Bragging about tall kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of us brag occasionally and get humbled just as much. It's the human condition. I don't mind hearing it and while I have a just below avg. height middle schooler, I do marvel at and remark on the growth of other kids because it never ceases to amaze me how kids grow so quickly.

It used to make my eyes roll back to hear "dd/ds is just so blonde and has beautiful blue eyes blah blah blah everyone one in *insert foreign country* wants to touch them..." But once I had kids of my own, I get being in awe of your own precious child's attributes. It's good to take note of these reminders not to brag but I think it's OK to let people toot their horn occasionally when we have plenty of other obstacles to face.

Ha! I had that blond kid, actually two of them, close in age. The amount of attention they got was astounding! It was actually pretty annoying, and sometimes intrusive too (like when people ran after us or grabbed our babies). I didn’t get it at the time, and found answering the same questions again and again mostly from strangers pretty tiresome (but you always have to be polite) but now they are older looking back at photos I get that they did look more dramatic? Noticeable?

You make good points though, but I wonder how much of this is driven by comments from strangers anyway. People comment on remarkable height like they do on remarkable features.

Blonde hair as a child is not remarkable in America. I understand if you’re in another country, maybe, but not here. My son had beautiful white blonde hair and the only unusual thing was people assumed he was a girl, even at five years old. Hair wasted on a boy. No one wanted to touch his hair.

I’m the PP you are responding to. In this area blond hair is not common, as evidenced by the experience I had with my kids. I guess you are somewhere or some DC suburb with lots of white people. We’re in DC and I could always pick my kids out in a crowd of children because of their remarkably blond hair. They would literally be the only ones. There might be a couple of others with dirty blond hair but never mistakable with mine. Now when we would travel to my home country, blond kids were everywhere. On the flip side in Mexico crowds formed to stare at them! They are still blond now in high school but not as dramatically so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I get where you are coming from. I posted a hand wringing thread about my tiny late blooming son and sports at some point, though he was younger than yours. There have been other threads about this too.

Because that is what you are really getting at, right? Sports? Most sports will not be possible to play at the high school level for very late blooming boys. It isn’t even about height, but about physical maturity. I’m sorry, but it is true. And your DS is even later blooming than mine was. I will tell you from experience that you just need to accept this in your mind and move on. Your DS will figure things out on his own- just be encouraging of him in whatever he wants to do.

My DS (now a senior and 6’1”) dropped team sports freshman year and found other things to do. At that time he was 5’5” maybe 110lbs? and it was clearly going to be quite awhile before he “caught up” physically. He decided to move on and focus on other interests. Anyway- as a Senior, he is a great student, plays golf and tennis recreationally, goes to the gym three times/wk, has a part time job, does volunteer work, had friends and is happy. Sports are not everything. And it isn’t other people’s fault that your kid, and mine, got a bum deal in the puberty lottery. It is just life, and it really does not matter in the long run.

OP again, actually no, he’s not particularly into sports (never has been) so that’s not the issue. It’s just me with a rant about the weird bragging and a comment on the meanness that seems to sometimes accompany the dominant tall kids which the parents are seemingly unaware of.

You haven’t given any examples of meanness. You started off this bizarre thread with a rant about some random mom posting on her own (presumably) social media account that her Johnny is tall.

The only mean-spirited comments in your original post came from you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In support of OP, there is a hierarchy among teen boys based on height and size — particularly if they play sports.

My DS is 14 and 5’10 1/2. He will be 6’3 to 6’5 by the time he’s done growing, based on father and grandfather’s heights and growth patterns.

He has same-aged friends who are 5’2” and 5’4” and they are hazed and bullied by the bigger, taller kids. Coaches rule them out, especially in basketball and football.

I also do see dad in particular (I’m a mom) bragging on how big their kid is. It’s a tough time for a 5’4” 15 yr old.

Encourage your boys to be kind.

What Tanner stage is he at 14 years old? And you can’t predict height based in two males in his family. Your height matters more than grandfathers. What is your height?

And that’s just a rough estimate. Siblings would all be the same height if that formula was 100% accurate.

Curious why you care? Sounds like you want to contest the accuracy of the height prediction. Why?

Parental height is more heritable in some races/ethnicities than in others. It’s more directly heritable in Caucasians. So you’ve got nothin’.

I’ll say it again. People giving inaccurate information should be called on it. There are formulas given to predict height. I’m not sure how accurate they are but all of the formulas involve maternal and paternal heights. Stop writing false information. There’s enough of that everywhere

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I get where you are coming from. I posted a hand wringing thread about my tiny late blooming son and sports at some point, though he was younger than yours. There have been other threads about this too.

Because that is what you are really getting at, right? Sports? Most sports will not be possible to play at the high school level for very late blooming boys. It isn’t even about height, but about physical maturity. I’m sorry, but it is true. And your DS is even later blooming than mine was. I will tell you from experience that you just need to accept this in your mind and move on. Your DS will figure things out on his own- just be encouraging of him in whatever he wants to do.

My DS (now a senior and 6’1”) dropped team sports freshman year and found other things to do. At that time he was 5’5” maybe 110lbs? and it was clearly going to be quite awhile before he “caught up” physically. He decided to move on and focus on other interests. Anyway- as a Senior, he is a great student, plays golf and tennis recreationally, goes to the gym three times/wk, has a part time job, does volunteer work, had friends and is happy. Sports are not everything. And it isn’t other people’s fault that your kid, and mine, got a bum deal in the puberty lottery. It is just life, and it really does not matter in the long run.

OP again, actually no, he’s not particularly into sports (never has been) so that’s not the issue. It’s just me with a rant about the weird bragging and a comment on the meanness that seems to sometimes accompany the dominant tall kids which the parents are seemingly unaware of.

Then if it isn’t about sports (which you referenced a lot in previous posts) then what is the issue really? There are tons of short high school boys. Some are still growing and some are not. High school years are generally not a high point in one’s life. Plus- your DS will almost certainly end up tall based on what you have said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I get where you are coming from. I posted a hand wringing thread about my tiny late blooming son and sports at some point, though he was younger than yours. There have been other threads about this too.

Because that is what you are really getting at, right? Sports? Most sports will not be possible to play at the high school level for very late blooming boys. It isn’t even about height, but about physical maturity. I’m sorry, but it is true. And your DS is even later blooming than mine was. I will tell you from experience that you just need to accept this in your mind and move on. Your DS will figure things out on his own- just be encouraging of him in whatever he wants to do.

My DS (now a senior and 6’1”) dropped team sports freshman year and found other things to do. At that time he was 5’5” maybe 110lbs? and it was clearly going to be quite awhile before he “caught up” physically. He decided to move on and focus on other interests. Anyway- as a Senior, he is a great student, plays golf and tennis recreationally, goes to the gym three times/wk, has a part time job, does volunteer work, had friends and is happy. Sports are not everything. And it isn’t other people’s fault that your kid, and mine, got a bum deal in the puberty lottery. It is just life, and it really does not matter in the long run.

OP again, actually no, he’s not particularly into sports (never has been) so that’s not the issue. It’s just me with a rant about the weird bragging and a comment on the meanness that seems to sometimes accompany the dominant tall kids which the parents are seemingly unaware of.

You haven’t given any examples of meanness. You started off this bizarre thread with a rant about some random mom posting on her own (presumably) social media account that her Johnny is tall.

The only mean-spirited comments in your original post came from you.

I’m curious about this too. OP what are the tall kids saying/doing to your kid? IME with my late blooming kid- it was more that he was ignored by a lot of the mature boys than anything else. They were just on different wavelengths and had different interests. He wasn’t picked on or bullied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of us brag occasionally and get humbled just as much. It's the human condition. I don't mind hearing it and while I have a just below avg. height middle schooler, I do marvel at and remark on the growth of other kids because it never ceases to amaze me how kids grow so quickly.

It used to make my eyes roll back to hear "dd/ds is just so blonde and has beautiful blue eyes blah blah blah everyone one in *insert foreign country* wants to touch them..." But once I had kids of my own, I get being in awe of your own precious child's attributes. It's good to take note of these reminders not to brag but I think it's OK to let people toot their horn occasionally when we have plenty of other obstacles to face.

Ha! I had that blond kid, actually two of them, close in age. The amount of attention they got was astounding! It was actually pretty annoying, and sometimes intrusive too (like when people ran after us or grabbed our babies). I didn’t get it at the time, and found answering the same questions again and again mostly from strangers pretty tiresome (but you always have to be polite) but now they are older looking back at photos I get that they did look more dramatic? Noticeable?

You make good points though, but I wonder how much of this is driven by comments from strangers anyway. People comment on remarkable height like they do on remarkable features.

Blonde hair as a child is not remarkable in America. I understand if you’re in another country, maybe, but not here. My son had beautiful white blonde hair and the only unusual thing was people assumed he was a girl, even at five years old. Hair wasted on a boy. No one wanted to touch his hair.

I’m the PP you are responding to. In this area blond hair is not common, as evidenced by the experience I had with my kids. I guess you are somewhere or some DC suburb with lots of white people. We’re in DC and I could always pick my kids out in a crowd of children because of their remarkably blond hair. They would literally be the only ones. There might be a couple of others with dirty blond hair but never mistakable with mine. Now when we would travel to my home country, blond kids were everywhere. On the flip side in Mexico crowds formed to stare at them! They are still blond now in high school but not as dramatically so.

About 5.5% of Americans have naturally blond hair. Only red hair is less common. Everyone I know with red head kids gets comments all day long about their kid’s hair color. PP must live in northern Minnesota or something to think it’s not remarkable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I get where you are coming from. I posted a hand wringing thread about my tiny late blooming son and sports at some point, though he was younger than yours. There have been other threads about this too.

Because that is what you are really getting at, right? Sports? Most sports will not be possible to play at the high school level for very late blooming boys. It isn’t even about height, but about physical maturity. I’m sorry, but it is true. And your DS is even later blooming than mine was. I will tell you from experience that you just need to accept this in your mind and move on. Your DS will figure things out on his own- just be encouraging of him in whatever he wants to do.

My DS (now a senior and 6’1”) dropped team sports freshman year and found other things to do. At that time he was 5’5” maybe 110lbs? and it was clearly going to be quite awhile before he “caught up” physically. He decided to move on and focus on other interests. Anyway- as a Senior, he is a great student, plays golf and tennis recreationally, goes to the gym three times/wk, has a part time job, does volunteer work, had friends and is happy. Sports are not everything. And it isn’t other people’s fault that your kid, and mine, got a bum deal in the puberty lottery. It is just life, and it really does not matter in the long run.

OP again, actually no, he’s not particularly into sports (never has been) so that’s not the issue. It’s just me with a rant about the weird bragging and a comment on the meanness that seems to sometimes accompany the dominant tall kids which the parents are seemingly unaware of.

Then if it isn’t about sports (which you referenced a lot in previous posts) then what is the issue really? There are tons of short high school boys. Some are still growing and some are not. High school years are generally not a high point in one’s life. Plus- your DS will almost certainly end up tall based on what you have said.

OP here, I literally just told you. And I believe I referenced sports once (there are lots of other people posting here more than I am). I also clarified the post above.

[Anonymous]

Op I think you’re kind of crazy. I’m 5’1 and am amazed by how tall my kids are. Even if they were short, they’re still so much taller every year. It’s very interesting.

I too think that height is something you can comment on. It’s not like weight or looks which are verboten. Also, you’re placing a value judgment on being tall. Being short is wonderful. At least it was for me. I’ve never once wanted to be taller.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I get where you are coming from. I posted a hand wringing thread about my tiny late blooming son and sports at some point, though he was younger than yours. There have been other threads about this too.

Because that is what you are really getting at, right? Sports? Most sports will not be possible to play at the high school level for very late blooming boys. It isn’t even about height, but about physical maturity. I’m sorry, but it is true. And your DS is even later blooming than mine was. I will tell you from experience that you just need to accept this in your mind and move on. Your DS will figure things out on his own- just be encouraging of him in whatever he wants to do.

My DS (now a senior and 6’1”) dropped team sports freshman year and found other things to do. At that time he was 5’5” maybe 110lbs? and it was clearly going to be quite awhile before he “caught up” physically. He decided to move on and focus on other interests. Anyway- as a Senior, he is a great student, plays golf and tennis recreationally, goes to the gym three times/wk, has a part time job, does volunteer work, had friends and is happy. Sports are not everything. And it isn’t other people’s fault that your kid, and mine, got a bum deal in the puberty lottery. It is just life, and it really does not matter in the long run.

OP again, actually no, he’s not particularly into sports (never has been) so that’s not the issue. It’s just me with a rant about the weird bragging and a comment on the meanness that seems to sometimes accompany the dominant tall kids which the parents are seemingly unaware of.

You haven’t given any examples of meanness. You started off this bizarre thread with a rant about some random mom posting on her own (presumably) social media account that her Johnny is tall.

The only mean-spirited comments in your original post came from you.

I’m curious about this too. OP what are the tall kids saying/doing to your kid? IME with my late blooming kid- it was more that he was ignored by a lot of the mature boys than anything else. They were just on different wavelengths and had different interests. He wasn’t picked on or bullied.

Not OP - I’ll give a non sports related answer. My son is a late bloomer he’s 14 and 5’3”. We did cotillion when he was 12. The boys had to ask the girls to dance. So many of the girls were taller than him, and some by a lot at nearly 6 feet tall. 12 is that awkard age where the girls have hit puberty and the boys are just starting. Several of the girls laughed at him and told him no because he was too short. This was for like a 90 second song. He wasn’t aking them to marry him. A little kindness would have gone a long way.

[Anonymous]

Observing your kid is tall or growing quickly isn't necessarily bragging - OP you may be the one interpreting it that way. I have one kid who is super tall and one who current isn't. It is kind of crazy that every time I turn around, my tall kid has outgrown something. I don't post on social media but probably have said to friends something like "my son hasn't worn his dress shoes in two months and when he went to put them on, they no longer fit. It is hard to keep up with how fast he is growing."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of us brag occasionally and get humbled just as much. It's the human condition. I don't mind hearing it and while I have a just below avg. height middle schooler, I do marvel at and remark on the growth of other kids because it never ceases to amaze me how kids grow so quickly.

It used to make my eyes roll back to hear "dd/ds is just so blonde and has beautiful blue eyes blah blah blah everyone one in *insert foreign country* wants to touch them..." But once I had kids of my own, I get being in awe of your own precious child's attributes. It's good to take note of these reminders not to brag but I think it's OK to let people toot their horn occasionally when we have plenty of other obstacles to face.

Ha! I had that blond kid, actually two of them, close in age. The amount of attention they got was astounding! It was actually pretty annoying, and sometimes intrusive too (like when people ran after us or grabbed our babies). I didn’t get it at the time, and found answering the same questions again and again mostly from strangers pretty tiresome (but you always have to be polite) but now they are older looking back at photos I get that they did look more dramatic? Noticeable?

You make good points though, but I wonder how much of this is driven by comments from strangers anyway. People comment on remarkable height like they do on remarkable features.

Blonde hair as a child is not remarkable in America. I understand if you’re in another country, maybe, but not here. My son had beautiful white blonde hair and the only unusual thing was people assumed he was a girl, even at five years old. Hair wasted on a boy. No one wanted to touch his hair.

I’m the PP you are responding to. In this area blond hair is not common, as evidenced by the experience I had with my kids. I guess you are somewhere or some DC suburb with lots of white people. We’re in DC and I could always pick my kids out in a crowd of children because of their remarkably blond hair. They would literally be the only ones. There might be a couple of others with dirty blond hair but never mistakable with mine. Now when we would travel to my home country, blond kids were everywhere. On the flip side in Mexico crowds formed to stare at them! They are still blond now in high school but not as dramatically so.

About 5.5% of Americans have naturally blond hair. Only red hair is less common. Everyone I know with red head kids gets comments all day long about their kid’s hair color. PP must live in northern Minnesota or something to think it’s not remarkable.

Kids though?? It is way higher. Many many many Caucasian kids have very blonde hair as young kids. I had white blonde hair as a toddler/young child and it turned dark brown by the time I finished puberty. Extremely common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Observing your kid is tall or growing quickly isn't necessarily bragging - OP you may be the one interpreting it that way. I have one kid who is super tall and one who current isn't. It is kind of crazy that every time I turn around, my tall kid has outgrown something. I don't post on social media but probably have said to friends something like "my son hasn't worn his dress shoes in two months and when he went to put them on, they no longer fit. It is hard to keep up with how fast he is growing."

You should know that while you find it amazing others are wondering if there is something wrong with their kid who doesn’t seem to be growing. I’m currently waiting for an evaluation with an endocrinologist for mine. It’s like being amazed that your baby is hitting all the milestones early or on time and oblivious that you’re talking to a parent’s whose baby isn’t. Read the room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of us brag occasionally and get humbled just as much. It's the human condition. I don't mind hearing it and while I have a just below avg. height middle schooler, I do marvel at and remark on the growth of other kids because it never ceases to amaze me how kids grow so quickly.

It used to make my eyes roll back to hear "dd/ds is just so blonde and has beautiful blue eyes blah blah blah everyone one in *insert foreign country* wants to touch them..." But once I had kids of my own, I get being in awe of your own precious child's attributes. It's good to take note of these reminders not to brag but I think it's OK to let people toot their horn occasionally when we have plenty of other obstacles to face.

Ha! I had that blond kid, actually two of them, close in age. The amount of attention they got was astounding! It was actually pretty annoying, and sometimes intrusive too (like when people ran after us or grabbed our babies). I didn’t get it at the time, and found answering the same questions again and again mostly from strangers pretty tiresome (but you always have to be polite) but now they are older looking back at photos I get that they did look more dramatic? Noticeable?

You make good points though, but I wonder how much of this is driven by comments from strangers anyway. People comment on remarkable height like they do on remarkable features.

Blonde hair as a child is not remarkable in America. I understand if you’re in another country, maybe, but not here. My son had beautiful white blonde hair and the only unusual thing was people assumed he was a girl, even at five years old. Hair wasted on a boy. No one wanted to touch his hair.

I’m the PP you are responding to. In this area blond hair is not common, as evidenced by the experience I had with my kids. I guess you are somewhere or some DC suburb with lots of white people. We’re in DC and I could always pick my kids out in a crowd of children because of their remarkably blond hair. They would literally be the only ones. There might be a couple of others with dirty blond hair but never mistakable with mine. Now when we would travel to my home country, blond kids were everywhere. On the flip side in Mexico crowds formed to stare at them! They are still blond now in high school but not as dramatically so.

About 5.5% of Americans have naturally blond hair. Only red hair is less common. Everyone I know with red head kids gets comments all day long about their kid’s hair color. PP must live in northern Minnesota or something to think it’s not remarkable.

Kids though?? It is way higher. Many many many Caucasian kids have very blonde hair as young kids. I had white blonde hair as a toddler/young child and it turned dark brown by the time I finished puberty. Extremely common.

Way higher? Prove it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I get where you are coming from. I posted a hand wringing thread about my tiny late blooming son and sports at some point, though he was younger than yours. There have been other threads about this too.

Because that is what you are really getting at, right? Sports? Most sports will not be possible to play at the high school level for very late blooming boys. It isn’t even about height, but about physical maturity. I’m sorry, but it is true. And your DS is even later blooming than mine was. I will tell you from experience that you just need to accept this in your mind and move on. Your DS will figure things out on his own- just be encouraging of him in whatever he wants to do.

My DS (now a senior and 6’1”) dropped team sports freshman year and found other things to do. At that time he was 5’5” maybe 110lbs? and it was clearly going to be quite awhile before he “caught up” physically. He decided to move on and focus on other interests. Anyway- as a Senior, he is a great student, plays golf and tennis recreationally, goes to the gym three times/wk, has a part time job, does volunteer work, had friends and is happy. Sports are not everything. And it isn’t other people’s fault that your kid, and mine, got a bum deal in the puberty lottery. It is just life, and it really does not matter in the long run.

OP again, actually no, he’s not particularly into sports (never has been) so that’s not the issue. It’s just me with a rant about the weird bragging and a comment on the meanness that seems to sometimes accompany the dominant tall kids which the parents are seemingly unaware of.

You haven’t given any examples of meanness. You started off this bizarre thread with a rant about some random mom posting on her own (presumably) social media account that her Johnny is tall.

The only mean-spirited comments in your original post came from you.

I’m curious about this too. OP what are the tall kids saying/doing to your kid? IME with my late blooming kid- it was more that he was ignored by a lot of the mature boys than anything else. They were just on different wavelengths and had different interests. He wasn’t picked on or bullied.

Not OP - I’ll give a non sports related answer. My son is a late bloomer he’s 14 and 5’3”. We did cotillion when he was 12. The boys had to ask the girls to dance. So many of the girls were taller than him, and some by a lot at nearly 6 feet tall. 12 is that awkard age where the girls have hit puberty and the boys are just starting. Several of the girls laughed at him and told him no because he was too short. This was for like a 90 second song. He wasn’t aking them to marry him. A little kindness would have gone a long way.

I wonder how many “ugly” girls your son asked to dance? Thinks are awkward and unfair all over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, social media is not for you.

+1. Your problem is not your boys height, it's your insecurity about it and your investment in his status