Reply to September Birthdays - Effect in Teen Years

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "September Birthdays - Effect in Teen Years"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My daughter and a neighbor's daughter both have fall birthdays and will be turning 11 this year. My daughter started K at 4, neighbor's daughter waited until 5. Mine is now in middle school (6th grade) and the neighbor is still in elementary school (5th grade). Academically both girls have done well -- my daughter didn't struggle and the neighbor's daughter wasn't bored -- but socially my daughter doesn't fit in as well with her middle school peers as my neighbor's daughter does in elementary school. Neither girl has hit puberty which wouldn't be as noticeable to my daughter if she didn't have to take PE everyday (including changing clothes when "everyone is wearing a bra except for me"). There are very few girls in middle school who aren't showing any signs of puberty and some look like full-grown women especially among the 8th graders (alot of whom will be turning 14 but my daughter will only be turning 13 when she starts 8th grade).

OP here... so, in this case, do you have any regrets?  Do you think things are tougher for your daughter who is on the younger side, while the other girl is doing better socially?  We made our decision for these exact social reasons.  It sounds like this is a case justifying holding back?? [/quote]

I don't regret the choice because she was ready for K and also was ready for middle school.  To be sure, she feels weird about her lack of development but probably no weirder than an early bloomer feels in elementary school.   If I knew 6 years ago that she'd feel this way, I wouldn't have changed my decision about starting K at 4, particularly since she may very well start 7th grade with the same body she has now -- she hasn't even gotten the "blueberries" that almost all of the girls in her class had by the end of 5th grade.  I also don't think things are any tougher socially for my daughter than it is for the 6th grader who is already 11 or getting ready to turn 12 -- the transition from elementary to middle school is tough, period); however, because she's on the younger side, I do think she'll stand-out as a late-bloomer longer than would've been the case if we'd delayed K until she turned 5 -- which, BTW, is why my neighbor also has no regrets about delaying K for her prepubescent daughter (and also delaying or possibly avoiding the awkwardness my daughter is feeling).   [/quote]

NP here- a bit off topic but why don't you just buy her a starter bra even if she doesn't have much to put in it?. If my mother had waited for me to develop I would have been wearing nothing until I was 18. I remember having to buy a training bra for a school trip to another city because I didn't want to stick out.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics