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Comment by barneygumble742 | Hacker News Reader

This is very timely for me. Just this morning I was on the phone talking to the school district about how strict the cutoff date is. Most of US is set to Sep. 1 (9 months after the new year). My kids were born in mid-Sep. I read two lengthy papers on late start-age and better school/social performance. The article was discussing parents wanting their children to start early in order to enter the job market early by a year. This is nuts! It's such a trivial issue. I'm conflicted; I really don't want to pay $20k for another year of daycare but I also don't want my twins to be have issues in school. Speaking of, instead of diagnosing kids with ADHD, why not hold them back by a year. There could be additional benefits of holding kids back based on their development. I was always the youngest kid in class and I struggled through school and I always knew that I should be with the class behind me.

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I was an October baby, so I started "a year late". I only had one good friend a year above me, we got out of touch when he went to Junior High while I was stuck in 6th grade. My other friends were in the same year and considering the older friend grew up to have lots of legal problems, I'm not disappointed on that end.

I do wish I had finished a year earlier, though. It would have meant cheaper college and would have also meant starting a career sooner, which for me is above $100k/yr. It would have also increased the chance of my mother still being alive since she died right after I was hired and I think if she didn't have to work until the end because I'd have been paying her bills she'd still be around.

I'd suggest going with what your kids want. If they want to learn, go for it. If they're perfectly happy with pre-school/daycare, or have lots of friends in that age group, maybe reconsider. They'll make new friends regardless of the grade, though.

That's exactly the position I'm in, at least eventually.

My son was born in early July and my wife and I are trying to see if we should wait until he's a full 5 and be a year older than everyone or go when he's basically 4.

The extra year in a job to me isn't trivial. It's a 50k + extra year of experience decision. I left high school a year early and even though I'm the same age as a lot of people around me, I have 20k extra in my 401(k), I'm in a management position and I have graduate school finished.

The start advantage is fading as I get older though.

It probably still depends on the child. Some can probably handle it better than others. Personally, I'll have to wait and see to see what the little guy is like and what he can handle.

To me the extra year in a job is trivial because I spent close to 9 years in school, working part-time to pay for college/grad school. And who knows what the future holds? However, I am hoping that by the time they're in high school, they will take dual-enrollment classes and finish college a year early; something I wasn't able to do. I have twins and I spoke to my wife last night about this...whatever happens, we both wish for them to be in the same grade. We would hate for our daughter to skip a grade because she's developed faster...which is also not fair to her.

The flip side is parents who delay their kids so they are the biggest kids in class and get to dominate at sports. This is also nuts!

The right answer is evaluate what's right for the child. Different kids have different maturity levels. My daughter started K at age 4 and was still well above average and bored by 5th grade. The productive thing that school districts can do is roll out pre-K so parents don't have to make a costly daycare choice.

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