Sounds pretty typical! A couple of thoughts:

1. Don’t be surprised when you are surprised by some less-than-the-level-of-professionalism-that-you-expected moments in some of the supposedly awesome (expensive) schools around. We were so unimpressed by the supposedly awesome school our kids were in, and by the alternatives, that we ended up doing their last years online.

2. If you’ve ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, then you’ll be completely excited about keeping your daughter back for a year before putting her in school! Older children are set up to succeed at every step in the school process, and it becomes a snowball where success breeds success (or the opposite).

3. Ultimately, I think your mom and cousin have the right perspective. 🙂