Where are the wholesome, mainstream kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is your teen 15 and still not in high school? My freshman son is 13 and going to be 14 in late October. Is that normal for here? We moved here a few years ago. I’m a little concerned he will have classmates so old. Are there really 19 year olds in high school

Do you live in New York? Most states paid attention to the research that it was better for kids to start Kindergarten already 5, and moved their starting dates. New York is one of the last hold outs. Too bad for your kid.

Yeah, where do you live that you have a 13 year old freshmen - yikes! I'm concerned about that.

My district has a 9/1 cutoff, and my DD has an early September bday. So -- other than any red-shirted kids -- she is one of the very OLDEST in her grade, and she will turn 13 the third week of 7th grade.

Dp. This area has mostly 9/1 or 9/30 cutoff dates, and I think down south it can be even earlier. We used to live in NY where they had 12/1 and 12/30 cutoffs.

In this area, a 13 yo freshman with an October bday will definitely have kids 13 months older than him in their class, and probably a decent number of kids 15 to 18 months older.

My August bday dd was more than a year younger than a good number of her classmates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Catholic school.

Uhm. No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic school.

Uhm. No.

It’s true in our case, but then we live in Southern California.

[Anonymous]

What’s up with using the word “wholesome”? I don’t get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always find it so funny that so many ppl believe that sports kids dont do any of those things. They are some of the biggest culprits, at least when I went to school they were.

Seriously. My kid plays a HS and travel sport and some of those kids are very much into bad stuff.

Depends on the sport! Cross country, swimming are usually good kids. So much training, hard to party much if you’re serious about them.

The studies have said the biggest drinking partiers are the ones in group sports, football, basketball, hockey, exactly who you would think would be the drinkers and partiers. That doesn’t mean they’re not good kids.

[Anonymous]

Sports. If he's not super sporty, then find a no cut sports team like XC. At our school, they are a close knit, fun bunch of kids.

Also theater, band, or another club. I know a lot of kids found their group -though they tend to be the "popular" ones- in that bullsh-- "Leadership class" at the HSs.

[Anonymous]

At many schools, not all, running (any kind) is a "no cut" sport. Better running coaches focus on helping each student improve their personal best times. I know of many cases where this sport attracted fewer (not zero; exceptions always exist) of the drinking/drugs kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is your 15 year old starting high school? My 15 year old is going into junior year. Did you hold him back two years?

Huh? It's pretty common to be 12 in 6th grade, 13 in 7th and 14 in 8th. Most turn 15 in 9th but not at all uncommon to have an August birthday.

Also, it's super common to redshirt athletes.

Not sure why anyone is fixating on the age here.

Um, no it's not. It's so weird to infantile your kids and have them graduating high school 2 years after they turn adults

It is regardless of your personal opinion on it. Colleges don't care how old their athletes are. It's also more common the stronger the high school is in sports.

BTW, that means most graduate high school as 19 year olds vs. 18 year olds.

It is stupid to redshirt some poor little kid so he’ll be the big kid in tee ball. He ends up not being very good at sports so it ends up being a poor choice.

The talented athletes who aren’t quite there at graduation, maybe need to mature a little go to a prep school for a year on scholarship and then on to college. This makes a whole lot more sense.

Most common thing to do is repeat 8th grade, not start later in K.

Again, it’s usually the most talented athletes recruited to a sports private that allow the kids to repeat 8th grade at the private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s up with using the word “wholesome”? I don’t get it.

OP wants her kids to be conventional, conservative and uninteresting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is your 15 year old starting high school? My 15 year old is going into junior year. Did you hold him back two years?

Huh? It's pretty common to be 12 in 6th grade, 13 in 7th and 14 in 8th. Most turn 15 in 9th but not at all uncommon to have an August birthday.

Also, it's super common to redshirt athletes.

Not sure why anyone is fixating on the age here.

Um, no it's not. It's so weird to infantile your kids and have them graduating high school 2 years after they turn adults

It is regardless of your personal opinion on it. Colleges don't care how old their athletes are. It's also more common the stronger the high school is in sports.

BTW, that means most graduate high school as 19 year olds vs. 18 year olds.

It is stupid to redshirt some poor little kid so he’ll be the big kid in tee ball. He ends up not being very good at sports so it ends up being a poor choice.

The talented athletes who aren’t quite there at graduation, maybe need to mature a little go to a prep school for a year on scholarship and then on to college. This makes a whole lot more sense.

Talented athletes aren’t given a scholarship to go to prep school except maybe in hockey where that seems to be the standard.

Talented athletes in all other sports are recruited direct to college (or direct to pros for baseball or soccer).

It’s mainly the people still indulging the D1 dream that do a 5th year…and they are paying full freight.

Almost nobody gets a scholarship to IMG at $90k/year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For my teens their friends who are good kids came from either sports teams or theatre.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always find it so funny that so many ppl believe that sports kids dont do any of those things. They are some of the biggest culprits, at least when I went to school they were.

Seriously. My kid plays a HS and travel sport and some of those kids are very much into bad stuff.

Depends on the sport! Cross country, swimming are usually good kids. So much training, hard to party much if you’re serious about them.

The studies have said the biggest drinking partiers are the ones in group sports, football, basketball, hockey, exactly who you would think would be the drinkers and partiers. That doesn’t mean they’re not good kids.

Let's lose the good and bad label. They will all mostly go on and lead productive lives.

But yes, these team sports listed above and I would add lacrosse and baseball as big culprits, there is engagement in riskier behavior earlier. As a parent you either don't care (many don't) or it's more to manage and keep an eye on.

[Anonymous]

A summer job next summer would help. My son has worked every summer since he was 15 and the kids he has worked with are down to earth and have a drive.

[Anonymous]

Swim team, theatre or working at the pool as a lifeguard. At least that’s the case with our older two kids.

In my observations over the last 10+ years, the swim team kids are by and large as wholesome as apple pie and wonder bread.

[Anonymous]

Theater kids are the biggest drinkers of them all. At least they were when I was in school. Sports kids tend to get high. I keep advising my teens to make friends with nerdy kids who are more likely to be sincere but that's probably just not true.

All human beings are different. They have different characters and different interests. And they mature and change at different rates. Maybe your kid is a loner and that's why they can't find the imaginary good, wholesome kids to be friends with -- but that will change, too. Life is long.