I was shuttling an airline pilot from the airport, and he was telling me that his 11 year old son back in Louisville had better have cut the grass, for this was his day to do so.
I asked him how big the yard was, and he said half an acre. I asked how long the boy had this responsibility, and he said since he was 9, and that the dad paid him $10 per mowing.
If it was a riding mower, that would be one thing. If it was a push mower or self-propelled mower, that is another story.
When I was 11, my aunt had Doug, me and her mow about 3.5 acres by with a push mower. We trimmed around trees, about 100 of them, with a hand trimmers.
This pilot told me that that son was the oldest of four children.
Parents expecting children to work, and gradually assume adult work loads. Without this maturation training to work and should adult responsibilities, children will not be able to hand the vigorous mental and physical exertion of leading the intellectual, activist life of self-realization.
Go ahead, let your 11 year old son mow the grass. Teach your 4 year old daughter to dry dishes.
Some working builds character and generates and independent-minded, resilient child that will excel as an individual and contributing member of society.
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