Did a 180 and decided to redshirt my child- question for parents who decided to do the same

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So your kid will turn 7 in kindergarten? Yeah I wouldn't celebrate his 7th birthday with his kinder friends. My son who just finished 2nd grade is still 7.

I agree. That is insane. My child will celebrate their 5th birthday in kindergarten. The fact that your 7 year old may be in class with my 5 year old is ridiculous.

Yes my kid will be 7 the entire 2nd grade school year.

May is ridiculous but it will come to bite the in the ass with travel sports which go by birth date not school year.

Your kid will not be allowed to play with teammates. Zero exceptions. It's National Standard for sports like soccer.

I have an April 2nd kid--red shirting was nowhere on my radar. Inconceivable! Ops kid is May. WTF?!?!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, a "very physical" and "class clown" child who is a year older and bigger than everyone else.

That is going to be awesome.

+1. His teachers will be ecstatic.

...not to mention he'll be almost 2 years older than the kids with late summer/early fall birthdays. DD's is late August - I'd be pretty pissed if she ended up starting kindergarten as a freshly minted 5yo with a 6 1/2 yo. Absurd.

Why? I don't get this attitude. I wouldn't make the choice OP is making if she is accurately representing things, but I don't care if someone else does. The older child is likely to be better at academics and perhaps sports, but who cares at this age. Maybe s/he is more of a handful in class, but certainly being older doesn't automatically mean handful and the fact is, teachers need to be able to handle that. What is your issue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, a "very physical" and "class clown" child who is a year older and bigger than everyone else.

That is going to be awesome.

+1. His teachers will be ecstatic.

...not to mention he'll be almost 2 years older than the kids with late summer/early fall birthdays. DD's is late August - I'd be pretty pissed if she ended up starting kindergarten as a freshly minted 5yo with a 6 1/2 yo. Absurd.

Why? I don't get this attitude. I wouldn't make the choice OP is making if she is accurately representing things, but I don't care if someone else does. The older child is likely to be better at academics and perhaps sports, but who cares at this age. Maybe s/he is more of a handful in class, but certainly being older doesn't automatically mean handful and the fact is, teachers need to be able to handle that. What is your issue?

I don't understand this either. To each his own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So your kid will turn 7 in kindergarten? Yeah I wouldn't celebrate his 7th birthday with his kinder friends. My son who just finished 2nd grade is still 7.

I agree. That is insane. My child will celebrate their 5th birthday in kindergarten. The fact that your 7 year old may be in class with my 5 year old is ridiculous.

Yes my kid will be 7 the entire 2nd grade school year.

May is ridiculous but it will come to bite the in the ass with travel sports which go by birth date not school year.

Your kid will not be allowed to play with teammates. Zero exceptions. It's National Standard for sports like soccer.

No true for rec leagues

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, a "very physical" and "class clown" child who is a year older and bigger than everyone else.

That is going to be awesome.

+1. His teachers will be ecstatic.

...not to mention he'll be almost 2 years older than the kids with late summer/early fall birthdays. DD's is late August - I'd be pretty pissed if she ended up starting kindergarten as a freshly minted 5yo with a 6 1/2 yo. Absurd.

Why? I don't get this attitude. I wouldn't make the choice OP is making if she is accurately representing things, but I don't care if someone else does. The older child is likely to be better at academics and perhaps sports, but who cares at this age. Maybe s/he is more of a handful in class, but certainly being older doesn't automatically mean handful and the fact is, teachers need to be able to handle that. What is your issue?

I don't understand this either. To each his own.

You don't understand that I don't want my daughter in a classroom with a boy a year and a half older? What don't you get? Large amounts of redshirted children skew the expectations upward for maturity, etc. in a way that works against appropriately aged children in the classroom. OP's child (as she describes him, anyway) is already advanced in every area even BEFORE he starts his second year of pre-K, so there is little chance he won't be bored/acting up as he repeats a grade he's already ahead in. No, I don't want a much larger, much older distraction like that in my much younger and smaller child's classroom. Neither do the rest of us anti-redshirters.

Anyway, not my problem. But I feel bad for OP's child; this decision seems more likely to work against him than for him. OP sounds sanctimonious and smug, yet at the same time is trying to mask her anxiety at being "found out" by peppering her posts with lots of cocky little winky faces and LOLs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So your kid will turn 7 in kindergarten? Yeah I wouldn't celebrate his 7th birthday with his kinder friends. My son who just finished 2nd grade is still 7.

I agree. That is insane. My child will celebrate their 5th birthday in kindergarten. The fact that your 7 year old may be in class with my 5 year old is ridiculous.

Yes my kid will be 7 the entire 2nd grade school year.

May is ridiculous but it will come to bite the in the ass with travel sports which go by birth date not school year.

Your kid will not be allowed to play with teammates. Zero exceptions. It's National Standard for sports like soccer.

No true for rec leagues

Does OP strike you as the kind of person who would be content with a rec league?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, a "very physical" and "class clown" child who is a year older and bigger than everyone else.

That is going to be awesome.

+1. His teachers will be ecstatic.

...not to mention he'll be almost 2 years older than the kids with late summer/early fall birthdays. DD's is late August - I'd be pretty pissed if she ended up starting kindergarten as a freshly minted 5yo with a 6 1/2 yo. Absurd.

Why? I don't get this attitude. I wouldn't make the choice OP is making if she is accurately representing things, but I don't care if someone else does. The older child is likely to be better at academics and perhaps sports, but who cares at this age. Maybe s/he is more of a handful in class, but certainly being older doesn't automatically mean handful and the fact is, teachers need to be able to handle that. What is your issue?

I don't understand this either. To each his own.

You don't understand that I don't want my daughter in a classroom with a boy a year and a half older? What don't you get? Large amounts of redshirted children skew the expectations upward for maturity, etc. in a way that works against appropriately aged children in the classroom. OP's child (as she describes him, anyway) is already advanced in every area even BEFORE he starts his second year of pre-K, so there is little chance he won't be bored/acting up as he repeats a grade he's already ahead in. No, I don't want a much larger, much older distraction like that in my much younger and smaller child's classroom. Neither do the rest of us anti-redshirters.

Anyway, not my problem. But I feel bad for OP's child; this decision seems more likely to work against him than for him. OP sounds sanctimonious and smug, yet at the same time is trying to mask her anxiety at being "found out" by peppering her posts with lots of cocky little winky faces and LOLs.

I guess I just think that my child can handle being in a class with some kids 1.5 year older. Absolutely cannot see the big deal. I'm told that redshirting is prevalent here and so far we've just never had a problem with older kids in the classroom. I could see it, a little if we are talking high school, but I was a freshman (Jan birthday) who met and started dating a senior (for 3.5 years) so I found an "older" guy anyway and I'm still ok! This is a worry without any evidence that there is a problem (for the other kids in the class).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, a "very physical" and "class clown" child who is a year older and bigger than everyone else.

That is going to be awesome.

+1. His teachers will be ecstatic.

...not to mention he'll be almost 2 years older than the kids with late summer/early fall birthdays. DD's is late August - I'd be pretty pissed if she ended up starting kindergarten as a freshly minted 5yo with a 6 1/2 yo. Absurd.

Why? I don't get this attitude. I wouldn't make the choice OP is making if she is accurately representing things, but I don't care if someone else does. The older child is likely to be better at academics and perhaps sports, but who cares at this age. Maybe s/he is more of a handful in class, but certainly being older doesn't automatically mean handful and the fact is, teachers need to be able to handle that. What is your issue?

I don't understand this either. To each his own.

You don't understand that I don't want my daughter in a classroom with a boy a year and a half older? What don't you get? Large amounts of redshirted children skew the expectations upward for maturity, etc. in a way that works against appropriately aged children in the classroom. OP's child (as she describes him, anyway) is already advanced in every area even BEFORE he starts his second year of pre-K, so there is little chance he won't be bored/acting up as he repeats a grade he's already ahead in. No, I don't want a much larger, much older distraction like that in my much younger and smaller child's classroom. Neither do the rest of us anti-redshirters.

Anyway, not my problem. But I feel bad for OP's child; this decision seems more likely to work against him than for him. OP sounds sanctimonious and smug, yet at the same time is trying to mask her anxiety at being "found out" by peppering her posts with lots of cocky little winky faces and LOLs.

Frankly your kid is going to fit in - and her kid is going to stick out. So I wouldn't worry too much about one outlier kid.

[Anonymous]

Your beef is with the School Board not other parents who are doing something that the law leaves to the parents' discretion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, a "very physical" and "class clown" child who is a year older and bigger than everyone else.

That is going to be awesome.

+1. His teachers will be ecstatic.

...not to mention he'll be almost 2 years older than the kids with late summer/early fall birthdays. DD's is late August - I'd be pretty pissed if she ended up starting kindergarten as a freshly minted 5yo with a 6 1/2 yo. Absurd.

Why? I don't get this attitude. I wouldn't make the choice OP is making if she is accurately representing things, but I don't care if someone else does. The older child is likely to be better at academics and perhaps sports, but who cares at this age. Maybe s/he is more of a handful in class, but certainly being older doesn't automatically mean handful and the fact is, teachers need to be able to handle that. What is your issue?

I don't understand this either. To each his own.

You don't understand that I don't want my daughter in a classroom with a boy a year and a half older? What don't you get? Large amounts of redshirted children skew the expectations upward for maturity, etc. in a way that works against appropriately aged children in the classroom. OP's child (as she describes him, anyway) is already advanced in every area even BEFORE he starts his second year of pre-K, so there is little chance he won't be bored/acting up as he repeats a grade he's already ahead in. No, I don't want a much larger, much older distraction like that in my much younger and smaller child's classroom. Neither do the rest of us anti-redshirters.

Anyway, not my problem. But I feel bad for OP's child; this decision seems more likely to work against him than for him. OP sounds sanctimonious and smug, yet at the same time is trying to mask her anxiety at being "found out" by peppering her posts with lots of cocky little winky faces and LOLs.

I guess I just think that my child can handle being in a class with some kids 1.5 year older. Absolutely cannot see the big deal. I'm told that redshirting is prevalent here and so far we've just never had a problem with older kids in the classroom. I could see it, a little if we are talking high school, but I was a freshman (Jan birthday) who met and started dating a senior (for 3.5 years) so I found an "older" guy anyway and I'm still ok! This is a worry without any evidence that there is a problem (for the other kids in the class).

...you do realize that at some point OP's son will actually BE in high school? With the same much younger cohort?

Sorry, but I fail to see how you dating a senior when you were a freshman has anything to do with anything. ??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your beef is with the School Board not other parents who are doing something that the law leaves to the parents' discretion.

Wrong. I have a beef with both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't go to school here, so I am genuinely puzzled by all the animosity towards the issue. Why is it so wrong go hold back a year? What's the rush?

I was born in November, while school started in September. So yes, I turned 8 in the first grade. This has never even come into question. I sailed through school seemlessly, while many younger children struggled. I realize not all of it had to do with age alone, but being more mature certainly helped me.

So why is everybody harping on OP so much? I don't plan on pushing my kid to graduate at 15, so why wouldn't I choose to wait a year?

So were you held back 1 year or 2? I'm also a November baby and turned 8 in the beginning of third grade

I was held back one year. (At the time, our (overseas) school ran from 7 to 17 and didn't include the kindergarten years. Few kids started at 6; most started at 7, while fall children often started at 8.)

I'm undecided about redshirting DS. I see my friends' young children spend long days in school and feel bad for the little ones. It just seems too much. At the age of 8 I spent no more than 4 hours at school each day. Granted we lived in the next building, so it was a 5-minute walk home. But even if you cut out the bus rides, the school just seems to take forever these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your beef is with the School Board not other parents who are doing something that the law leaves to the parents' discretion.

Wrong. I have a beef with both.

Ok then. I'm sure you never make a decision based on what you feel is best for your family and is within your discretion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So your kid will turn 7 in kindergarten? Yeah I wouldn't celebrate his 7th birthday with his kinder friends. My son who just finished 2nd grade is still 7.

I agree. That is insane. My child will celebrate their 5th birthday in kindergarten. The fact that your 7 year old may be in class with my 5 year old is ridiculous.

Yes my kid will be 7 the entire 2nd grade school year.

May is ridiculous but it will come to bite the in the ass with travel sports which go by birth date not school year.

Your kid will not be allowed to play with teammates. Zero exceptions. It's National Standard for sports like soccer.

I'm pretty sure the kid will be allowed to play with teammates. Perhaps you meant to say classmates? Not even necessarily true. My kid is a July birthday and was redshirted. there are other kids who were redshirted in his grade that are on his team.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP,

Just make the best decision for your kid. There is absolutely no need to be defensive, nor to care what judgmental people will assume or not assume about your kid. We redshirted our August child. There are children with the exact same birthday one year younger in the same class. Who cares?!

Because the birthday is August, the travel soccer team is even composed of classmates! (And I guess that is supposed to ratify our decision.)