"Why do you give a toss at what age I start my child in school?"

There is one thing I just don’t get why anyone gives a f**k about.

(Well, to be truthful there is probably more than one thing, I also can’t get my head around why people hate Crocs so much, but this one really puzzles me.)

It’s one thing that everyone I encounter seems to have an opinion on – and a very forthright opinion at that.

It’s one thing that everyone seems to have “a child who”, everyone seems to have had “a neighbour that” and nearly everyone seems to have gone through it “when they were at school.”

And each and every single one of these has a very loud and forceful point of view.

And for the life of me I just don’t know why.

I just don’t get why anyone else has such a strong opinion on when my daughter starts school.

We live in NSW and my four-year-old apricot-haired daughter is within the range, though at the tail end of it, of starting kindergarten next year. Being an April 16 birthday she could very well be off with her too-long school uniform and her too-big backpack.

She will be my last child of three to start school. A process I am familiar with, comfortable with, at a school her two elder brothers, aged six and eight already attend.

Except I am thinking of not starting her next year actually at all.

Maybe. Possibly. Maybe.

I might and I might not.

I should and I shouldn’t.

I am undecided and decided all at the same time.

It’s a massive decision as you probably know (most I find people have a heck of a lot to say about it), which in the vast plains of her life ahead probably isn’t that massive really at all. The fact is, she will be fine no matter when she goes.

But what I find hard to fathom is why everyone around me seems to be so damn vested in our decision. Why everyone who asks me the is-your-daughter-starting-school-next-year-question has such a strong opinion on what’s right for her.

I know deep down that she would be fine if she went and probably a bit better than fine if she waited a year. But why do YOU care?

The school starting age debate is one that is always fraught with emotion when it arises, as it frequently does, in Facebook parenting groups or in the playground. Furious stabs at the keyboard often see the discussion turn into a frenzy of anonymous spite and barbs. Mothers primarily desperately trying to justify what they did for their child and why.

We/my sister/ my neighbour/ my cousin’s boyfriend’s brother sent their Jan/Feb/March/June child and it was the BEST DECISION/ WORST THING THEY EVER DID.

How could you NOT SEND HER?

She’s going to be bored/disruptive/ disadvantaged/ ruined for life if you don’t.

Of course she is ready, she is a girl.

I get that life would be easier if there was a uniform starting date for all children like in other countries. I get that the different starting ages throughout Australia are confusing and that parents are passionate about the disparities, but I don’t get how the decision I make for my child impacts upon the decision you made for yours.

Every mother I know just wants to do the best thing at the time for her kids. The descision I make aren’t in any way a judgment on your child.

The decisions I make are solely about my child – a person totally different in every single way to yours. There are no parallels that say in me sending mine I vote down what you did as wrong. Or in me choosing to allow my daughter one more year of pre-school that your child should have been allowed one more year too. In fact, if truth be told, I actually don’t really think about your child when I am weighing up the pros and cons of this one.

But yet the ferocious opinions continue - and overall ferociously saying it would be "mad" to "hold her back."

Last year The Principals Association called for a standard school starting age of around 5 1/2. (Post continues after video)

We haven't worked it out yet. It might take a lot longer to truly be sure, and when we do perhaps the comments will fizzle out, or perhaps not.

Just rest assured the descision that’s made is not intended to disadvantage your child in any way.

In fact, truth be told it has nothing to do at all with your child in the slightest.

Why do you think there is so much passion in the school starting age debate?