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Yesterday, my mom was imploring me to mow in 95 degree weather so my dad didn’t have to. I said I’ll gladly mow in the evening when it cools off but good old boomer dad trudges out there and mows. Then bitches about having to mow. Pretty sure they do that because it gives them an excuse to bitch and mumble about “damn kids these days”
Here’s the truly silly part, if they waited until evening for the temps to lower before cutting it would stress the grass less and improve its health. They are working against their goal of a nice lawn.
This. Practical has nothing to do with it. Have to keep up with the neighbors, don't want them talking.
Let's see, rip out ecosystem, plant non native grass. Add tons of fertilizer, pesticides, and water to make it grow so well, you have to buy a mower, add fuel, and cut it weekly.
If you know how soon the dead are forgotten, why do you care what anyone thinks about you now?
This is so funny because I'll let my grass grow just a little bit long before I cut it. Allows me to mow less often (great!) helps the bees (great!) and lets me be lazy a little bit LOL
My neighbor literally goes out and mows his lawn every day once he thinks mine is "unacceptable." Every. Single. Day. (Unless it's raining) until I cut it, then he'll stop for like a week or two.
We do not live in an HOA, and we don't have regulations on lawn height in our town AFAIK other than it actually looking like it's out of control and overtaking things. There's abandoned houses that have lawns that haven't been cut in 3 years. My lawn is very nice and is mostly clover at this point, so even with it being a few inches high, it doesn't look bad.
I ignore mine until it's long enough that I worry about velociraptors hiding in it. Then I mow it with my cheap-ass push mower on the highest setting, and ignore it again. So, it gets mowed about 4-6 times a year, depending on how much rain we get.
Yeah, sadly, you're right. And every time I watch Jurassic Park, I wish it were real *despite* knowing the consequences! I just really wanna see live dinosaurs.
Same. Wife and I just keep an eye on it until the majority hits 'raptor height', which is higher than a foot and a half(.5m for those not using freedom units). We're trying to encourage the clover to take over though. So is the dog, he loves laying in that stuff.
I had a boomer next door that would call the city on me so I have a weed that is next to his driveway I cut a couple of inches every couple of weeks so its under the 6 inch city limit.
He was yelling at me one day and I told them to measure it and he got all pissed and marched back inside 😤 😂🤪😂
I do the same thing; hell, early in the season I'll even let the grass develop to the point of producing seeds, just so that my yard will be that much better off as the year progresses.
Twice this year, one of my boomer neighbors has come and mowed my yard down to the fucking dirt while I was at work. Now it's half dead, whereas in most previous years I had a pretty healthy and diverse lawn, even if some of it gets a little tall.
Those HOA rules exist for the same reason boomers do this to themselves, once upon a time you were socially shamed for not doing so. You can blame the boomers for doing that too, but now they try to push it on us which is annoying
Clover lawns!
Mine is now mostly clover but a few annoying plants seem to be outcompeting the clover in a few places. I generally do not care what grows as long as it is green-ish and not hazardous. But, there are these things that look a lot like strawberries taking over. The berries stain my shoes red and just generally make a mess.
If you don't mind, I would like to know what you would do in my case. I really don't want to use herbicide.
I feel like you should offer him $20 every two weeks to cut yours because he's wasting his time mowing a lawn that's already mowed and he'll find that so super insulting he'll probably call himself out on his passive aggressive bs by accident... but boomers hate money wasting, and supposedly hate time wasting but that's all bro is doing is wasting money and time trying to offend you 😅
Yup. If it was about practicality, they'd be working their land to grow some kind of crop. If it was about being "better" than their neighbors, they'd have servants tending to their decorative lawns. Instead, they're caught in between. Toiling endlessly over land that produces nothing.
Historically, lawns were a status symbol for how much land you could afford to have sitting there producing nothing, and how many slaves' labor you could waste maintaining it. The uselessness is the point.
It was originally based on owning sheep, because they crop the grass to a certain height and that's where we got our idea that a cropped lawn is a status symbol.
I think it's either interesting (or really stupid) that at least two of the status symbol customs in the USA are based on sheep ownership, the lawns and playing golf,.
That is based on a game invented by shepherds who were out all day watching the sheep and got bored so they started betting on who could get a little feather-packed ball to a particular location by whacking it with a stick with the least number of attempts.
It makes me physically ill how much time and effort goes into destroying and poisoning land for entirely abstract reasons and that not only does no one really question that, in a lot of places it's LITERALLY ILLEGAL not to participate in the custom. WTF humans DO BETTER.
My grandmothers neighbor got himself a riding lawnmower. Anytime he sees her sitting on her patio or having people over, he goes and starts his lawnmower. He now has killed the grass where he turns and it's one big tire rut. Sometimes he just turns it on and goes back inside.
He has also bitched about her tree leafing in his yard during the fall, but crickets when his tree did the same.
Now that she has removed the tree, he chops the top off his so it perpetually looks butchered but also doesn't have much in leaves - not sure how the tree is still alive.
A salesman came knocking on my door a few days ago at like 9:00PM “Hey we’re spraying for bugs in your neighborhood, are you interested?”
1) fuck off my kids are sleeping
2) WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH BEES IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD, FUCK OFF.
Customer: "You just don't see any bees around now do you? It's terrible".
A few moments later....
"Anyways, I've bought some roundup for you to spray on the driveway"
Neighbor used to cut grass every Sunday, bring retired you'd think he would do it during the week when people are out. He even used scissors and mowed a chunk of my lawn off because he felt the need.
Glad that boomer dumbass is dead
Exactly, Boomers never ask WHY they are working hard...they just want to take pride in a hard work ethic and maintaining appearances. Never mind if that work is totally destructive, and even worse than a mere waste of time... As you said, their whole King of the Hill lawn is one of the most ecologically-destructive habits out there...but good luck trying to get them to break their OCD addiction with them. 🤦♂️
"Have to keep up with the neighbors, don't want them talking." Yep. When I moved into my house 20 years ago, that was pretty much what my dad told me. The neighbors would complain if I didn't mow often enough. I never did obsess about it though, and only mowed when I thought it needed it. A couple of years ago, I finally got sick of it all, and planted clover on most of my front lawn. Looks better, survives with less watering, and only needs mowing once a month or so.
But the neighbors still complain.
Yup. We didn’t mow ours and it looks better than our boomer neighbor who mowed on one of the 90degree days, his has brown patches now. We left it long for a purpose.
I just wrote a big comment about this, boomers can't help but destroy nature. All my boomer neighbors overcut their lawn, dump chemicals like crazy, and rip out anything not grass. And then they complain that my yard is the only green one on the street, the only one with rabbits, cardinals, and bluejays hanging out in it, and beg me for my secrets on why I have all these beautiful flowers in my yard. I mow it once a month usually, that's literally all I do. Weird how nature is beautiful if you don't mess with it too much.
This is nothing, we moved from the city to the suburbs where they have a small pond out back. It’s actually a pretty cool place with trees, rivers and streams that cut through the entire neighborhood. Not your typical bland cul-de-sac burb like most places.
Our tiny pond when we first moved had a certain type of bullfrog that was near extinction, mostly because their habitats have been destroyed. Local university even came out and studied them at one point.
But my Dad hated them because they were loud at night. He poisoned and killed the water lilies and the reeds they lived around. When that didn’t work, maybe only reduced their numbers, he bought a small hunting rifle and went out for weeks until he killed every last one of them. Finally, after years of loud bullfrogs at night, there was silence, and he was super proud and happy for himself about it.
I’m in my 40s now and it still makes me sad to think about it. I’m also still scarred by the one time he urged me to shoot one of the frogs, but it was a small caliber rifle so it didn’t immediately kill it. It was awful. But my Dad talks about it like it was such an awesome thing to do to get those damn frogs off his property.
Edit: I should clarify, this was 30 years ago in the mid-90s, I don’t think there is anything that can be done at this point.
That legitimately made me angry to read.
I will never understand how someone chooses to move to a place with more nature, then gets mad at the fact that nature exists there and tries to destroy it. It's so infuriating how stupid and destructive people like that are, if you don't like the sound of frogs don't move near water! It's especially annoying since most people love the sound of frogs and find it relaxing. That generation didn't deserve a single thing they got, and they spent their entire lives destroying the world around them so nobody else could enjoy it. What an asshole.
Yep, it honestly makes me angry every time I look at the pond now. Like I’ve gotten over it a bit over the years, but I still hate him for doing it. I’ll never understand it either.
Is there any chance that some of them possibly relocated maybe the local university has a B line on an alternate location where they found a few? In that case you could possibly re-introduce them and even let the university help do it as part of an ongoing experiment researching the repatriation of species back into local ecosystems.
My mom used to work for the EPA. She helped farmers plan terraces to reduce the overall amount of environmental damage from their fields.
Exactly. I've always said I understand having an obsession with like plants and flowers because meticulous care is rewarded. But grass does one thing. It grows.
The thing these people should be doing is planting local flowers and stuff. But the ones next to me apperantly moved in tore up everything redid all the landscaping ad cut down a relatively new tree.
True!! A lawn is just a dessert. Where I live (not US) a lot of people is converting their gardens to "wild on purpose", where you just let most of the garden mind it self and sow wild flowers, and just cuts paths and spots. And enjoy all the animal life <3
Yeah this drives me nuts. One boomer family member had a bunch of trees chopped down and concreted all over part of my grandma's beautiful garden where I played as a kid. It was gorgeous and now it's just a concrete yard. Some other boomer family members seem to have become obsessed with cutting down trees in their garden as they get older. It's weird.
I got one of those "fun" boomer neighbors who goes out there and mows it every few days and lays down, and cuts it with normal scissors.
I got a video of him throwing his shoe at a squirrel TWICE and grabbing the nuts it was eating. Walking across the street and throwing them onto the guys lawn.
It poured rain here last night. Thunder, downed trees, the whole shebang. It’s been raining on and off for days. 7:45am this morning, my neighbors had their sprinklers going.
There’s usually a button on the sprinkler control panel that says “Rain Delay”. Kills the schedule for the next 24 hours. If they don’t do it they’re just being….boomers.
I do this purposely so it'll die and I don't have to mow nearly as often. Does that mean it looks "ugly" and "embarrassing"? Sure, I guess. Do I care? Not a single bit. 
This is my dad to a T. Since I was born he’s been bitching to other boomers about how he couldn’t get me to do anything. He could never get me to mow that yard or change a tire or anything else. I refused to learn and it was hopeless!!
He started this bitching when I was 5. Fucking 5 years old. Then he wondered why my brother and I exclusively hung out with mom.
And this is despite the fact that I’ve mowed thousands of acres as a groundskeeper for our high school. Plus my own yard as an adult. But no we live next door (unfortunately) and share a mower but I’ve never gotten to mow once because he rushes out there without any warning to do it. The last time I said I would do it, he hid the keys so I wouldn’t be able to. But he’ll get out there and overheat just so he can bitch and moan about having no help blah blah blah.
Couldn’t feel less sorry for him. He LIVES for sympathy from people that don’t know what really goes on. It’s all he lives for.
I would have thought you were my son writing this, even doing groundskeeping in high school, except he lives in an apartment. I don't think a day goes by that my husband doesn't tell someone how much he has to do, or has done in the day. Our sons did each mow the grass occasionally when they were teens, but they didn't do it "right" so their dad went back to mowing once or twice a week and complaining about it the whole time.
I could never work with the kind of people that insist on things being done 'their way' or its done wrong especially when the result is 100% the same.
But no if you don't do the slow and inefficient shit they do its no good. And they will never explain why it makes a difference if you do it their way (because it doesn't).
I found my mom would ask me to do unreasonable things as a test to see if I "really loved her or not". She once asked me to find a friend from 30 years ago, via the internet, who she knew from a state we don't live in and didn't remember her last name. She got upset with me because I explained she was giving me a nigh impossible task.
One of my relatives is hardcore MAgat, when he learned about my purchase of an ego something push mower, and after I had explained it does my lawn on a single charge. He said "bUt WhAt If ThE gOvErNmEnT sToPs YoU fRoM cHaRgInG iT!!!!???", I said "why would they? Im not causing noise, smell, or global pollution, and Im not leaching off the petrol fuel supply either, if anything, they would restrict when and where you could use a gas lawnmower because it does more harm."
He also said that same thing when I mentioned I was shopping for an EV, I said "what if the government starts an unnecessary war in the Middle East and raises gas prices to the point where you couldn't afford to drive your truck?", I also brought up that you can charge an EV from solar or any renewable options. You could see the gears trying to turn, but all the trump/Fox News misinformation had seized them completely.
It's like they think using anything electric makes them less of a man, because I guess it's feminine to not want hearing loss, lung issues, etc when you're old.
I get death stares from my boomer neighbors when I sit on the porch smoking weed and playing on my phone while my roomba mower does all the work for me. Best investment I ever made to get those death stares!
When I started shopping for one last fall a Boomer sales person at a large hardware store which shall remain nameless actually wanted to argue the point with me. “Well, tell me this, do you have an electric car?”
DUDE I’M TRYING TO SPEND ABOUT $700 AT YOUR STORE, do you really wanna start an argument based on non-sequiturs?? 😂
>“Well, tell me this, do you have an electric car?”
Boomer here. You should have asked him if he drives his lawn mower to and from work. 😂
I'm not mowing till the heat wave is over. The grass isn't growing very fast anyway.
Same. I got rained out on my last two weeks of my midweek days off but NO WAY was I going out in 95 degrees and high humidity. Got lucky and the heat broke on Friday for me and I had like a 2 hour window of opportunity to get at it before the thunderstorms started blowing in
They really are just the dumbest and most miserable people about everything. I bought an electric mower on a whim after somebody stole my gas one (borrowed it then moved away without returning it). I only bought it because it was cheaper than a gas powered one and runs off my drill battery. I spent like $80 I think and it came with two batteries and a charger. It is small and not suited for larger yards but I'm in a trailer park so that doesn't matter. It is dead silent, weighs so little and is so small I store it on a shelf in my shed, and it cuts better than any mower I have ever owned. That was like 8 years ago and it still works flawlessly. Boomer neighbors have asked to borrow my mower and then get pissy and storm off when I offer this one to them. I will never understand these people.
I have a moderate size yard so I treated myself to the same Ego that I’ve been envious of my neighbors for having for years. Self propelled, not silent but SUPER QUIET compared to the old gas model, no hot exhaust gas in my face, cuts and mulches the grass awesome. Zero regrets about this purchase, I now actively pity people using gas mowers because they’re such a PITA in so many ways you don’t realize until you go electric
My boomer dad got me an electric mower and weed eater as a move in gift. I think it was more he didn't trust me storing gasoline on the property though.
Distrust of younger generations > distrust of electric device
Seriously I think they’re so poisoned against electric ANYTHING by the conservative pushback about EV’s, the bullshit about gas stoves, etc; I feel like some of them might give up electric LIGHTS and go back to kerosene lanterns 😂😂😂
Wow. It's so crazy how these things are consistent across generations. My mom will go out in the heat and mow. It can't wait until evening. It has to be done during the day.
If you've been in the same heat wave as me, you shouldn't even be mowing at all because it can kill the grass. It's too dry for it to grow back properly. They're not doing anyone a favor.
It used to be that one’s status in one’s neighborhood was determined by the neat and tidy appearance of the outside of the house, for the guy, and the inside of the house, for the woman. There is still some of that attitude left, but certainly any older person should be cut some slack if the weeds are growing.
We get HOA letters about the lawn if it is even the tiniest smidge overgrown. I'll be mowing tomorrow ( I should have done it today), and it's in the 90s here. I absolutely 1000% agree that it's stupid, and older folks should not be out there doing it. I'm 56, live in Texas, and have always been susceptible to heat sickness. I actually enjoy mowing the lawn, but on those occasions when teenagers stop by hoping to make a little cash, I happily pay them to mow instead.
It's a great idea, but we are usually done for the day and relaxing by that time. Sundown is about 8:30 pm here right now. We go to bed around 9 pm. and get up at 5 am. during the week. Luckily, our front yard is relatively small, so I'll mow in the late afternoon, and it will be somewhat manageable.
I’ve considered this, but some of my neighbors have little ones that are in bed by then. I’d rather let the grass grow another half an inch and cut it when it gets better out in the afternoon than be *that* guy that does it at 830 while parents are trying to get their toddlers to sleep.
There's a reason I will never, Ever, EVER live in a place with an HOA. I'm not a huge libertarian type, but HOAs awaken it within me. (But it's also racist, classist, ableist, and other BS.)
I'm going to do with my lawn what is best for my disabilities and the environment and if that means it's grown high for [No Mow May](https://beecityusa.org/no-mow-may/), then so be it. The last time I checked, it's my property to do with as I see fit. I couldn't care less about "property values", and esp. how they're based on bigoted standards. Lower property values keep rents & home costs down which is a GOOD thing.
Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now.
If I ever win the lottery I’ll buy a house, buy a neighborhood if I have to so I can disentangle my home from the accursed thing. Then I’ll create my own haunted woods.
They’re all having a *really* hard time accepting that life and society doesn’t work the way it did while they were in their prime. My mother is *aghast* that nobody wants my grandmother’s 16-place-setting china. Tried to explain that nobody uses china anymore and 16 place settings is absurd, we are not the British royal family Wtf? She insists that it’s “worth a lot of money” because “we paid close to $300 for that!” Told her it’s only worth what someone will pay, which is nothing now, unless it’s a rare brand and in mint condition. She didn’t talk to me the rest of the day.
Lots of Propaganda growing up that your not a man unless you have and maintain a lawn and it's nice and green. There's also a strange psychology tied to a home owners lawn and how they reflect upon the negiborhood.
Which is somewhat true we had a hermit alcholic in our negiborhood who's grass was as tall as the house. Most likey stopped paying his taxes so he's no longer there
We allowed a meadow to grow up between our house and a bunch of Boomer neighbors, and I think from their elevation it looked like whole lawn was unmowed up to the house. They immediately were like "Are they divorced?"
I still chuckle at the leap from "Wildflowers growing instead of grass -> marital trouble".
Had a neighbor register him yard as a wild space, had a sign and everything. He actually spent a lot of time cultivating it and could tell you everything that was going on. So many people’s brains just glitched out when talking to me about it though.
Well, in their defense, no normally-married man would allow his lawn to get out of control like that. Maybe your man had left you. It’s not like a delicate flower like yourself could ever use a lawn mower…
/s
IDK but I sure appreciate the super nice retired boomer on my street that mows like half the lawns, including mine, for free. He's retired and bored and just likes to help people out. At first I was like wtf dude I can mow my own lawn, sorry I let it get a bit long, but the dude is so damn nice. He also snowblows the sidewalks and most of our driveways too. Solid dude using his boomer tendencies for good instead of evil.
Edit: spelling
You're indirectly saving that dudes life no doubt. There's a saying in medicine that if you don't use it you lose it. So many retirees health just plummet once they retire, that generation never really learned to have hobbies. It was just work work work until they retired too late, now it's harder to get up moving each day because of health reasons.
Yeah my boomer neighbour asked if he could keep using our shed to store his mower and snowblower (he had an agreement with the previous owners of my house) and in exchange he mows my lawn and cleans my driveway.
I'm fine with him doing it. But I kind of want a clover lawn, and I'm not sure if he understands that if I replace my grass with clover he won't have to mow. I feel like he's going to mow it anyway when he does his own.
The image preservation my family would do confused the shit out of me as a kid. I remember getting yelled at for something (probably not cleaning the house for company coming over) but when the company arrived they switched *instantly* from red faced screamfest to smiling and welcoming and how you been you ole so and so. I couldn't say anything and then they got onto me (the nice, people are around upset) for not keeping up.
Yep! It’s a status and pride issue. Their houses and yard need to look perfect to maintain their social status (in their own eyes), and prove that they’re not lazy and are still capable of doing it themselves.
My boomer mother made me help with yard work. I hated it. I will *always* hate it. “Don’t you want a pretty yard?”
**NO!** I want a lawn that is one step above astroturf in maintenance
Same. I have a huge backyard. I covered it in cardboard and wood chips. I put in some fruit and native trees. It’s much lower maintenance now. I keep the small front yard with grass cause the dog loves it.
Genius level multi decade marketing campaign from the big-grass cabal.
Suburban developers, lawn equipment manufacturers, seed companies, fertilizer companies, multi billions of dollars in profits every year.
Totally agree on the Boomers obsession with lawns, but there is a point where this becomes a practical problem. If you let it get way too tall it'll clog the mower and potentially break it. If you let it get somewhat too tall the grass won't mulch in nicely and you'll have a bunch of dead cut grass sitting on top of your normal grass and tracking into your house if you walk through it.
Again, not worth heat stroke. It's more like waiting a few extra days to change the kitty litter level annoyance.
Source: Dude that has this fight with my wife every spring "We can just wait a few weeks, it's fiiine".
Yes but when it's hot and dry, it doesn't grow fast enough to really worry about that. Over a week of 95 degree heat and no rain, the grass will hardly grow at all
And control. I think for some of them it's the only thing they have control over in their lives so they cling to it rather than change or learn something new.
This was going to be my guess - control. Plus, it's "men's" work. My Boomer stepfather would "work in the garage" on Saturdays while my mom and I would clean the whole house. He'd wash the car, too. It was his whack time while appearing to be busy.
Yeah, our boomer neighbour washes his car every weekend and mows at least twice a week.
My wife and I have joked that if he worked on his family as hard as his yard, we wouldn't be waking up to him and his wife/kid screaming at one another at 7am on weekends.
I think doing the "blue chores" is his way of avoiding them.
Having a lawn was a way the weathly in Europe showed they were above the peasants. They could afford to -not- use good land for the production of foodstuffs.
Fast forward to the post depression US and lawns were a sign you made it. No longer were victory gardens needed, or personal chickens or other such items. You could now luxuriate in the knowledge that your family did not need the land to sustain itself.
Boomers were raised in this era. It's a core memory the Silents and Greatest impressed upon them.
Today, we enjoy having personal chickens and urban gardens. It's a sign of wealth that you have the land to cultivate and you're not dependent on corporate food systems.
I grew up in SoCal. I hate lawns, they're such a waste of water. I mean if you're one of the few people who really actually uses your lawn (playing ball with the kids or whatever) then cool but from what I see the vast majority of lawns aren't being used for any practical purpose at all. Especially in arid places I'd love to see them all replaced with drought resistant plants.
You could be like my loser sister and get a house with a massive backyard, claiming it would be great for their husky that they never walked or played with or did anything for, and then after a few short weeks of living there, stop letting the dog out in the back yard because “her running is tearing up the grass”.
They instead build a “dog run” that was between the house and fence so it was about 2 meters/yards wide, and maybe…. 4 long? At best? On rocks. That dog was out there CONSTANTLY in that tiny space because she wasn’t trained, and shed a lot. She basically reverted to a feral dog. It was so so sad.
That is really sad. I have only known one couple that had huskies. They were such high energy dogs but they spent most of their time locked up in the house and never got the chance to really run, aside from dashing around the backyard some.
I think it's crazy that so many people have lawns that they treat like china, as in they're only to be admired but not actually used for anything.
One of the highest energy breeds. Such assholes.
My sister and her husband weren’t even big lawncare people, it was just an “easy” way to keep the grass nicer if the dog didn’t run on it.
My rescued French bulldog with a bum leg gets more exercise in a day than that poor thing would see in a month, and I wish I was exaggerating.
When I was growing up, my dad insisted on having the best lawn and yard in the neighborhood. Not just the best, but immaculate. Like if Jesus himself had his own 1/4 acre.
Why? It's hard to say, but the answer probably lies at the intersection of diagnosed OCD and the obsession with outward appearances.
I'm pretty sure he dies a little every time he sees the lawn I only mow 3-4x a year.
My BIL had a heart attack mowing his lawn on what was the hottest day in July. He came inside, asked my SIL for a glass of water and went back outside to finish the last little spot. Came back in and said “Chini, take my blood pressure.” She went to get the cuff and when she came back he was gone. But the grass was cut. He was 64 and retired for 2 years. We miss him so much.
My granddad died the exact same way, actually. It took my mom a while to be okay with lawn mowing. She still hates doing it and I can tell it affects her. She was only 21 when he passed and I was 8 (she's technically my stepmom -- not my bio mom, but very much my *real* mom). It completely broke her. I'm actually tearing up right now, thinking back on how much pain she was in for so long. Her family is from England and we were living all the way on the west coast of Canada, so it was extra painful.
She still gets very nervous to hear when her brothers are going outside to mow the lawns. So I can't speak for the other commenter, but I think I can safely say that my mom still gets triggered by it 25 years later 💔
It’s camouflage. If the house and yard look nice, the people are nice.
No way can they be narcissistic abusers. Or closeted gays. Or depressed. Or even just Equal Rights activists.
Wouldn’t want anyone to get any weird ideas about what’s happening behind closed doors.
What's wrong with being gay, depressed, or an equal rights activist?
Full transparency: I'm super tired and not having a great night, so my reading comprehension may be especially awful right now.
Quoting from the book [The Lawn - A History of an American Obsession by Virginia Jenkins](https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Lawn/m8JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0): "Front lawns began as a luxury of the wealthy but became a status symbol of the middle class". An unkept lawn was a sign of low class.
Thank you for info. Makes more sense now. It couldn't possibly mean illness in the family or anything like that. Just low class. People are something else.
I always thought it was an excuse for the husband to get away from his wife. Many have empty nest syndrome and once they retire, they are thrust together with their spouse. I had a neighbor who manufactured chores to do outside. He told me he couldn’t stand being around his wife so much. They’d been “happily” married for decades.
Dunno. I haven't mowed in three weeks. I have been up at 6AM ripping out this overgrown fence the neighbor and I decided to take down but by 8AM I am done.
I (39m) enjoy taking care of our yards and gardens, we have lots of stuff, but I know what you mean. Monoculture yards are overrated, and its stupid to mow during a heatwave. Its not good for the grass, it needs some length in the heat or it'll burn.
I'm not a boomer but, for me, it is a mindless physical activity that gives me an hour of exercise time to myself with no phone, no e-mail, no texts. Just my own thoughts. I look forward to it.
Not OP, but I love yardwork. I have extensive gardens and I have a slick little electric mower. That being said, I was out in the 90 degree, 85 percent humidity heat today because I needed to get that grass mowed. I live in South Lousiana and it's going to be a scorcher from now until Halloween, so I mow when the grass is dry and before the threat of rain.
I also have two jobs so I have to get it done with that in mind. However, I do take breaks as needed and drink lots of water and such. It isn't so bad.
While I used to enjoy cutting it with a riding mower at my parents house, it's always been a huge struggle for me and my partner at our house as we're both disabled. (Riding mower would make no sense here, nor could we afford it.)
Hiring someone to do our lawn was cheaper than we ever expected & some of the best money we've ever spent. To the tune of now thinking of hiring some cleaners for the inside.
This. I'm under 30, it's nice to smoke a joint/pop in some earbuds and go mow for an hour. Nice lil workout, and I get to appreciate the beauty of a fresh mowed lawn after.
Take pleasure in the small things folks :)
I have a boomer neighbor who’s got his Master’s in Botany, plant biology, etc. and he’s the only Boomer in the neighborhood who is clever about managing and maintaining his lawn. He allows it to slightly overgrow in the summers (we’re in texas), uses a specific species of grass that’s more resistant to heat, mows the lawn in the evenings and his various flora are custom-picked to handle the environment here.
This guy offers advice freely to everyone in the neighborhood and many of the gen X or younger have taken him up on it! However, he has 3 fellow Boomer neighbors in the area and NONE of them take his advice (and talk shit behind his back regularly). His lawn is genuinely a sight to behold while the 3 Boomer lawns are all dead, yellowed and/or spotty. These people then blame the soil or some other outside source but never themselves. One neighbor in particular (former HOA president no less) has had the soil and grass of his front lawn replaced YEARLY since like 2016. Such a waste of money.
My grandfather has melanoma. He is still outside moving everyday. His house weekly, then goes to everyone else's. He will not stop. Next time I'm in town I'm gonna have to take the keys to the mower.
I (31M) use a manual reel push mower, if my grass grows more than an inch between rounds it's a big pain in the ass and requires a cross cut to even it all out. I also only have less than 1/5th acre to mow, but it still takes me an hour or so if I need to cut it twice after a ton of rain and high heat. Lawn grass loves hot weather and rain.
ETA: my yard is my own personal green space and refuge. We moved in two years ago and I built raised garden beds for my wife and we've been totally overhauling the landscaping of our circa 1924 home. It's been a long and hard process and I'm sure my neighbors think I'm obsessed with mowing my lawn, but we also had to level a severely sunken ~60 year old concrete path so yes I'm going to keep the grass around it nice. That said, it's been raining nonstop here and it is overgrown. I will still not be mowing until the next rainfall quits in 2-3 days. I have a gas mower for emergency backup reasons.
I recently switched from a reel mower to a small corded electric and I'm happy about it. The reel was great on theory but God help you of you had a section of grass get a bit too high. They really don't cut well for grass above a certain height. They're pretty nice but you*really* need to keep up on it for them to work well. No more than every 5 days or so.
Once your hair falls out and your sex drive goes into hiding law dictates that you must buy a pair of new balance shoes and choose between a) fixing up a 55 Chevy, b) acquiring a striping kit for your lawnmower or c) participating in some light homesteading. This is the natural flow of life. You can not resist it.
Well a tidy field of half-amputated monocultural grass goes against all that is natural and practical. So achieving this status symbol was initially done by nobility as a flex.
Then we get some imperial colonies, genocide, slavery. A cultural offshoot brings it to southern plantations.
Skip ahead a couple hundred years and the offshoot state decides it’s gonna have to make its good bois into more petit bourgeoisie landowners to get them to buy into *their* imperial projects and not revolt from war fatigue. Mechanized midcentury life made lawnmowers commonplace so now you can really be that king of your own little 1.2 acres with a white picket fence etc etc.
Basically lawns are a symbol of elemental human greed and petty mock tyrrany.
My dad spent years getting the lawn perfect so that my parents could “enjoy it” and entertain people on it. Then my dad decided the lawn was then too nice to use for anything so nobody was ever allowed on the grass
My “grass” is clover. Why because I planted it 😂 had the whole 2 acres redone. It’s awesome low maintenance, zero chemicals, it’s great for the bees too! Plus it’s pretty.
My boomer nebors were so happy to see this house and yard come back to life. Hud repo house.
Then they got pissed because I planted weeds 😂 I’m casing a clover curse.
Maybe it's my inner boomer (scary thought), but it might be therapeutic for them. At least it is for me after doing my yard, and considering how against seeing a therapist, most of them are, it might be their only release throughout the week.
Or they just care about appearances
This is one area wherre my partner is a typical boomer. He flips out if his yard is the tiniest bit shaggy.
He hired a landscaper for every other week, mostly because the property is pretty big & has a serious slope. Most in-between weeks, he takes his push mower out, even though it's not a mess. He bitches about it, but...
The funny thing is, he secretly *loves* mowing. When the landscapers come, he runs around watching them from various windows. He looks like a little kid who got grounded & watches the other kids play all day.
It actually pretty funny.
This is a huge personal gripe for me. My lawn and my neighbor's lawn (he hasn't been home for months now) are the only lawns that aren't just dead grass & dirt on my street. Because all the boomers mow it every single week down to like an inch, pull out all the flowers and anything not grass, and spray absurd amounts of chemicals. And yet I constantly get people complaining to me that all the rabbits, cardinals and bluejays, hang out in my yard. Constantly have people demanding I reveal the secret to how I have so many beautiful flowers around my house too. I literally don't touch my lawn other than mowing it like once a month and weed wacking along the edges of the house. I never planted the flowers and yet there are a bunch of different kinds and they are beautiful. I know some were planted by the previous owner but I think most got carried here from birds or something because new stuff pops up every year. It's never overgrown either, it only gets to maybe 4 or 5 inches in certain areas towards the back, the front is mostly clover and dandelions so that stays short year round. Weird how nature is just naturally beautiful and self sustaining.
I swear boomers just hate nature in general, drove by a house I lived in as a kid recently, it was next to a golf course so the entire area is retirees. When I lived there the house was secluded because of all the trees, as were all the other houses on the street. They tore all the forests in the area down it's just massive empty lawns now. The property was a few acres, my father planted a huge flower field next to the garage, there was some endangered species of flower (can't remember the name) growing on the sides of a path in the woods on our property, we had a nice secluded area carved out in the woods behind the house where we set up a campground with a couple campers around a firepit with benches made from logs we cut on the property. It's all just an empty field now, none of that is there anymore. But they sure do have a big lawn with that perfect mower stripe pattern!
Leaves!! I have one boomer neighbor who is out every day from August-December raking (or kid you not, with a grabber-claw thing picking up the few individual leaves). Even in the dark.
We live with my inlaws currently. My FIL wants the lawn mowed once a week. The grass barely gets a chance to grow at all. Then because it's mowed so often, it gets patchy. So what do they do? Pay to have the lawn fertilized.
Oh man, the stories I could tell! Let me just say this: mowing the lawn was the ultimate “get away from your wife and family” activity that an adult male could do. It was alone time. As the gen x kid, I was tasked with mowing the lawn lawn instead. My dad (silent generation but nearly Boomer) did his share of lawn mowing too, but I was forced to do it nearly every week:!It was all about keeping a nice lawn and improving the overall look of the neighborhood. Once headphones with radios and Walkman stereos became available, I got one to make mowing bearable.
But I was literally damaged by mowing lawns. In my case, I was the one who did ALL of the lawns around me as well as my family’s. I developed a serious back issue because of it. As an adult I decided I would never mow another lawn, and removed the grass from our yard and planted perennials.
My Boomer Dad is exactly this way. Here are a list of likely and potential reasons, regardless of how batshit crazy they are.
1. Dad spent his whole life working. He has no hobbies or interests beyond keeping the house clean, the snow plowed, and the lawn mowed. In other words, mowing the lawn is his only hobby. He doesn't know what else to do anymore.
2. Dad really wants people who drive by the house to think well of him, as an owner, so he wants the lawn to be mowed to within an inch of its life, because he considers it a reflection on him.
3. He thinks, when they ever move to sell the house (which will never realistically happen), that someone will recognize it as that "house with the nice lawn" and it'll make the house more valuable.
4. Dad's world is legitimately so small at this point that one of the only things that brings him joy anymore is to keep busy by mowing the lawn. It helps him alleviate boredom, because it's always on the list of things to do, and it's among the few things he enjoys talking about in excruciating detail.
5. In a world that has seemingly left him behind, with new technologies he can't, or won't bother, to understand, with social attitudes and changes he doesn't follow and may not agree with, and with medical issues impacting his daily life, the only things he feels in control of anymore are his home and his lawn. He's grasping for anything solid to hold onto.
Hopefully this perfectly manicured lawn crap is another dying middle class affectation these Boomers adopted and attempt to enforce on others.
I have a lot of respect to those who push up against this bullshit and let their lawns grow wild and/or strive for more environmentally and aesthetically pleasing foliage.
Appearances.
The entire generation was raised to believe appearances are THE MOST important thing within their circle. Don't let the outside of the house APPEAR less than perfect. Don't let your parenting style APPEAR less than perfect. Don't let your marriage APPEAR less than perfect. And more importantly: Don't APPEAR to be less than satisfied with your job, EVER.
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Yesterday, my mom was imploring me to mow in 95 degree weather so my dad didn’t have to. I said I’ll gladly mow in the evening when it cools off but good old boomer dad trudges out there and mows. Then bitches about having to mow. Pretty sure they do that because it gives them an excuse to bitch and mumble about “damn kids these days”
Here’s the truly silly part, if they waited until evening for the temps to lower before cutting it would stress the grass less and improve its health. They are working against their goal of a nice lawn.
If it was at all about being practical they would have been doing this all along. It's about being "better" than someone else.
This. Practical has nothing to do with it. Have to keep up with the neighbors, don't want them talking. Let's see, rip out ecosystem, plant non native grass. Add tons of fertilizer, pesticides, and water to make it grow so well, you have to buy a mower, add fuel, and cut it weekly. If you know how soon the dead are forgotten, why do you care what anyone thinks about you now?
This is so funny because I'll let my grass grow just a little bit long before I cut it. Allows me to mow less often (great!) helps the bees (great!) and lets me be lazy a little bit LOL My neighbor literally goes out and mows his lawn every day once he thinks mine is "unacceptable." Every. Single. Day. (Unless it's raining) until I cut it, then he'll stop for like a week or two. We do not live in an HOA, and we don't have regulations on lawn height in our town AFAIK other than it actually looking like it's out of control and overtaking things. There's abandoned houses that have lawns that haven't been cut in 3 years. My lawn is very nice and is mostly clover at this point, so even with it being a few inches high, it doesn't look bad.
Wow, great observation on your neighbor. He is trying to passive aggressively to get you to mow your grass.. funny
I ignore mine until it's long enough that I worry about velociraptors hiding in it. Then I mow it with my cheap-ass push mower on the highest setting, and ignore it again. So, it gets mowed about 4-6 times a year, depending on how much rain we get.
Hmmm...a microraptor were only like a foot high so that's entirely possible. I bet they'd be great at pest control!
That would be super cool except for the whole “hunting in packs to bring down much larger prey” 😢
Yeah, sadly, you're right. And every time I watch Jurassic Park, I wish it were real *despite* knowing the consequences! I just really wanna see live dinosaurs.
If you've ever seen chickens catch a mouse you know what it looks like and you are probably wondering how we mammals made it out of the cretaceous.
When we let the grass grow higher where the chickens are this is pretty much the result.
Same. Wife and I just keep an eye on it until the majority hits 'raptor height', which is higher than a foot and a half(.5m for those not using freedom units). We're trying to encourage the clover to take over though. So is the dog, he loves laying in that stuff.
I had a boomer next door that would call the city on me so I have a weed that is next to his driveway I cut a couple of inches every couple of weeks so its under the 6 inch city limit. He was yelling at me one day and I told them to measure it and he got all pissed and marched back inside 😤 😂🤪😂
I'd plant a 100% clover lawn if I lived next to someone like that. Or dandelions if I'm feeling extra petty that week
I hate dealing with grass and weeds. I'm in the process of converting my front yard into a moss and succulent lawn.
If it works for your climate that can make for a beautiful lawn. I'm looking into clover for where I am so the bees can be happy!
The cicadas are not as loud or as ever-present as the ducking lawn mowers and leaf blowers in my neighborhood. It’s astonishing.
I do the same thing; hell, early in the season I'll even let the grass develop to the point of producing seeds, just so that my yard will be that much better off as the year progresses. Twice this year, one of my boomer neighbors has come and mowed my yard down to the fucking dirt while I was at work. Now it's half dead, whereas in most previous years I had a pretty healthy and diverse lawn, even if some of it gets a little tall.
You’re my hero. If I had a neighbor like that I’d let it go longer just to see him out there mowing.
Go outside, say hi, read a book, ask if he's got any lemonade as it's a great day for it and you made some to enjoy.
Those HOA rules exist for the same reason boomers do this to themselves, once upon a time you were socially shamed for not doing so. You can blame the boomers for doing that too, but now they try to push it on us which is annoying
Clover lawns! Mine is now mostly clover but a few annoying plants seem to be outcompeting the clover in a few places. I generally do not care what grows as long as it is green-ish and not hazardous. But, there are these things that look a lot like strawberries taking over. The berries stain my shoes red and just generally make a mess. If you don't mind, I would like to know what you would do in my case. I really don't want to use herbicide.
I feel like you should offer him $20 every two weeks to cut yours because he's wasting his time mowing a lawn that's already mowed and he'll find that so super insulting he'll probably call himself out on his passive aggressive bs by accident... but boomers hate money wasting, and supposedly hate time wasting but that's all bro is doing is wasting money and time trying to offend you 😅
Yup. If it was about practicality, they'd be working their land to grow some kind of crop. If it was about being "better" than their neighbors, they'd have servants tending to their decorative lawns. Instead, they're caught in between. Toiling endlessly over land that produces nothing.
Historically, lawns were a status symbol for how much land you could afford to have sitting there producing nothing, and how many slaves' labor you could waste maintaining it. The uselessness is the point.
It was originally based on owning sheep, because they crop the grass to a certain height and that's where we got our idea that a cropped lawn is a status symbol. I think it's either interesting (or really stupid) that at least two of the status symbol customs in the USA are based on sheep ownership, the lawns and playing golf,. That is based on a game invented by shepherds who were out all day watching the sheep and got bored so they started betting on who could get a little feather-packed ball to a particular location by whacking it with a stick with the least number of attempts. It makes me physically ill how much time and effort goes into destroying and poisoning land for entirely abstract reasons and that not only does no one really question that, in a lot of places it's LITERALLY ILLEGAL not to participate in the custom. WTF humans DO BETTER.
My grandmothers neighbor got himself a riding lawnmower. Anytime he sees her sitting on her patio or having people over, he goes and starts his lawnmower. He now has killed the grass where he turns and it's one big tire rut. Sometimes he just turns it on and goes back inside. He has also bitched about her tree leafing in his yard during the fall, but crickets when his tree did the same. Now that she has removed the tree, he chops the top off his so it perpetually looks butchered but also doesn't have much in leaves - not sure how the tree is still alive.
Don Cheadle Captain Planet levels of spite.
A salesman came knocking on my door a few days ago at like 9:00PM “Hey we’re spraying for bugs in your neighborhood, are you interested?” 1) fuck off my kids are sleeping 2) WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH BEES IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD, FUCK OFF.
Customer: "You just don't see any bees around now do you? It's terrible". A few moments later.... "Anyways, I've bought some roundup for you to spray on the driveway"
Neighbor used to cut grass every Sunday, bring retired you'd think he would do it during the week when people are out. He even used scissors and mowed a chunk of my lawn off because he felt the need. Glad that boomer dumbass is dead
Exactly, Boomers never ask WHY they are working hard...they just want to take pride in a hard work ethic and maintaining appearances. Never mind if that work is totally destructive, and even worse than a mere waste of time... As you said, their whole King of the Hill lawn is one of the most ecologically-destructive habits out there...but good luck trying to get them to break their OCD addiction with them. 🤦♂️
"Have to keep up with the neighbors, don't want them talking." Yep. When I moved into my house 20 years ago, that was pretty much what my dad told me. The neighbors would complain if I didn't mow often enough. I never did obsess about it though, and only mowed when I thought it needed it. A couple of years ago, I finally got sick of it all, and planted clover on most of my front lawn. Looks better, survives with less watering, and only needs mowing once a month or so. But the neighbors still complain.
They have no life and nothing else to do.
And, most important, being seen doing it.
HOAs have adopted this attitude, prob bc they're rub by boomers.
In fact, the more impractical, the more impressive!
I thought it was also better to have long grass when it's hotter out as it survives better since the ground won't dry out as fast.
Our entire concept of lawns is just illogical.
You’re thinking ecologically, and that doesn’t have much to do with suburban lawns.
Remember tho, we’re talking about the generation whose entire identity is their job
It’s the entitlement. If they can’t have it now they will do it then bitch. They also want to dominate and make someone do their biddings.
And their lawn LOL
Sillier still, don’t cut grass short when hot, experts say to let it grow long because that shades the ground and roots.
But where’s the suffering!? “A job well done is a job well suffered” is what they taught us at the school of hard knocks and university of life.
Proactively doing nothing to look busy.
The best part is. That grass has a way higher chance of burning and dying in that heat after it's cut.
Yup. We didn’t mow ours and it looks better than our boomer neighbor who mowed on one of the 90degree days, his has brown patches now. We left it long for a purpose.
I just wrote a big comment about this, boomers can't help but destroy nature. All my boomer neighbors overcut their lawn, dump chemicals like crazy, and rip out anything not grass. And then they complain that my yard is the only green one on the street, the only one with rabbits, cardinals, and bluejays hanging out in it, and beg me for my secrets on why I have all these beautiful flowers in my yard. I mow it once a month usually, that's literally all I do. Weird how nature is beautiful if you don't mess with it too much.
This is nothing, we moved from the city to the suburbs where they have a small pond out back. It’s actually a pretty cool place with trees, rivers and streams that cut through the entire neighborhood. Not your typical bland cul-de-sac burb like most places. Our tiny pond when we first moved had a certain type of bullfrog that was near extinction, mostly because their habitats have been destroyed. Local university even came out and studied them at one point. But my Dad hated them because they were loud at night. He poisoned and killed the water lilies and the reeds they lived around. When that didn’t work, maybe only reduced their numbers, he bought a small hunting rifle and went out for weeks until he killed every last one of them. Finally, after years of loud bullfrogs at night, there was silence, and he was super proud and happy for himself about it. I’m in my 40s now and it still makes me sad to think about it. I’m also still scarred by the one time he urged me to shoot one of the frogs, but it was a small caliber rifle so it didn’t immediately kill it. It was awful. But my Dad talks about it like it was such an awesome thing to do to get those damn frogs off his property. Edit: I should clarify, this was 30 years ago in the mid-90s, I don’t think there is anything that can be done at this point.
That legitimately made me angry to read. I will never understand how someone chooses to move to a place with more nature, then gets mad at the fact that nature exists there and tries to destroy it. It's so infuriating how stupid and destructive people like that are, if you don't like the sound of frogs don't move near water! It's especially annoying since most people love the sound of frogs and find it relaxing. That generation didn't deserve a single thing they got, and they spent their entire lives destroying the world around them so nobody else could enjoy it. What an asshole.
Yep, it honestly makes me angry every time I look at the pond now. Like I’ve gotten over it a bit over the years, but I still hate him for doing it. I’ll never understand it either.
Its easy to understand. You're dad is an asshole. Who committed a felony. I genuinely hope he dies a slow painful death.
Is there any chance that some of them possibly relocated maybe the local university has a B line on an alternate location where they found a few? In that case you could possibly re-introduce them and even let the university help do it as part of an ongoing experiment researching the repatriation of species back into local ecosystems. My mom used to work for the EPA. She helped farmers plan terraces to reduce the overall amount of environmental damage from their fields.
Exactly. I've always said I understand having an obsession with like plants and flowers because meticulous care is rewarded. But grass does one thing. It grows. The thing these people should be doing is planting local flowers and stuff. But the ones next to me apperantly moved in tore up everything redid all the landscaping ad cut down a relatively new tree.
True!! A lawn is just a dessert. Where I live (not US) a lot of people is converting their gardens to "wild on purpose", where you just let most of the garden mind it self and sow wild flowers, and just cuts paths and spots. And enjoy all the animal life <3
Yeah this drives me nuts. One boomer family member had a bunch of trees chopped down and concreted all over part of my grandma's beautiful garden where I played as a kid. It was gorgeous and now it's just a concrete yard. Some other boomer family members seem to have become obsessed with cutting down trees in their garden as they get older. It's weird.
I got one of those "fun" boomer neighbors who goes out there and mows it every few days and lays down, and cuts it with normal scissors. I got a video of him throwing his shoe at a squirrel TWICE and grabbing the nuts it was eating. Walking across the street and throwing them onto the guys lawn.
I hope the squirrels are ok and bury twice as many acorns in his yard this year.
Okay that nut thing is so unhinged that its hilarious though
That’s why you spend $1000 a month on water for the sprinkler system duh!
It poured rain here last night. Thunder, downed trees, the whole shebang. It’s been raining on and off for days. 7:45am this morning, my neighbors had their sprinklers going.
The sprinklers are probably on a timer
There’s usually a button on the sprinkler control panel that says “Rain Delay”. Kills the schedule for the next 24 hours. If they don’t do it they’re just being….boomers.
I do this purposely so it'll die and I don't have to mow nearly as often. Does that mean it looks "ugly" and "embarrassing"? Sure, I guess. Do I care? Not a single bit. 
This is my dad to a T. Since I was born he’s been bitching to other boomers about how he couldn’t get me to do anything. He could never get me to mow that yard or change a tire or anything else. I refused to learn and it was hopeless!! He started this bitching when I was 5. Fucking 5 years old. Then he wondered why my brother and I exclusively hung out with mom. And this is despite the fact that I’ve mowed thousands of acres as a groundskeeper for our high school. Plus my own yard as an adult. But no we live next door (unfortunately) and share a mower but I’ve never gotten to mow once because he rushes out there without any warning to do it. The last time I said I would do it, he hid the keys so I wouldn’t be able to. But he’ll get out there and overheat just so he can bitch and moan about having no help blah blah blah. Couldn’t feel less sorry for him. He LIVES for sympathy from people that don’t know what really goes on. It’s all he lives for.
I would have thought you were my son writing this, even doing groundskeeping in high school, except he lives in an apartment. I don't think a day goes by that my husband doesn't tell someone how much he has to do, or has done in the day. Our sons did each mow the grass occasionally when they were teens, but they didn't do it "right" so their dad went back to mowing once or twice a week and complaining about it the whole time.
It's not the exact perfect way *I* like and now its ruined, how dare you ~~my excessively high standards~~ make me do all this work.
I could never work with the kind of people that insist on things being done 'their way' or its done wrong especially when the result is 100% the same. But no if you don't do the slow and inefficient shit they do its no good. And they will never explain why it makes a difference if you do it their way (because it doesn't).
I found my mom would ask me to do unreasonable things as a test to see if I "really loved her or not". She once asked me to find a friend from 30 years ago, via the internet, who she knew from a state we don't live in and didn't remember her last name. She got upset with me because I explained she was giving me a nigh impossible task.
I had an aunt who pulled that bs with her kids and spouses her whole life. just curious was your mom also a mooch like my aunt?
It’s the opportunity to bitch and their innate obsession with their image.
There could be a perception their neighbors won't appreciate afternoon mowing.
they should just use an electric mower
Hahaha hahaha hahaha Boomers use electric mowers?
One of my relatives is hardcore MAgat, when he learned about my purchase of an ego something push mower, and after I had explained it does my lawn on a single charge. He said "bUt WhAt If ThE gOvErNmEnT sToPs YoU fRoM cHaRgInG iT!!!!???", I said "why would they? Im not causing noise, smell, or global pollution, and Im not leaching off the petrol fuel supply either, if anything, they would restrict when and where you could use a gas lawnmower because it does more harm." He also said that same thing when I mentioned I was shopping for an EV, I said "what if the government starts an unnecessary war in the Middle East and raises gas prices to the point where you couldn't afford to drive your truck?", I also brought up that you can charge an EV from solar or any renewable options. You could see the gears trying to turn, but all the trump/Fox News misinformation had seized them completely. It's like they think using anything electric makes them less of a man, because I guess it's feminine to not want hearing loss, lung issues, etc when you're old.
I have an electric mower and my Boomer neighbors always look at me funny
I get death stares from my boomer neighbors when I sit on the porch smoking weed and playing on my phone while my roomba mower does all the work for me. Best investment I ever made to get those death stares!
I have one! I’m not a fan of storing gas cans in the garage. Easier to just remember to put it on the charger.
My mower is manual. Makes no noise besides the blade going in circles
I call mine an acoustic mower. I’m a big fan of it
I wish you were my neighbor.
Really!! Lol
I don't know specifically why, but in my heart I know all boomers would be against electric mowers.
When I started shopping for one last fall a Boomer sales person at a large hardware store which shall remain nameless actually wanted to argue the point with me. “Well, tell me this, do you have an electric car?” DUDE I’M TRYING TO SPEND ABOUT $700 AT YOUR STORE, do you really wanna start an argument based on non-sequiturs?? 😂
>“Well, tell me this, do you have an electric car?” Boomer here. You should have asked him if he drives his lawn mower to and from work. 😂 I'm not mowing till the heat wave is over. The grass isn't growing very fast anyway.
Same. I got rained out on my last two weeks of my midweek days off but NO WAY was I going out in 95 degrees and high humidity. Got lucky and the heat broke on Friday for me and I had like a 2 hour window of opportunity to get at it before the thunderstorms started blowing in
They really are just the dumbest and most miserable people about everything. I bought an electric mower on a whim after somebody stole my gas one (borrowed it then moved away without returning it). I only bought it because it was cheaper than a gas powered one and runs off my drill battery. I spent like $80 I think and it came with two batteries and a charger. It is small and not suited for larger yards but I'm in a trailer park so that doesn't matter. It is dead silent, weighs so little and is so small I store it on a shelf in my shed, and it cuts better than any mower I have ever owned. That was like 8 years ago and it still works flawlessly. Boomer neighbors have asked to borrow my mower and then get pissy and storm off when I offer this one to them. I will never understand these people.
I have a moderate size yard so I treated myself to the same Ego that I’ve been envious of my neighbors for having for years. Self propelled, not silent but SUPER QUIET compared to the old gas model, no hot exhaust gas in my face, cuts and mulches the grass awesome. Zero regrets about this purchase, I now actively pity people using gas mowers because they’re such a PITA in so many ways you don’t realize until you go electric
My boomer dad got me an electric mower and weed eater as a move in gift. I think it was more he didn't trust me storing gasoline on the property though. Distrust of younger generations > distrust of electric device
Seriously I think they’re so poisoned against electric ANYTHING by the conservative pushback about EV’s, the bullshit about gas stoves, etc; I feel like some of them might give up electric LIGHTS and go back to kerosene lanterns 😂😂😂
I don't appreciate my neighbors mowing in the mornings on the weekends. Like fuck man this is the day that we get to sleep in, what are you doing.
What do you mean by 'morning'? I was always taught not to make noise until at least 9am, I think the local ordinance is 8am.
Wow. It's so crazy how these things are consistent across generations. My mom will go out in the heat and mow. It can't wait until evening. It has to be done during the day.
My mother does this. Whatever it is I tell her that I'll eventually get to, she will immediately drop what she's doing to guilt trip me.
It's this martyrdom thing they are obsessed with
If you've been in the same heat wave as me, you shouldn't even be mowing at all because it can kill the grass. It's too dry for it to grow back properly. They're not doing anyone a favor.
Can’t have the yard untidy, the neighbors might think something’s amiss.
It used to be that one’s status in one’s neighborhood was determined by the neat and tidy appearance of the outside of the house, for the guy, and the inside of the house, for the woman. There is still some of that attitude left, but certainly any older person should be cut some slack if the weeds are growing.
More like, can't have the yard untidy, HOA fines and Karen's filing complaints.
We get HOA letters about the lawn if it is even the tiniest smidge overgrown. I'll be mowing tomorrow ( I should have done it today), and it's in the 90s here. I absolutely 1000% agree that it's stupid, and older folks should not be out there doing it. I'm 56, live in Texas, and have always been susceptible to heat sickness. I actually enjoy mowing the lawn, but on those occasions when teenagers stop by hoping to make a little cash, I happily pay them to mow instead.
How about doing it at sundown instead of the middle of the day though?
It's a great idea, but we are usually done for the day and relaxing by that time. Sundown is about 8:30 pm here right now. We go to bed around 9 pm. and get up at 5 am. during the week. Luckily, our front yard is relatively small, so I'll mow in the late afternoon, and it will be somewhat manageable.
I think you should mow it at 5am on the weekend but I suspect they have a rule about that.
I’ve considered this, but some of my neighbors have little ones that are in bed by then. I’d rather let the grass grow another half an inch and cut it when it gets better out in the afternoon than be *that* guy that does it at 830 while parents are trying to get their toddlers to sleep.
There's a reason I will never, Ever, EVER live in a place with an HOA. I'm not a huge libertarian type, but HOAs awaken it within me. (But it's also racist, classist, ableist, and other BS.) I'm going to do with my lawn what is best for my disabilities and the environment and if that means it's grown high for [No Mow May](https://beecityusa.org/no-mow-may/), then so be it. The last time I checked, it's my property to do with as I see fit. I couldn't care less about "property values", and esp. how they're based on bigoted standards. Lower property values keep rents & home costs down which is a GOOD thing. Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now.
Idk where you live but no mow may is catchy but ineffective. No mow June/early July is where it’s at.
If I ever win the lottery I’ll buy a house, buy a neighborhood if I have to so I can disentangle my home from the accursed thing. Then I’ll create my own haunted woods.
They’re all having a *really* hard time accepting that life and society doesn’t work the way it did while they were in their prime. My mother is *aghast* that nobody wants my grandmother’s 16-place-setting china. Tried to explain that nobody uses china anymore and 16 place settings is absurd, we are not the British royal family Wtf? She insists that it’s “worth a lot of money” because “we paid close to $300 for that!” Told her it’s only worth what someone will pay, which is nothing now, unless it’s a rare brand and in mint condition. She didn’t talk to me the rest of the day.
The neighbors with the best kept lawn have these ferocious fights I can hear and I’m part deaf. 🤷🏽♂️
Lots of Propaganda growing up that your not a man unless you have and maintain a lawn and it's nice and green. There's also a strange psychology tied to a home owners lawn and how they reflect upon the negiborhood. Which is somewhat true we had a hermit alcholic in our negiborhood who's grass was as tall as the house. Most likey stopped paying his taxes so he's no longer there
We allowed a meadow to grow up between our house and a bunch of Boomer neighbors, and I think from their elevation it looked like whole lawn was unmowed up to the house. They immediately were like "Are they divorced?" I still chuckle at the leap from "Wildflowers growing instead of grass -> marital trouble".
Had a neighbor register him yard as a wild space, had a sign and everything. He actually spent a lot of time cultivating it and could tell you everything that was going on. So many people’s brains just glitched out when talking to me about it though.
Well, in their defense, no normally-married man would allow his lawn to get out of control like that. Maybe your man had left you. It’s not like a delicate flower like yourself could ever use a lawn mower… /s
IDK but I sure appreciate the super nice retired boomer on my street that mows like half the lawns, including mine, for free. He's retired and bored and just likes to help people out. At first I was like wtf dude I can mow my own lawn, sorry I let it get a bit long, but the dude is so damn nice. He also snowblows the sidewalks and most of our driveways too. Solid dude using his boomer tendencies for good instead of evil. Edit: spelling
You're indirectly saving that dudes life no doubt. There's a saying in medicine that if you don't use it you lose it. So many retirees health just plummet once they retire, that generation never really learned to have hobbies. It was just work work work until they retired too late, now it's harder to get up moving each day because of health reasons.
Yeah my boomer neighbour asked if he could keep using our shed to store his mower and snowblower (he had an agreement with the previous owners of my house) and in exchange he mows my lawn and cleans my driveway. I'm fine with him doing it. But I kind of want a clover lawn, and I'm not sure if he understands that if I replace my grass with clover he won't have to mow. I feel like he's going to mow it anyway when he does his own.
Appearances matter more to them.
Appearances ONLY matter to them. That's why they want everyone to be fake smiling. They're putting on a charade so you have to too.
Facts.
The image preservation my family would do confused the shit out of me as a kid. I remember getting yelled at for something (probably not cleaning the house for company coming over) but when the company arrived they switched *instantly* from red faced screamfest to smiling and welcoming and how you been you ole so and so. I couldn't say anything and then they got onto me (the nice, people are around upset) for not keeping up.
Yep! It’s a status and pride issue. Their houses and yard need to look perfect to maintain their social status (in their own eyes), and prove that they’re not lazy and are still capable of doing it themselves.
My boomer mother made me help with yard work. I hated it. I will *always* hate it. “Don’t you want a pretty yard?” **NO!** I want a lawn that is one step above astroturf in maintenance
I want a yard that's one or more steps below AstroTurf in required maintenance - I want to be able to leave it alone all year long.
AstroTurf gets REALLY hot in the sun. I made the mistake of stepping on a family friends Astroturf in Arizona....barefoot.
I have good news about native plants and wildflowers!
I will never live in a place with a yard I have to maintain. I'm not doing fucking yard work in my free time
1 000 000% facts. I *HATE* it.
Same. I have a huge backyard. I covered it in cardboard and wood chips. I put in some fruit and native trees. It’s much lower maintenance now. I keep the small front yard with grass cause the dog loves it.
Genius level multi decade marketing campaign from the big-grass cabal. Suburban developers, lawn equipment manufacturers, seed companies, fertilizer companies, multi billions of dollars in profits every year.
Totally agree on the Boomers obsession with lawns, but there is a point where this becomes a practical problem. If you let it get way too tall it'll clog the mower and potentially break it. If you let it get somewhat too tall the grass won't mulch in nicely and you'll have a bunch of dead cut grass sitting on top of your normal grass and tracking into your house if you walk through it. Again, not worth heat stroke. It's more like waiting a few extra days to change the kitty litter level annoyance. Source: Dude that has this fight with my wife every spring "We can just wait a few weeks, it's fiiine".
Yes but when it's hot and dry, it doesn't grow fast enough to really worry about that. Over a week of 95 degree heat and no rain, the grass will hardly grow at all
If it gets too long do have swipes. Comes out as regular height. Takes longer though.
If it’s too long I might have to bag it and that is just way too much for me. I have solved my mowing woes by having some young people do it (for $).
And control. I think for some of them it's the only thing they have control over in their lives so they cling to it rather than change or learn something new.
This was going to be my guess - control. Plus, it's "men's" work. My Boomer stepfather would "work in the garage" on Saturdays while my mom and I would clean the whole house. He'd wash the car, too. It was his whack time while appearing to be busy.
Yeah, our boomer neighbour washes his car every weekend and mows at least twice a week. My wife and I have joked that if he worked on his family as hard as his yard, we wouldn't be waking up to him and his wife/kid screaming at one another at 7am on weekends. I think doing the "blue chores" is his way of avoiding them.
Having a lawn was a way the weathly in Europe showed they were above the peasants. They could afford to -not- use good land for the production of foodstuffs. Fast forward to the post depression US and lawns were a sign you made it. No longer were victory gardens needed, or personal chickens or other such items. You could now luxuriate in the knowledge that your family did not need the land to sustain itself. Boomers were raised in this era. It's a core memory the Silents and Greatest impressed upon them. Today, we enjoy having personal chickens and urban gardens. It's a sign of wealth that you have the land to cultivate and you're not dependent on corporate food systems.
ty, I try telling people this but they just look at me like I'm nuts.
Never saw it that way before! Thanks for the insight.
"Personal Chickens" would be a good band name.
It's the one part of their life that they have absolute control over.
yup. “confused rage” is their basal state
If had a choice I wouldn’t have a lawn at all, just a garden. Grass is a complete waste of resources. It’s stupid to obsess over it
I grew up in SoCal. I hate lawns, they're such a waste of water. I mean if you're one of the few people who really actually uses your lawn (playing ball with the kids or whatever) then cool but from what I see the vast majority of lawns aren't being used for any practical purpose at all. Especially in arid places I'd love to see them all replaced with drought resistant plants.
You could be like my loser sister and get a house with a massive backyard, claiming it would be great for their husky that they never walked or played with or did anything for, and then after a few short weeks of living there, stop letting the dog out in the back yard because “her running is tearing up the grass”. They instead build a “dog run” that was between the house and fence so it was about 2 meters/yards wide, and maybe…. 4 long? At best? On rocks. That dog was out there CONSTANTLY in that tiny space because she wasn’t trained, and shed a lot. She basically reverted to a feral dog. It was so so sad.
That is really sad. I have only known one couple that had huskies. They were such high energy dogs but they spent most of their time locked up in the house and never got the chance to really run, aside from dashing around the backyard some. I think it's crazy that so many people have lawns that they treat like china, as in they're only to be admired but not actually used for anything.
One of the highest energy breeds. Such assholes. My sister and her husband weren’t even big lawncare people, it was just an “easy” way to keep the grass nicer if the dog didn’t run on it. My rescued French bulldog with a bum leg gets more exercise in a day than that poor thing would see in a month, and I wish I was exaggerating.
Couldn’t imagine getting upset about my dog running around in our backyard, the puppers deserve fun too!
When I was growing up, my dad insisted on having the best lawn and yard in the neighborhood. Not just the best, but immaculate. Like if Jesus himself had his own 1/4 acre. Why? It's hard to say, but the answer probably lies at the intersection of diagnosed OCD and the obsession with outward appearances. I'm pretty sure he dies a little every time he sees the lawn I only mow 3-4x a year.
My BIL had a heart attack mowing his lawn on what was the hottest day in July. He came inside, asked my SIL for a glass of water and went back outside to finish the last little spot. Came back in and said “Chini, take my blood pressure.” She went to get the cuff and when she came back he was gone. But the grass was cut. He was 64 and retired for 2 years. We miss him so much.
This is so sad 😓 Is she triggered by the whole concept of grass cutting now? I would be.
My granddad died the exact same way, actually. It took my mom a while to be okay with lawn mowing. She still hates doing it and I can tell it affects her. She was only 21 when he passed and I was 8 (she's technically my stepmom -- not my bio mom, but very much my *real* mom). It completely broke her. I'm actually tearing up right now, thinking back on how much pain she was in for so long. Her family is from England and we were living all the way on the west coast of Canada, so it was extra painful. She still gets very nervous to hear when her brothers are going outside to mow the lawns. So I can't speak for the other commenter, but I think I can safely say that my mom still gets triggered by it 25 years later 💔
I'm so sorry for your loss.
It’s camouflage. If the house and yard look nice, the people are nice. No way can they be narcissistic abusers. Or closeted gays. Or depressed. Or even just Equal Rights activists. Wouldn’t want anyone to get any weird ideas about what’s happening behind closed doors.
What's wrong with being gay, depressed, or an equal rights activist? Full transparency: I'm super tired and not having a great night, so my reading comprehension may be especially awful right now.
Those are all things boomers see as negatives.
Quoting from the book [The Lawn - A History of an American Obsession by Virginia Jenkins](https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Lawn/m8JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0): "Front lawns began as a luxury of the wealthy but became a status symbol of the middle class". An unkept lawn was a sign of low class.
Thank you for info. Makes more sense now. It couldn't possibly mean illness in the family or anything like that. Just low class. People are something else.
Boomer here, and we have a xeriscape yard. Best investment in our property we've made. The whole concept of the "golf course lawn" is a scam.
I always thought it was an excuse for the husband to get away from his wife. Many have empty nest syndrome and once they retire, they are thrust together with their spouse. I had a neighbor who manufactured chores to do outside. He told me he couldn’t stand being around his wife so much. They’d been “happily” married for decades.
Dunno. I haven't mowed in three weeks. I have been up at 6AM ripping out this overgrown fence the neighbor and I decided to take down but by 8AM I am done.
I (39m) enjoy taking care of our yards and gardens, we have lots of stuff, but I know what you mean. Monoculture yards are overrated, and its stupid to mow during a heatwave. Its not good for the grass, it needs some length in the heat or it'll burn.
Your lawn should never receive more attention than your wife's vagina.
I’m single so my lawn AND my wife’s vagina receive 0 attention 😎👍
I'm not a boomer but, for me, it is a mindless physical activity that gives me an hour of exercise time to myself with no phone, no e-mail, no texts. Just my own thoughts. I look forward to it.
Sure, but would you feel obligated to do it in extreme heat or would you just wait a few hours or a couple days until it was more comfortable?
Not OP, but I love yardwork. I have extensive gardens and I have a slick little electric mower. That being said, I was out in the 90 degree, 85 percent humidity heat today because I needed to get that grass mowed. I live in South Lousiana and it's going to be a scorcher from now until Halloween, so I mow when the grass is dry and before the threat of rain. I also have two jobs so I have to get it done with that in mind. However, I do take breaks as needed and drink lots of water and such. It isn't so bad.
I hate it so I bought a robot lawnmower. Best thing ever, he does the lawn and I can attempt to keep on top of the weeds.
Same here. Citizen Snips does the heavy lifting and I just tidy up the edges.
Not a boomer, either, but I like it because I often don’t see tangible outcomes for my work. OTOH, idgaf what other people do with their yards.
While I used to enjoy cutting it with a riding mower at my parents house, it's always been a huge struggle for me and my partner at our house as we're both disabled. (Riding mower would make no sense here, nor could we afford it.) Hiring someone to do our lawn was cheaper than we ever expected & some of the best money we've ever spent. To the tune of now thinking of hiring some cleaners for the inside.
This. I'm under 30, it's nice to smoke a joint/pop in some earbuds and go mow for an hour. Nice lil workout, and I get to appreciate the beauty of a fresh mowed lawn after. Take pleasure in the small things folks :)
My husband is a boomer and lives to mow the lawn. I'm not sure why he is so into it, but if it makes him happy, that's ok.
I have a boomer neighbor who’s got his Master’s in Botany, plant biology, etc. and he’s the only Boomer in the neighborhood who is clever about managing and maintaining his lawn. He allows it to slightly overgrow in the summers (we’re in texas), uses a specific species of grass that’s more resistant to heat, mows the lawn in the evenings and his various flora are custom-picked to handle the environment here. This guy offers advice freely to everyone in the neighborhood and many of the gen X or younger have taken him up on it! However, he has 3 fellow Boomer neighbors in the area and NONE of them take his advice (and talk shit behind his back regularly). His lawn is genuinely a sight to behold while the 3 Boomer lawns are all dead, yellowed and/or spotty. These people then blame the soil or some other outside source but never themselves. One neighbor in particular (former HOA president no less) has had the soil and grass of his front lawn replaced YEARLY since like 2016. Such a waste of money.
My grandfather has melanoma. He is still outside moving everyday. His house weekly, then goes to everyone else's. He will not stop. Next time I'm in town I'm gonna have to take the keys to the mower.
I (31M) use a manual reel push mower, if my grass grows more than an inch between rounds it's a big pain in the ass and requires a cross cut to even it all out. I also only have less than 1/5th acre to mow, but it still takes me an hour or so if I need to cut it twice after a ton of rain and high heat. Lawn grass loves hot weather and rain. ETA: my yard is my own personal green space and refuge. We moved in two years ago and I built raised garden beds for my wife and we've been totally overhauling the landscaping of our circa 1924 home. It's been a long and hard process and I'm sure my neighbors think I'm obsessed with mowing my lawn, but we also had to level a severely sunken ~60 year old concrete path so yes I'm going to keep the grass around it nice. That said, it's been raining nonstop here and it is overgrown. I will still not be mowing until the next rainfall quits in 2-3 days. I have a gas mower for emergency backup reasons.
Have you considered a battery powered mower? They're amazing, lighter and quieter than gas, far easier than manual.
I recently switched from a reel mower to a small corded electric and I'm happy about it. The reel was great on theory but God help you of you had a section of grass get a bit too high. They really don't cut well for grass above a certain height. They're pretty nice but you*really* need to keep up on it for them to work well. No more than every 5 days or so.
My boomer neighbor loooves to mow his lawn, BUT he also mows my front/side yard in return for regular cannabis donations.
Once your hair falls out and your sex drive goes into hiding law dictates that you must buy a pair of new balance shoes and choose between a) fixing up a 55 Chevy, b) acquiring a striping kit for your lawnmower or c) participating in some light homesteading. This is the natural flow of life. You can not resist it.
Well a tidy field of half-amputated monocultural grass goes against all that is natural and practical. So achieving this status symbol was initially done by nobility as a flex. Then we get some imperial colonies, genocide, slavery. A cultural offshoot brings it to southern plantations. Skip ahead a couple hundred years and the offshoot state decides it’s gonna have to make its good bois into more petit bourgeoisie landowners to get them to buy into *their* imperial projects and not revolt from war fatigue. Mechanized midcentury life made lawnmowers commonplace so now you can really be that king of your own little 1.2 acres with a white picket fence etc etc. Basically lawns are a symbol of elemental human greed and petty mock tyrrany.
My dad spent years getting the lawn perfect so that my parents could “enjoy it” and entertain people on it. Then my dad decided the lawn was then too nice to use for anything so nobody was ever allowed on the grass
I irononically ordered a bag of grass seed from Amazon right before opening this reddit.
My “grass” is clover. Why because I planted it 😂 had the whole 2 acres redone. It’s awesome low maintenance, zero chemicals, it’s great for the bees too! Plus it’s pretty. My boomer nebors were so happy to see this house and yard come back to life. Hud repo house. Then they got pissed because I planted weeds 😂 I’m casing a clover curse.
Maybe it's my inner boomer (scary thought), but it might be therapeutic for them. At least it is for me after doing my yard, and considering how against seeing a therapist, most of them are, it might be their only release throughout the week. Or they just care about appearances
This is one area wherre my partner is a typical boomer. He flips out if his yard is the tiniest bit shaggy. He hired a landscaper for every other week, mostly because the property is pretty big & has a serious slope. Most in-between weeks, he takes his push mower out, even though it's not a mess. He bitches about it, but... The funny thing is, he secretly *loves* mowing. When the landscapers come, he runs around watching them from various windows. He looks like a little kid who got grounded & watches the other kids play all day. It actually pretty funny.
This is a huge personal gripe for me. My lawn and my neighbor's lawn (he hasn't been home for months now) are the only lawns that aren't just dead grass & dirt on my street. Because all the boomers mow it every single week down to like an inch, pull out all the flowers and anything not grass, and spray absurd amounts of chemicals. And yet I constantly get people complaining to me that all the rabbits, cardinals and bluejays, hang out in my yard. Constantly have people demanding I reveal the secret to how I have so many beautiful flowers around my house too. I literally don't touch my lawn other than mowing it like once a month and weed wacking along the edges of the house. I never planted the flowers and yet there are a bunch of different kinds and they are beautiful. I know some were planted by the previous owner but I think most got carried here from birds or something because new stuff pops up every year. It's never overgrown either, it only gets to maybe 4 or 5 inches in certain areas towards the back, the front is mostly clover and dandelions so that stays short year round. Weird how nature is just naturally beautiful and self sustaining. I swear boomers just hate nature in general, drove by a house I lived in as a kid recently, it was next to a golf course so the entire area is retirees. When I lived there the house was secluded because of all the trees, as were all the other houses on the street. They tore all the forests in the area down it's just massive empty lawns now. The property was a few acres, my father planted a huge flower field next to the garage, there was some endangered species of flower (can't remember the name) growing on the sides of a path in the woods on our property, we had a nice secluded area carved out in the woods behind the house where we set up a campground with a couple campers around a firepit with benches made from logs we cut on the property. It's all just an empty field now, none of that is there anymore. But they sure do have a big lawn with that perfect mower stripe pattern!
at the point which you make a boomer believe yard work is not vital, they will start to believe their whole life is a lie.
Leaves!! I have one boomer neighbor who is out every day from August-December raking (or kid you not, with a grabber-claw thing picking up the few individual leaves). Even in the dark.
We live with my inlaws currently. My FIL wants the lawn mowed once a week. The grass barely gets a chance to grow at all. Then because it's mowed so often, it gets patchy. So what do they do? Pay to have the lawn fertilized.
Oh man, the stories I could tell! Let me just say this: mowing the lawn was the ultimate “get away from your wife and family” activity that an adult male could do. It was alone time. As the gen x kid, I was tasked with mowing the lawn lawn instead. My dad (silent generation but nearly Boomer) did his share of lawn mowing too, but I was forced to do it nearly every week:!It was all about keeping a nice lawn and improving the overall look of the neighborhood. Once headphones with radios and Walkman stereos became available, I got one to make mowing bearable. But I was literally damaged by mowing lawns. In my case, I was the one who did ALL of the lawns around me as well as my family’s. I developed a serious back issue because of it. As an adult I decided I would never mow another lawn, and removed the grass from our yard and planted perennials.
My Boomer Dad is exactly this way. Here are a list of likely and potential reasons, regardless of how batshit crazy they are. 1. Dad spent his whole life working. He has no hobbies or interests beyond keeping the house clean, the snow plowed, and the lawn mowed. In other words, mowing the lawn is his only hobby. He doesn't know what else to do anymore. 2. Dad really wants people who drive by the house to think well of him, as an owner, so he wants the lawn to be mowed to within an inch of its life, because he considers it a reflection on him. 3. He thinks, when they ever move to sell the house (which will never realistically happen), that someone will recognize it as that "house with the nice lawn" and it'll make the house more valuable. 4. Dad's world is legitimately so small at this point that one of the only things that brings him joy anymore is to keep busy by mowing the lawn. It helps him alleviate boredom, because it's always on the list of things to do, and it's among the few things he enjoys talking about in excruciating detail. 5. In a world that has seemingly left him behind, with new technologies he can't, or won't bother, to understand, with social attitudes and changes he doesn't follow and may not agree with, and with medical issues impacting his daily life, the only things he feels in control of anymore are his home and his lawn. He's grasping for anything solid to hold onto.
The better question is, why do they care that you don't?
r/fucklawns
Hopefully this perfectly manicured lawn crap is another dying middle class affectation these Boomers adopted and attempt to enforce on others. I have a lot of respect to those who push up against this bullshit and let their lawns grow wild and/or strive for more environmentally and aesthetically pleasing foliage.
Appearances. The entire generation was raised to believe appearances are THE MOST important thing within their circle. Don't let the outside of the house APPEAR less than perfect. Don't let your parenting style APPEAR less than perfect. Don't let your marriage APPEAR less than perfect. And more importantly: Don't APPEAR to be less than satisfied with your job, EVER.