The kid might be playing it smart. Maybe he’s stooging the old man:
KID: “I didn’t quite get that part; ya wanna show me again on the next time around?”
Learned helplessness. That didn’t fly for my kids.
The first time my grandparents had me mow part of their lawn, I was 14. It was 1981.
In 1982, I was routinely mowing their lawn in the summer, including putting gas in the mower. The only fault in my method I can see, looking back, is replenishing the gas right after the mower cut out (you’re supposed to wait about 10 minutes for it to cool first). I was a kid; that’s my excuse.