*19 the summer before college, not 19 this summer. He’s got a way to go before college. 😊

Because he was shy and sensitive, and I felt that being the youngest in his class didn’t help. I was always the youngest one growing up, and the social penalty (of my immaturity) was real. I didn’t want that for him.

I also didn’t want to rush his childhood. He will turn 19 this summer before college, which I think is pretty perfect.

Five years later, zero regrets. It’s worked out wonderfully. He’s gained so much confidence.

Because he was really small (end of August birthday). He’s still the smallest kid in the class even though we held him back.

Emotional maturity.

For sports. That’s the truth. And it worked - he got a baseball scholarship to college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speech problems
Bladder control problems

District was moving cutoff date back anyway.

Your kid isn’t who the OP is referring to. These kids have no medical or learning issues.

Not all kids have been diagnosed when they are 5. It's not as black and white as yes-issues or no-issues.

I really wanted to redshirt my DS with a late summer birthday- to give him age advantage in school for the rest of his life, but he’s very tall for his age, and his entire preschool class was moving up to K, and he had outgrown the program there. I supposed I could have moved him to a different preschool but at the time moving on to K seemed like the right thing to do.

Now in high school he’s the youngest in his class and a bit less mature than his classmates and I still wish I’d red shirted!

My nephew was redshirted because he was hyperactive and they didn't think he was ready for a classroom setting. My brother himself really struggled in Kindergarten with the same hyperactive stuff so they decided to wait a year.

What you see from your friends may be a limited set of kid's behavior, so don't be too quick to judge. Any "academic" advantage from being slightly older will be limited to the early years so it's not some weird conspiracy.

Kid's birthday was one week before cut off. Very socially immature, still struggling with consistent potty training. Later diagnosed with autism (but we didn't know that when making the decision).

Anonymous wrote:Speech problems
Bladder control problems

District was moving cutoff date back anyway.

Your kid isn’t who the OP is referring to. These kids have no medical or learning issues.

Speech problems
Bladder control problems

District was moving cutoff date back anyway.

My only child has a birthday a week before the cut off date. Her cousin who is a her best friend and like a sister has a birthday a well after the cut off date. They live in the same city, and we wanted them to experience major milestones together.

Honestly, we chose private school and the school we wanted didn't have space in the class that we applied for (k), but offered us a spot in pre-k (kid has late July birthday and cut off is Sept 1).

I was really leaning against it and did not want to start my kid later, but after a lot of thought we decided to try it and see what happened, and it turned out to be a great decision. My kid is the oldest in the class, but is flourishing and I feel like my kid is getting more time to just be a kid. Another factor in play is that the school is dual language, so the classes are immersive in that language and it seems to have been helpful to give my kid more time in that program to absorb it.

Seems like we got lucky, especially now with the distance learning situations. I think my kid would have been fine either way, but another year of pre-k seems have been beneficial in our particular situation.

Didn’t want to rush through the early years. Another year of play learning seemed like a better option than school learning.

I know a few people back their tall, mature, academically and athletically gifted 5 year olds with birthdays months before the cut off. WHY?
I know one who made the decision when her kid was one (July birthday)

Is it just so your kid has advantages socially and athletically and breezes through?