Why redshirting for kindergarten is a bad idea:

twoinanddone
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:50:57 +0000

I disagree. You do know that they will be 17 when they graduate. I was 17 when I went to college and thought I knew everything (I still think I do). Experiencing it from the parent’s side was a lot different and made me reflect on my own experience, how I rushed things, made decisions I now wish I could do over. My parents didn’t help me at all, so I was making all kinds of financial decisions on my own and I had no money. I wish I would have done a semester abroad. I wish I would have slowed down and enjoyed school more.

I try to help my daughter more, she did live in the dorms for 2 years while her friends didn’t, and that helped (me) feel a little more secure. I think they get caught up and just start rolling along with their friends and peers. Gap year? Okay, but that’s not what she wanted and since she was 17 would have had the same issues - couldn’t travel on her own, couldn’t work at a job that required her to be 18, would have given up a year of eligibility for her sport (she has 5 years post high school to play 4, so if she had delayed a year and then been hurt or wanted a rest year, she would have lost a year of playing). She would have had no one to travel with since all her friends went to college and her younger friends were in high school.

She could have repeated a year, but when? She was at a small school, and all her friends would have played on the basketball team she used to be on, in the girl scout troop she used to be in. My other daughter was also a very immature college freshman, but at least she was 18 and could get medical care without my permission, get a driver’s license in another state without my signing, buy a lottery ticket if she wanted one.

I know a lot of parents who regret putting their kids ahead a year or starting them as a very young 5 year old in K. I don’t know any who regret holding a child back a year or even having them in the correct grade if they just missed the cut off.