Why One Mom Is Glad She Chose To 'Redshirt' Her Son

While choosing to ‘redshirt’ is a common practice in the sports world, is the same process the key to ensuring your child’s academic and social success?

In a conversation with HuffPost Live, mother and blogger Shell Roush explained that the choice to ‘redshirt’ a child might reflect a trend of increasingly aggressive academic expectations for children. In her school district, Roush noticed that administrators “changed the standards completely” between her older child and her younger child.

“The reading level [my son] was supposed to be on mid-first grade is now the end-of-kindergarten benchmark,” she said. “So they’ve drastically changed what they expect kids to learn by the end of kindergarten.”

Roush shared why she chose to wait before sending her son to school. Although she considered the age gap between her son and his peers in school before officially deciding to delay kindergarten for one year, the difference seemed negligible.

“He will be 19 for approximately one week in his high school career. So there’s really only one week where there’s really even a difference.”

As Roush explained, her son has no trouble fitting in with his peers, so ultimately she is happy with her decision.

“If you look at him right now in a class with the kids where he’s the oldest, he does not stand out as being this big kid. You wouldn't point at him and say ‘Oh, he’s the oldest.’” she said. “He’s definitely not the smallest, but he’s also not the biggest either.”

Watch the full HuffPost Live discussion to hear other moms discuss the ‘redshirting’ decision here.

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