He has an August birthday, is an only child, and both parents were late bloomers. It’s time for school registration, so what do we do? Do we follow the trend and hold our son back?
These were the thoughts and questions going through our minds in the winter and spring of 2004/2005. We wouldn’t know then that he would always be an only child, but at that time he was, and given the circumstances we had to move on with that mindset, since he had been one already for over four years.
Many of his preschool friends with birthdays after February (some even much earlier) were being held back. My wife and I had neither one been held back and we both had mid and late summer birthdays. He was already in the 99th-100th percentile in height, and I am tall, so we started to think about the awkwardness of a very tall child, who would be older than his peers and the messages that might send.
We decided not to hold him back, instead just patiently work with him as he moves forward, allowing him to struggle honestly, then praying, asking God to guide us and him. An intentional and overt inclusion of God forced us to leave much room for God to work on him however He chooses, reducing our innate and inept attempts to be wise in our own eyes.
This site is my take on the concept of college gap years, the journey as we (me, my son and my wife) experience it, but more specifically, as we design it to be a Mindful Gap.
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
A Mindful Gap 