This is a very different point , though . Families who make the right choice will always be glad they did so , whether they pushed ahead as you did or held back as I did . And in many cases the right decision was probably clear . What ugenaricfrancais is saying is that among the parents who come to regret their decision it goes strongly in one direction . And I agree . I know parents who are happy they pushed forward , parents happy they held back , and parents who regret pushing forward . But none who regret holding back . In particular , one of my friends who pushed her son forward is absolutely miserable . He is so smart and has so much potential but he ' s now 10 and school is still going badly and she can ' t seem to fix it . So when the right answer isn ' t clear it seems safest to let the borderline baby wait . Holding a ready child back from kindergarten an extra year may not be ideal but if it unlikely to do much actual damage . But pushing the unready child too soon can get school off to a bad start that the child may not easily recover from .