1. Mowing is a rite of passage and a zen art. Made my bones pushing a reel mower with my seven-year old chest because my arms weren't string enough and grass to thick.
2. Don't ever ever ever EVER use a riding mower with a little kid in your lap. You know why. Little Johnny delights in riding in Gramps' lap on the mower. Gramps even lets him "drive" from time to time. One Saturday morning Gramps is mowing the back yard, heading away from the house. Little Johnny sees Gramps, comes down the back steps, runs after Gramps, calling for him to stop so Johhny can ride. Gramps can't hear over the engine noise. The new mown grass is slippery with dew, the big yard slopes away from the back porch. Johnny is running too fast. He is only five years old and doesn't know Gramps can't hear him and won't stop. When Johnny reaches the mower and tries to stop running, he slips down and slides under the mower. The side guard on the mower is not low enough to prevent what happens next, serious but not fatal physical mutilation.
True stuff and tragic. He survived, but many surgeries lay ahead, a guardianship/conservatorship controversy, a protected person trial at 19, a few happy months now and then, and death at 27 from a drug overdose.