I mowed an acre of a terribly sloped lawn for 18 years. Couldn't use a ride mower. And I went thru 3 Sears self-propelled mowers, until I got a John Deere mower that had the right engine lubricating system. (The other engines just kept on burning up because when these mowers were tilted on my slope -- parts of the engine would not get lubricated.) However, all of the wheels on my mowers (big ones and small ones) generally had to be replaced every three years. When I first mowed this lawn it took it 6 hours. (Of course, I didn't know what I was doing since I had never mowed anything in my life.) I got the hang of things, and became very proficient at mowing the lawn in 2.5 hours; then my children got older and started to help me out, so with some help and two mowers operating at once, it took me around 1.5 hours.
When my last child left for school, the lawn became a real challenge again. And I was becoming very tired of my 18 plus hours of commuting to work every week. I hired a local service (someone I knew fairly well) to mow my lawn every other week. I would mow the other week. I think I got a dirt cheap service for $88 a pop -- most would charge $100. I moved closer to my job recently but still have this killer lawn and house and I'm paying $88 a pop for lawn care. I hope I can sell this house this year!
I transitioned into a condo -- it's great not having any real home maintenance issues after having a high maintenance house. But when I retire and relocate, I want a house with a manageable lawn -- I enjoyed the physical work out when mowing and it kept my mental state at rest.