He has never goofed around on the mower again.

At the right age I think I would. I mean, at the age when he can follow instructions mowers are not as dangerous as cars. I'll let my child in. That's his orientation for driving.

I believe in erring on the side of caution and it would depend on the situation. Certainly, I would review the safety aspects and the child's current mood as well.

I do, but I think it's only alright if they are at least 13 and if you can trust them. I have enough land available that I don't have to worry about them. If I were near a busy street or anything like that, then I wouldn't let them drive.

There are two sides to this scenario. Ideally, you should never let your kid(s) get near a mower. That endangers and poses great risk to them.

Practically, allowing them to ride the mowers places them in a better position to learn the basics at a young age. All the same, keep a keen eye because even the slightest injury will be blamed on the parent(s).

Yes, with great caution. My 13 year old grandson wants to go to fast, the 10 year old granddaughter does quite well except very slowly. My 8 year old granddaughter just wants to drive around and make crop circles.

I started driving Grandpa's "little tractor" with direct supervision when I was in the first grade. On the last day of sixth grade classes I rode the bus to his farm as was common on Friday afternoon. When I arrived at his farm, no body was there. A note on the tool shed door told me to use his "little tractor" and start mowing the clover hay. I spend the rest of the afternoon on a Ford 8N with a 6 foot sickle bar neatly mowing hay.
During 8th grade summer breaks I used a John Deere 4020 with a 16 ft disk in the Wabash River bottoms chopping up horse weed, totally unsupervised.

Kids need to be supervised otherwise you will be trouble with everybody if there is a 'accident' and you regret it for the rest of your life if someone should die.
Mowing is dangerous experience in untrained hands.......you must be 100% alert at all times, life is serious.......it is not a joke...........'Death is Permanent'

I do not know of any farm kids that did not run mowers ... Most were operating very LARGE AG tractors by the time they were teen age... If you grow up around equipment and are familiar with it, you are not apt to be careless or reckless with machinery... :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

I do not know of any farm kids that did not run mowers ... Most were operating very LARGE AG tractors by the time they were teen age... If you grow up around equipment and are familiar with it, you are not apt to be careless or reckless with machinery... :smile:KennyV

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Well I come from a Farming background and you get know all of this.....by experience......but someone has to teach you or you may learn incorrect procedures and this is not good for everyone concerned.:wink:

lizard said:

Well I come from a Farming background and you get know all of this.....by experience......but someone has to teach you or you may learn incorrect procedures and this is not good for everyone concerned.:wink:

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In the time when I was growing up... you could not afford to damage your equipment and you certainly could not afford to damage yourself or those around you ... I would suspect that is still the same today. So a good dose of safety was always at hand...

I think it is possible to be careless or distracted regardless of age...
The question is about children riding mowers... That could mean a lot of things, anything from a ride, with you operating it (with or without) actually mowing...
OR letting them operate the equipment themselves...

Sooner or later they are going to want to OR need to mow your or their grass...
Plus in the states I would guess that the majority of rural & suburban kids got their first exposure to driving cars... from driving lawn or AG tractors, the original drivers training... :smile:KennyV

How old are these Kids we are talking about?
Maybe 12 years old or above they could be trained to drive some tractor or mower implements as they are pretty keen at that age.
Speed would need to be restricted until they got a hold of how things work and this would be peace of mind for all concerned.:biggrin:

lizard said:

How old are these Kids we are talking about?

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I think some one rightly commented on that earlier...
The age is going to vary according to the particular individuals, both parent and kid...
Some kids are going to have very little interest in things and others are going to be right in the thick of whatever is going on.... parents 'generally' know where their children fall in those things.

But the parent no matter how protective, needs to allow for some exposure to 'normal' daily hazards of life. And general responsibilities... and I think for the most part they are. :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

I think some one rightly commented on that earlier...
The age is going to vary according to the particular individuals, both parent and kid...
Some kids are going to have very little interest in things and others are going to be right in the thick of whatever is going on.... parents 'generally' know where their children fall in those things.

But the parent no matter how protective, needs to allow for some exposure to 'normal' daily hazards of life. And general responsibilities... and I think for the most part they are. :smile:KennyV

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The Parents are responsible for their childrens developmental behaviour and that will always be unique to those families.......so thank your parents for keeping you alive.

In the late 70's, I investigated personal injury accidents for my employer-IH. Most accidents were attributable to the injured party being unfamiliar with the equipment; OR so familiar that they became complacent and forgot how dangerous a situation they were placing themselves in. I now have my own little lawnmower repair shop and often disuade parents and grandparents from allowing young ones from being around mowing equipment of any kind. The responsible adult should be the one to make the decision on this matter for each of the children involved (some seem to mature quicker than others). My son was in high school before I let him use the pushmower or the rider, after fully explaining their function and use. It's really true-they all have to grow up sometime-it's our responsibility to see that they do.

Remember 'Death is Permanent'................Please supervise your Children in the Occupational , Safety of all aspects of Lawn Mowing.

Our neighbor had a baby about a year ago and er husband has to be away frequently with his job. They have a ton of mowing to do, so she got one of those "baby backpack" things, puts the baby in it and gets on the mower. She even puts those wax earplugs in his ears for hearing protection!

My daughter is 12 going on 21 and she uses my mower to mow by herself. But I do agree that it's a dangerous machine and small children (around 8 and younger) have no business even being in the yard at the same time the mower is operating

There are always hazards when one has equipment at home. Having a car for example require safety. A driving safety instructor here says, "always go around your car before you go inside and drive, especially when driving from home. " It is important to be cautious with mowers too.

But to be very paranoid is not good also. Balance is important.

minkyung said:

It is important to be cautious with mowers too.

But to be very paranoid is not good also. Balance is important.

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you are absolutely right... :smile:KennyV