Can you name the rules for lawn mower safety?

Seattle Plastic Surgeon and mother of three, Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder nags her children and you about lawn mower safety.

It is such a wonderful thing to get some yard work out of my offspring now that they are old enough to mow, rake, sweep, weed, water, trim, edge, poop scoop, etc.  As much as I love the smell of newly mown grass and the thought of them working (instead of me), I worry.  I worry about the lawn mower thus the little nag session each and every time one of my boys has been nagged into mowing the lawn.  Please take this little test to make sure you or your offspring are being smart with this most dangerous of yard care gizmos.

And I will add a couple of my own to the list:

• Only children over 13 should mow a lawn.
• Ear plugs okay but not no ipodlistening.  They need to hear you yell, “Watch out for the dog!”
• No mowing until the offspring has cooled down from his/her rage at having to actually perform agreed upon chores for agreed upon bennies.  Rage and lawn mowers should never coexist.
• No using the lawn mover for anything other than mowing the lawn.  This calls for a cautionary (and I swear to God true) tale.  Two patients in the same day present with nearly identical lawn mower injuries sustained while attempting to trim a hedge with a lawn mower.  Patient #2  happen to see patient #1 (prior to his mishap) trimming his hedge with the lawn mower while Patient #2 was driving to get gas for his lawn mower and thought “Hey, what a great idea.” Not.

Stay tuned.  One of these blogs I will tell you about my dad’s snowblower injury.

Thanks for reading.  Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder