Pet peeve! Why do parents of holdback kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kids sound young.

If any become strong in their sport you will see a ton of reclassing. Most common to hold the kid back a grade in middle school so they are older during HS. Colleges of course don’t care how old you are as a freshman…just that you are a great player.

I think basketball these days has a crazy high %age of reclassed kids.

So what do the kids who reclassed prek do? records again?

Sure…why not. I think the average age for college hockey players is 22 (mainly doing a 5th or 6th year after HS)…it’s now 21 for nearly every other D1 revenue sport.

Soccer is possibly higher because they recruit all the failed European pro players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Always say their kids are playing “up” in soccer and baseball, when it’s done by age. It drives me bonkers. I have a June 5 birthday child and my neighbor does as well. Same grade, mine is on time birthday and hers is a summer hold back.
They both fall at the end of the baseball calendar year and her son plays the division above but he’s a full year older. She kept insisting how unfair it was that her son was playing on this team being the youngest and I made the point that my son falls in the exact same spot and she can’t agree with me on this. She says it’s completely different. They are both at the end of the year of a Sep to August birth order. Why can’t parents understand the math on this?! It’s by age. It’s not unfair. It’s not playing up either.

Because the amount of anxiety parents have about youth sports, especially at younger ages, is both palpable and unhealthy and also drives a fair amount of team drama.

Yes but come she can’t understand my kid is in the same position? youngest in the group?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sports like lacrosse and basketball are based on school year (high school graduating class of 20xx) versus birth year like baseball or rugby. FWIW, soccer will be switching back to school year soon too.

So perhaps it is that lens that makes a parent of a redshirted child think it is unfair when their child has to play with their birth year?

No, that's not what the change is in soccer. It's by birth year, not graduation year, so if your kid is in the wrong grade for their age that's on you. They just moved the cutoff date from January 1.

So what is it now? Sep 1? that’s school year then as pp said!

[Anonymous]

None of this matters OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of this matters OP.

sadly it does matter at this age! in baseball it’s all the oldest kids who pitch and get higher batting orders

[Anonymous]

It took me a bit to understand what the OP is saying.

That's unfortunately just going to be the way it is for that family's kid. Where they'll be the youngest in most of the activities that they do. That's just what comes with having a birthday at that point. Once they hit around middle/high school, sizes should even out and shouldn't be as much of a factor.

I'm not a big fan of redshirting but know some families with kids with summer birthdays that chose to do so. They end up fibbing on registration forms so that their kids can play on teams with their classmates/friends. But you see the imbalances, especially when there are other players/teams playing up a level, so can have a two to three year gap between players during games. Like I said, I'm personally not a fan and will leave it at that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It took me a bit to understand what the OP is saying.

That's unfortunately just going to be the way it is for that family's kid. Where they'll be the youngest in most of the activities that they do. That's just what comes with having a birthday at that point. Once they hit around middle/high school, sizes should even out and shouldn't be as much of a factor.

I'm not a big fan of redshirting but know some families with kids with summer birthdays that chose to do so. They end up fibbing on registration forms so that their kids can play on teams with their classmates/friends. But you see the imbalances, especially when there are other players/teams playing up a level, so can have a two to three year gap between players during games. Like I said, I'm personally not a fan and will leave it at that.

Yes but my point is why can’t they see my kid is also the youngest in many activities? Both June birthdays, I don’t get how people don’t understand this. The kid who goes on time and is June is also the youngest in the baseball calendar, not just the redshirt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this matters OP.

sadly it does matter at this age! in baseball it’s all the oldest kids who pitch and get higher batting orders

No, it doesn’t matter OP. Even if it did, no matter what the age cut-offs are, SOMEONE will always be the oldest and SOMEONE will always be the youngest. You just need to deal with that and not complain about it whenever YOUR kid happens to be the youngest.

[Anonymous]

Yes how annoying!

Little league forces the summer birthday redshirt kids to play their correct age group (rather than grade). I was always glad about that one.

It’s more frustrating in later years IMHO. For example a freshman baseball player that is almost 16 (turns 16 in June). And there are so many like this- usually they were held back in Kindergarten but more and more are “reclassing”. I know two 8th grade boys who are repeating 8th grade next year - not for any academic reason but for sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes how annoying!

Little league forces the summer birthday redshirt kids to play their correct age group (rather than grade). I was always glad about that one.

It’s more frustrating in later years IMHO. For example a freshman baseball player that is almost 16 (turns 16 in June). And there are so many like this- usually they were held back in Kindergarten but more and more are “reclassing”. I know two 8th grade boys who are repeating 8th grade next year - not for any academic reason but for sports.

Why on Earth would it be more frustrating after the kids go through puberty?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes how annoying!

Little league forces the summer birthday redshirt kids to play their correct age group (rather than grade). I was always glad about that one.

It’s more frustrating in later years IMHO. For example a freshman baseball player that is almost 16 (turns 16 in June). And there are so many like this- usually they were held back in Kindergarten but more and more are “reclassing”. I know two 8th grade boys who are repeating 8th grade next year - not for any academic reason but for sports.

Why on Earth would it be more frustrating after the kids go through puberty?

Says the redshirt mom

[Anonymous]

It's amazing that anyone understood the original post. I'm just moving. I mean even the title of the thread makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It took me a bit to understand what the OP is saying.

That's unfortunately just going to be the way it is for that family's kid. Where they'll be the youngest in most of the activities that they do. That's just what comes with having a birthday at that point. Once they hit around middle/high school, sizes should even out and shouldn't be as much of a factor.

I'm not a big fan of redshirting but know some families with kids with summer birthdays that chose to do so. They end up fibbing on registration forms so that their kids can play on teams with their classmates/friends. But you see the imbalances, especially when there are other players/teams playing up a level, so can have a two to three year gap between players during games. Like I said, I'm personally not a fan and will leave it at that.

Yes but my point is why can’t they see my kid is also the youngest in many activities? Both June birthdays, I don’t get how people don’t understand this. The kid who goes on time and is June is also the youngest in the baseball calendar, not just the redshirt.

It's just the mentality some parents have and you can see it in the maturity level of their kids.

Like I said, I'm personally not a fan but I might be more biased towards always playing up when possible. But I also try to keep in mind that I don't have the full view of things on why they decided to do what they chose to. So try my best not to judge.

Based on just the information you gave, the parents can choose to just make excuses for their kid. ie "they're the youngest" "they're the smallest" "it's not fair"

Or they can try to teach their kids to do their best and not let it be an issue. Where as mentioned, it's just the way things will be for them for a little while. And as you mentioned, there are other kids in the same situation. And also some kids who may have earlier birthdays and are just smaller for their age level.

Sounds like that family falls along the first group above.

I guess you're just venting and there's nothing you can really do about it. It's just the way some people are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes how annoying!

Little league forces the summer birthday redshirt kids to play their correct age group (rather than grade). I was always glad about that one.

It’s more frustrating in later years IMHO. For example a freshman baseball player that is almost 16 (turns 16 in June). And there are so many like this- usually they were held back in Kindergarten but more and more are “reclassing”. I know two 8th grade boys who are repeating 8th grade next year - not for any academic reason but for sports.

Why on Earth would it be more frustrating after the kids go through puberty?

Because a great 16 year old is 99.9% better than a great 14 year old, and that age gap difference follows both kids throughout all of HS. The 0.1% is reserved for the insane athletes like Cooper Flagg who reclassed the other way...graduated HS after his junior year at 17, so he will just turn 19 after his one year at Duke and will be the #1 NBA draft pick.

The kids that reclass in 8th grade aren't weak athletes. Most are the strongest athletes. Again, colleges don't care how old you are. That's why you have 26 year old college QBs. Also, I think during the NCAA basketball tournament that they said the average age of the Auburn starting 5 was slightly older than one NBA team (I can't remember which team).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes how annoying!

Little league forces the summer birthday redshirt kids to play their correct age group (rather than grade). I was always glad about that one.

It’s more frustrating in later years IMHO. For example a freshman baseball player that is almost 16 (turns 16 in June). And there are so many like this- usually they were held back in Kindergarten but more and more are “reclassing”. I know two 8th grade boys who are repeating 8th grade next year - not for any academic reason but for sports.

Why on Earth would it be more frustrating after the kids go through puberty?

Says the redshirt mom

1. Incorrect.
2. That’s not an answer.