Sometimes opportunity knocks earlier than anyone expects, and not everyone is ready to open the door.

So when one exceptionally gifted teenager was offered the chance to attend college years ahead of schedule, her parents saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime break.

But while they were eager to fast-track her future, their daughter wasn’t sure she wanted to skip ahead just yet.

Read on for the full dilemma.

WIBTA for forcing my child to go to college at 13?

Our daughter is in grade 10 and is the youngest in her grade by two years.

She excels academically to a point that opens many doors for her, like going to high school early.

She’s maintaining a 99 mark average, and after doing a science fair at a local university, she was offered the opportunity to begin college courses online part-time.

She could potentially become full-time if things work out.

On paper, this seems like a fantastic opportunity many people wouldn’t dare pass up.

Her high school IEP planner said this is not something we should give up, with the outcome potentially being graduating high school at 15 and university or college shortly thereafter at 16 or 17.

My wife and I really want her to take advantage of this opportunity, but our daughter is not 100% on board.

She wants to, but doesn’t want to do it right now.

She wants to finish high school, take a year off to work, and then go to college.

The thing is, this opportunity won’t be around forever.

This “deal” the university made with us is that she can take these classes free of tuition. She would even get a yearly stipend for textbooks and technology.

She would effectively not only skip the $8,000 per year tuition but also receive about $5,000 per year in grants.

Imagine being paid to go to school.

This is all assuming she goes now and not later.

The college stands to benefit too from her attendance.

The college gets free publicity for having a (very) minor student, drawing in more potential students.

The allure is in her age being so young.

Would we be the AHs for “forcing” this upon her?

They want her to be happy, but they also want her to have the best possible life.

By forcing, we want to push hard for her to make this decision, but we’d never literally force her to go to college by way of consequences.

If she doesn’t want to, she doesn’t have to.

They know this opportunity is very rare.

But we want to make her aware this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

This is something that gets you in the news and gets your foot in the door for lucrative jobs just by the fact that you have a degree at 16.

I would have done anything to have this opportunity growing up, and I don’t want her to squander it away.

What did Reddit think?

Accepting this opportunity would also come with many downsides too.

Maybe the social isolation just wouldn’t be worth it.

A childhood isn’t something you should take for granted.

There’s more to life than just academics.

Opportunity may come knocking, but it doesn’t mean you have to answer.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.