There’s an excellent article in the New York Times today addressing the practice of redshirting, or delaying a child’s entrance into kindergarten by a year. The reality is that the parents who are doing this are trying to give their child an edge because, of course, a child who is a year older will be larger, smarter, more ready to handle the challenges kindergarten throws their way. When they get to high school, they’re more likely to get the varsity sports positions and, therefore, more likely to get picked for college scholarships. It’s a scary thought!

But is it scary enough for most parents to engage in the practice? For working low-to-middle class parents, I’d wager not. We pay an equivalent amount for our mortgage and Pumpkinhead’s Montessori tuition. The idea of continuing that for two years instead of one is quite off-putting. And we only have one child. For those parents who have two, I can only imagine how excited they will be to get rid of that monthly financial burden. We haven’t had a second child in part because the childcare costs would be crippling. The question is whether there is such a high percentage of parents are engaging in this practice as to make it detrimental for our children to enter school “on time”. If everyone holds their kids back, would we be hurting Pumpkinhead to send him on schedule? I hate that we even have to think about it.