I'm not bragging or anything....

[bigbull338]

congrats for teaching your daughter the safe right way to run equipment.we take risks in life everyday,but the key is knowing how todo what your doing an the risks involved.ive been around equipment all my life so i learned quick tobe careful.

 

[drivadesl]

Outside not wearing a seatbelt, I see nothing wrong with the OP's approach. And cute little girl too BTW, i've got two myself. You've got good reason to be proud.

 

[teg]

:laughing: ...Where's the hard hat, steel toe shoes, leather gloves, safety glasses, hear protection, full body armor, crash helmet... did I miss anything? A cup, oops... never mind, scratch that...

Good for you for letting her learn...

I was going to post photos of the kids that have driven my tractor... But better to pretend that it didn't happen. Instead, a photo of me... without a seat belt ...and not working the controls worth a hoot $%^&*

 

[cowpatty]

Well first of all it was not an 8 ft trench, 6ft hole in sandy sandy soil. It was not anywhere near its capabilites. I picked this spot knowing the digging environment would not throw the machine around.

Like I said before, I was right next to her the whole time. I did not let her set the machine up, start or stop it, spin the seat, let the stabilizers down or anything else like that. All I did was let her slowly drive the machine and dig a hole.

I'm proud of my little girl for how well she handles herself. I appreciate all the kind comments from everyone.

 

[Chilly807]

I'll add a little bit to this. At the farm where we used to board our two horses, the owner burns firewood, as we do. We help her bring it from the barn to the house and store it.

Two of the people that ride there are 13 year old girls, both very nice young ladies. Last winter we had lots of snow, and we were hauling firewood one Sunday afternoon, with the girls helping me load the tractor bucket and then going back to the house to help stack it.

After a trip or two, (we put in about a cord at a time) they started asking if they could ride in the bucket on the way to the barn, then perched like two squirrels on the fenders for the trip to the house, chattering away and generally having a great time.

They tried to convince me to lift it all the way up and dump them into a deep snowbank, but after thinking about one of them maybe banging her head on the bucket lip on the way out I decided that wasn't going to happen.

One mother noticed the two of them in the bucket and was a bit worried about the safety of it. The other (farm girl from way back) laughed and said that at that age, she was driving the tractor, not riding in the bucket..

I guess my point is that we can't insulate them from everything and still have them grow up to be self-sufficient young adults, nor should we rob them of their youth. If they want to take a half hour to muck a stall out, that's fine with me, there'll come a time in their lives when they don't have the luxury of taking their time.

It's nice to see your daughter actually WANT to play with the backhoe just like Dad, instead of spending her time playing a video game or gabbling on Facebook or replying to a post on some internet site... hmm.. slippery ground there :laughing:

Sean

Sean

 

[Sutol]

Looks like she was enjoyin it too, start em young I say, I was driving a Ferguson T20 when I was seven, had to stand up to use the clutch, was very proud that I could make a machine do what I wanted.

Too much health and safety these days stoppin kids learning skills, if they are sensable they will come to no harm.

 

[SensibleNick]

As a dad to a 7 week old little boy, I can't help but look at threads like this and grin from ear to ear.

I'm really looking forward to teaching him as much as he wants to learn... but then I wonder.... do I really want to teach him how to use and operate big and potentially dangerous machines?... because... well... once he's had a taste, he'll want to do all the fun work !! :laughing:

Good on ya Cowpatty :thumbsup: