mad - kid in kindergarten has late birthday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

Ha! This is silly. In extracurriculars this doesn’t matter. I skipped a grade and graduated with kids who were significantly older. My kid swims competitively. It doesn’t matter how old the kindergartners are, they’re still going to be ranked by birth year regardless of school year — maybe have your kid do that?

Silly goose! You skipped a grade which means you were an . . . Outlier. By definition the age thing wouldn’t necessarily be detrimental to you. Yes, a lot of youth sports correct for this problem through age-based competition but there are many youth sports that are grade based and high school sports are exclusively grade based. What is your solution there?

There will always a club team willing to take your money so your kid cam play. The cream rises to the top, if your kid isn’t good enough then they aren’t good enough. Maybe try violin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

Ha! This is silly. In extracurriculars this doesn’t matter. I skipped a grade and graduated with kids who were significantly older. My kid swims competitively. It doesn’t matter how old the kindergartners are, they’re still going to be ranked by birth year regardless of school year — maybe have your kid do that?

Silly goose! You skipped a grade which means you were an . . . Outlier. By definition the age thing wouldn’t necessarily be detrimental to you. Yes, a lot of youth sports correct for this problem through age-based competition but there are many youth sports that are grade based and high school sports are exclusively grade based. What is your solution there?

There will always a club team willing to take your money so your kid cam play. The cream rises to the top, if your kid isn’t good enough then they aren’t good enough. Maybe try violin.

.

You’re so right about the club and the cream thing! Makes you wonder why little Aiden had to be held back in the first place, huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

Ha! This is silly. In extracurriculars this doesn’t matter. I skipped a grade and graduated with kids who were significantly older. My kid swims competitively. It doesn’t matter how old the kindergartners are, they’re still going to be ranked by birth year regardless of school year — maybe have your kid do that?

Silly goose! You skipped a grade which means you were an . . . Outlier. By definition the age thing wouldn’t necessarily be detrimental to you. Yes, a lot of youth sports correct for this problem through age-based competition but there are many youth sports that are grade based and high school sports are exclusively grade based. What is your solution there?

There will always a club team willing to take your money so your kid cam play. The cream rises to the top, if your kid isn’t good enough then they aren’t good enough. Maybe try violin.

.

You’re so right about the club and the cream thing! Makes you wonder why little Aiden had to be held back in the first place, huh?

No I don’t really care or wonder. You can always do a gap year to level the playing field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For apPs saying why should we care when there is a 7 year old in our DC’s kindergarten class…. Grades are taught by age. A wildly older kid makes it hard for group learning. Unless there are real issues holding that kid back, he/she belongs in first grade.

Grades are taught by what the state standards for the curriculum are for that grade. Someone redshirting their kid doesn’t change the curriculum and the state standards that are already set in place for the teacher. Especially in public school, the teacher isn’t catering to the kids in class that already know the material. They are given busy work and colouring sheets. If a parent feels kindergarten curriculum is what is best suited for her 6/7 hr old, I would trust her judgement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

By the time they’re 16+ the star athlete kids are gonna be star athlete kids. If your kid is not a star athlete by that age just accept it, rather than blaming the parents of Billy for waiting until Billy was six years old to start kindergarten. And you know that kids come in all shapes and sizes regardless of age, don’t you? I know a kid who has always been off the charts tall, even when looking at charts for kids two years older than him. I wonder if people assume he’s always the oldest on the team, when in reality he is often one of the youngest.

It’s not just about the star athlete kids. Indeed, I think the star athlete kids aren’t really impacted by the age thing. They are outliers to begin with. But it does make a difference for the marginal players. I have a friend with a son who was on a good varsity basketball team. His senior year he split the starting position with another player and split playing time (getting about 1/3 of the starts and playing time). Great story, right? Until you find out the other kid was 16 months older and was held back. By any reasonable metric, the younger kid was better on an age-adjusted basis but he missed out because his competitor wasn’t ready for kinder 13 years ago. Tough pill to swallow.

I will bet neither made it to the NBA. So what? Was he banking on a full ride basketball scholarship? They should have seen this coming a mile away.

Funny you say that. The older kid went on to play four years of low level college basketball. Perhaps if the younger kid spent his age 18 year in that solid high school program he gets the same thing? But that’s beside the point. Fairness isn’t just reserved for star athletes destined for the NBA. Literally tens of thousands of kids each year find meaning and development from high school sports. It should be as fair as possible for ALL kids.

Life isn’t fair. But we use things like age categories to try to level the playing field. But what is meant to be a shield protecting fairness has been gamed as a sword by much of the holdback crowd.

Again, if you people really don’t believe this is a big deal, go sign your kid up to compete against kids that are a year older and report back the results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

Ha! This is silly. In extracurriculars this doesn’t matter. I skipped a grade and graduated with kids who were significantly older. My kid swims competitively. It doesn’t matter how old the kindergartners are, they’re still going to be ranked by birth year regardless of school year — maybe have your kid do that?

Silly goose! You skipped a grade which means you were an . . . Outlier. By definition the age thing wouldn’t necessarily be detrimental to you. Yes, a lot of youth sports correct for this problem through age-based competition but there are many youth sports that are grade based and high school sports are exclusively grade based. What is your solution there?

There will always a club team willing to take your money so your kid cam play. The cream rises to the top, if your kid isn’t good enough then they aren’t good enough. Maybe try violin.

.

You’re so right about the club and the cream thing! Makes you wonder why little Aiden had to be held back in the first place, huh?

No I don’t really care or wonder. You can always do a gap year to level the playing field.

So you care enough about the marginal kid getting shafted in this scenario to post some snarky crap but you don’t care about the kids shafting the younger kids? Sure.

I’ll bet you have one of those “In this house signs…”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

By the time they’re 16+ the star athlete kids are gonna be star athlete kids. If your kid is not a star athlete by that age just accept it, rather than blaming the parents of Billy for waiting until Billy was six years old to start kindergarten. And you know that kids come in all shapes and sizes regardless of age, don’t you? I know a kid who has always been off the charts tall, even when looking at charts for kids two years older than him. I wonder if people assume he’s always the oldest on the team, when in reality he is often one of the youngest.

It’s not just about the star athlete kids. Indeed, I think the star athlete kids aren’t really impacted by the age thing. They are outliers to begin with. But it does make a difference for the marginal players. I have a friend with a son who was on a good varsity basketball team. His senior year he split the starting position with another player and split playing time (getting about 1/3 of the starts and playing time). Great story, right? Until you find out the other kid was 16 months older and was held back. By any reasonable metric, the younger kid was better on an age-adjusted basis but he missed out because his competitor wasn’t ready for kinder 13 years ago. Tough pill to swallow.

I will bet neither made it to the NBA. So what? Was he banking on a full ride basketball scholarship? They should have seen this coming a mile away.

Funny you say that. The older kid went on to play four years of low level college basketball. Perhaps if the younger kid spent his age 18 year in that solid high school program he gets the same thing? But that’s beside the point. Fairness isn’t just reserved for star athletes destined for the NBA. Literally tens of thousands of kids each year find meaning and development from high school sports. It should be as fair as possible for ALL kids.

Life isn’t fair. But we use things like age categories to try to level the playing field. But what is meant to be a shield protecting fairness has been gamed as a sword by much of the holdback crowd.

Again, if you people really don’t believe this is a big deal, go sign your kid up to compete against kids that are a year older and report back the results.

Your basketball story is so stupid. My kids wont be tall enough to be great at basketball. Wahh! So unfair! Where is the short league?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

Ha! This is silly. In extracurriculars this doesn’t matter. I skipped a grade and graduated with kids who were significantly older. My kid swims competitively. It doesn’t matter how old the kindergartners are, they’re still going to be ranked by birth year regardless of school year — maybe have your kid do that?

Silly goose! You skipped a grade which means you were an . . . Outlier. By definition the age thing wouldn’t necessarily be detrimental to you. Yes, a lot of youth sports correct for this problem through age-based competition but there are many youth sports that are grade based and high school sports are exclusively grade based. What is your solution there?

There will always a club team willing to take your money so your kid cam play. The cream rises to the top, if your kid isn’t good enough then they aren’t good enough. Maybe try violin.

.

You’re so right about the club and the cream thing! Makes you wonder why little Aiden had to be held back in the first place, huh?

No I don’t really care or wonder. You can always do a gap year to level the playing field.

So you care enough about the marginal kid getting shafted in this scenario to post some snarky crap but you don’t care about the kids shafting the younger kids? Sure.

I’ll bet you have one of those “In this house signs…”

Of course I don’t have a ridiculous sign. I’m not a hypocrite crying about life not being fair when you haven’t acknowledged any of your enormous privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

By the time they’re 16+ the star athlete kids are gonna be star athlete kids. If your kid is not a star athlete by that age just accept it, rather than blaming the parents of Billy for waiting until Billy was six years old to start kindergarten. And you know that kids come in all shapes and sizes regardless of age, don’t you? I know a kid who has always been off the charts tall, even when looking at charts for kids two years older than him. I wonder if people assume he’s always the oldest on the team, when in reality he is often one of the youngest.

It’s not just about the star athlete kids. Indeed, I think the star athlete kids aren’t really impacted by the age thing. They are outliers to begin with. But it does make a difference for the marginal players. I have a friend with a son who was on a good varsity basketball team. His senior year he split the starting position with another player and split playing time (getting about 1/3 of the starts and playing time). Great story, right? Until you find out the other kid was 16 months older and was held back. By any reasonable metric, the younger kid was better on an age-adjusted basis but he missed out because his competitor wasn’t ready for kinder 13 years ago. Tough pill to swallow.

I will bet neither made it to the NBA. So what? Was he banking on a full ride basketball scholarship? They should have seen this coming a mile away.

Funny you say that. The older kid went on to play four years of low level college basketball. Perhaps if the younger kid spent his age 18 year in that solid high school program he gets the same thing? But that’s beside the point. Fairness isn’t just reserved for star athletes destined for the NBA. Literally tens of thousands of kids each year find meaning and development from high school sports. It should be as fair as possible for ALL kids.

Life isn’t fair. But we use things like age categories to try to level the playing field. But what is meant to be a shield protecting fairness has been gamed as a sword by much of the holdback crowd.

Again, if you people really don’t believe this is a big deal, go sign your kid up to compete against kids that are a year older and report back the results.

But you don’t believe that. That’s why you’re not mentioning the kid who didn’t get to play at all because everyone else on the team was at least six months older than him. One of those super late summer birthdays, got into kindergarten just before the cutoff. It’s not fair for kid A to be older than kid B (unfair advantage!) but it’s perfectly fine for kid B to be older than kid C. Because you are mom B and you don’t care about “fairness” you care about your own kid and what is best for him. Obviously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

By the time they’re 16+ the star athlete kids are gonna be star athlete kids. If your kid is not a star athlete by that age just accept it, rather than blaming the parents of Billy for waiting until Billy was six years old to start kindergarten. And you know that kids come in all shapes and sizes regardless of age, don’t you? I know a kid who has always been off the charts tall, even when looking at charts for kids two years older than him. I wonder if people assume he’s always the oldest on the team, when in reality he is often one of the youngest.

It’s not just about the star athlete kids. Indeed, I think the star athlete kids aren’t really impacted by the age thing. They are outliers to begin with. But it does make a difference for the marginal players. I have a friend with a son who was on a good varsity basketball team. His senior year he split the starting position with another player and split playing time (getting about 1/3 of the starts and playing time). Great story, right? Until you find out the other kid was 16 months older and was held back. By any reasonable metric, the younger kid was better on an age-adjusted basis but he missed out because his competitor wasn’t ready for kinder 13 years ago. Tough pill to swallow.

I will bet neither made it to the NBA. So what? Was he banking on a full ride basketball scholarship? They should have seen this coming a mile away.

Funny you say that. The older kid went on to play four years of low level college basketball. Perhaps if the younger kid spent his age 18 year in that solid high school program he gets the same thing? But that’s beside the point. Fairness isn’t just reserved for star athletes destined for the NBA. Literally tens of thousands of kids each year find meaning and development from high school sports. It should be as fair as possible for ALL kids.

Life isn’t fair. But we use things like age categories to try to level the playing field. But what is meant to be a shield protecting fairness has been gamed as a sword by much of the holdback crowd.

Again, if you people really don’t believe this is a big deal, go sign your kid up to compete against kids that are a year older and report back the results.

But you don’t believe that. That’s why you’re not mentioning the kid who didn’t get to play at all because everyone else on the team was at least six months older than him. One of those super late summer birthdays, got into kindergarten just before the cutoff. It’s not fair for kid A to be older than kid B (unfair advantage!) but it’s perfectly fine for kid B to be older than kid C. Because you are mom B and you don’t care about “fairness” you care about your own kid and what is best for him. Obviously.

You’re misreading this. My kid is kid C with the late summer birthday. I’m not mentioning kid B in my posts because you have to have cutoffs somewhere in an educational system organized around age. But when parents intentionally start moving a kid from one cohort to another, that’s where the issue of fairness down the road comes up.

[Anonymous]

Everyone here complaining about redshirting just convinced me to redshirt my own kid. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone here complaining about redshirting just convinced me to redshirt my own kid. Thanks!

So your kids aren't even school age yet? Then you have no idea. But yeah, you should redshirt. That's the issue with redshirting -- if enough people do it, it's a liability not to.

[Anonymous]

Haven't read the whole thread.

But unless you know the circumstances, don't be too mad about it.

My son has a March birthday. He's four right now, but thinking of delaying KG for next year. Just going over our options.

He has a genetic mutation that is not physically evident. He has consistently been behind his peers for crawling, walking, and talking. However, once he learns the skill, you wouldn't even know he had been delayed. Right now he is struggling to keep up with pre-K skills like using scissors. It might make it easier for him if we just delay him a year so he doesn't struggle so much to keep up. He seems to be consistently about a year behind other kids his age.

Point is, don't be mad. Kids are kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

By the time they’re 16+ the star athlete kids are gonna be star athlete kids. If your kid is not a star athlete by that age just accept it, rather than blaming the parents of Billy for waiting until Billy was six years old to start kindergarten. And you know that kids come in all shapes and sizes regardless of age, don’t you? I know a kid who has always been off the charts tall, even when looking at charts for kids two years older than him. I wonder if people assume he’s always the oldest on the team, when in reality he is often one of the youngest.

It’s not just about the star athlete kids. Indeed, I think the star athlete kids aren’t really impacted by the age thing. They are outliers to begin with. But it does make a difference for the marginal players. I have a friend with a son who was on a good varsity basketball team. His senior year he split the starting position with another player and split playing time (getting about 1/3 of the starts and playing time). Great story, right? Until you find out the other kid was 16 months older and was held back. By any reasonable metric, the younger kid was better on an age-adjusted basis but he missed out because his competitor wasn’t ready for kinder 13 years ago. Tough pill to swallow.

I will bet neither made it to the NBA. So what? Was he banking on a full ride basketball scholarship? They should have seen this coming a mile away.

Funny you say that. The older kid went on to play four years of low level college basketball. Perhaps if the younger kid spent his age 18 year in that solid high school program he gets the same thing? But that’s beside the point. Fairness isn’t just reserved for star athletes destined for the NBA. Literally tens of thousands of kids each year find meaning and development from high school sports. It should be as fair as possible for ALL kids.

Life isn’t fair. But we use things like age categories to try to level the playing field. But what is meant to be a shield protecting fairness has been gamed as a sword by much of the holdback crowd.

Again, if you people really don’t believe this is a big deal, go sign your kid up to compete against kids that are a year older and report back the results.

But you don’t believe that. That’s why you’re not mentioning the kid who didn’t get to play at all because everyone else on the team was at least six months older than him. One of those super late summer birthdays, got into kindergarten just before the cutoff. It’s not fair for kid A to be older than kid B (unfair advantage!) but it’s perfectly fine for kid B to be older than kid C. Because you are mom B and you don’t care about “fairness” you care about your own kid and what is best for him. Obviously.

You’re misreading this. My kid is kid C with the late summer birthday. I’m not mentioning kid B in my posts because you have to have cutoffs somewhere in an educational system organized around age. But when parents intentionally start moving a kid from one cohort to another, that’s where the issue of fairness down the road comes up.

How about kids that are too short to play basketball. Is it fair to them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did doing the best thing for your own child become disadvantaging everyone else?

When doing the right thing for your kid has reverberations through high school. What do you think happens in high school senior year when the 17 year old and 18.25 year old are competing for same spot or playing time on the varsity team? If you don’t think this is a big deal, I encourage you to have your child go permanently compete against kids that are 1.25 years older in whatever EC your kid cares about. Please report back.

Again, there are legit reasons to redshirt. But when your redshirted kid shows up dominating in ECs because he’s competing down, well, that’s crappy.

By the time they’re 16+ the star athlete kids are gonna be star athlete kids. If your kid is not a star athlete by that age just accept it, rather than blaming the parents of Billy for waiting until Billy was six years old to start kindergarten. And you know that kids come in all shapes and sizes regardless of age, don’t you? I know a kid who has always been off the charts tall, even when looking at charts for kids two years older than him. I wonder if people assume he’s always the oldest on the team, when in reality he is often one of the youngest.

It’s not just about the star athlete kids. Indeed, I think the star athlete kids aren’t really impacted by the age thing. They are outliers to begin with. But it does make a difference for the marginal players. I have a friend with a son who was on a good varsity basketball team. His senior year he split the starting position with another player and split playing time (getting about 1/3 of the starts and playing time). Great story, right? Until you find out the other kid was 16 months older and was held back. By any reasonable metric, the younger kid was better on an age-adjusted basis but he missed out because his competitor wasn’t ready for kinder 13 years ago. Tough pill to swallow.

I will bet neither made it to the NBA. So what? Was he banking on a full ride basketball scholarship? They should have seen this coming a mile away.

Funny you say that. The older kid went on to play four years of low level college basketball. Perhaps if the younger kid spent his age 18 year in that solid high school program he gets the same thing? But that’s beside the point. Fairness isn’t just reserved for star athletes destined for the NBA. Literally tens of thousands of kids each year find meaning and development from high school sports. It should be as fair as possible for ALL kids.

Life isn’t fair. But we use things like age categories to try to level the playing field. But what is meant to be a shield protecting fairness has been gamed as a sword by much of the holdback crowd.

Again, if you people really don’t believe this is a big deal, go sign your kid up to compete against kids that are a year older and report back the results.

But you don’t believe that. That’s why you’re not mentioning the kid who didn’t get to play at all because everyone else on the team was at least six months older than him. One of those super late summer birthdays, got into kindergarten just before the cutoff. It’s not fair for kid A to be older than kid B (unfair advantage!) but it’s perfectly fine for kid B to be older than kid C. Because you are mom B and you don’t care about “fairness” you care about your own kid and what is best for him. Obviously.

You’re misreading this. My kid is kid C with the late summer birthday. I’m not mentioning kid B in my posts because you have to have cutoffs somewhere in an educational system organized around age. But when parents intentionally start moving a kid from one cohort to another, that’s where the issue of fairness down the road comes up.

Are you at a public school or private? Let's talk about fairness after you answer that question. Then we can talk about household income, height, private tutors, expensive basketball camps and clubs, stable household, food security, height and all the other ways your kid is already winning at life. Then we can talk about basketball. Basketball?!