Yes like I said it needs to be taken case by case. Most of my kids are older, ranging in age from 18 to 1. so I have seen both sides. My twins are young for their class and have done just fine and my oldest has an early Sept birthday so he is among the oldest if you don't count the bus loads of BOYS who were held back.

I have also seen my neighbor who worked from home put her late August birthday boys in school right on schedule. We have a Sept 1 cut off. They were both immature and not ready academically. They were easily the youngest in their class. They are both in high school now and they still struggle.

I will say when you hold kids back a year that means that they are 18 their entire Senior year of high school. If the child is prone to drama or sassiness you might hear the ever lovely "you can't tell me what to do. I'm 18". We haven't dealt with this but we have seen friends whose kids pull that one.

I think parents consider the kindergarten/elementary student when they decide whether or not to hold their child back when eventually they grow into high school students. SOMETIMES the decision can backfire when the child realizes that he has a false confidence because he hasn't been competing on a level playing field.

I think about that boy I mentioned in the earlier post and after all of the years of his boasting about his heighth, grades, and athleticism some of his classmates told him that he should try competing against kids his own AGE. And that they could compete against kids a year younger and of course win. When this child got old enough to play competitive club soccer and baseball were the tryouts go strictly by age he wasn't able to make the 1st level or 2nd level teams with kids his own age even after all of the boasting. In the end he chose not to play if he was going to have to play on the 3rd string team with kids his own age. He had told that he had been SUPER DUPER his whole life and didn't want to play if he wasn't going to be the star of the team. I feel like in the long run the decision to hold back this particular child may have been short sighted.

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