Birthday Cut-Offs for School vs. Sports: Guest Post At Kludgy Mom!

Last week, Gigi over at Kludgy Mom wrote a post on Redshirting, Hyperparenting, and The Generation of Mediocre Children, and after reading it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Two of my six children have birthdays that fall very close to the school birthday cut-off for kindergarten. One of my son’s birthday is 12 days before the cut-off and another son is 12 days after the cut off. And my husband and I agreed to send them both to school “on time”.

What I wasn’t prepared for…. is how out of the norm it seems to be to send a boy to kindergarten “on time” if his birthday is within 6 months of the cut-off date. I remember meeting one Mom at the park one day when my oldest son was four, and she asked me how old he was, and when his birthday was, and then said “Oh, so you’ll be holding him back to start kindergarten for sure!” For sure? Why do we assume if they are boys that they won’t be ready? Certainly if there were some national statistics to support the idea that girls are ready for kindergarten before boys, there would be different cut-off dates by gender, right?

The other issue that I could never have foreseen, is that birthday cut-offs for competitive sports teams can be completely different from the school birthday cut-off…. which can turn out to be a troubling complication for a child who just wants to play soccer with his buddies. I had so much to say about kindergarten redshirting and school vs. sports birthday cut-offs that I wrote a guest post for Gigi which is running today on Kludgy Mom: When a Sports Birthday Cut Off Doesn’t Match the School Birthday Cut Off. Please head on over and check it out.

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My name is Sharon and I am the Mom of 6 young kids ages 6-11. In order to maintain my sanity around here, I have developed all kinds of systems to keep myself, my family, and my home organized. I also love to throw at-home birthday parties for my kids (my next one is a Puppies and Ponies themed party for my daughter who is turning 8 on Saturday!) and summer time is when I love to shed the schedule and have a great time with my kids at our DIY summer camp at home! I invite you to check out The Best of Momof6 and Momof6 How To’s, and I would REALLY love it if you would hook up with me on Facebook or Twitter or Subscribe to receive daily updates from Momof6!