Son feels bad about height
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Anonymous
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My rising 9th grader feels very self-conscious about his height. He is 5'4 1/2" inches, so definitely short, but not insanely so. He is also relatively young for his grade (his birthday is 9/1). He does take some teasing about it from friends, as many of his friends are close to six feet tall (there are of course other boys relatively closer to him in height at school, like 5'6" or 5'8", but his close friends happen to be very tall).
I'm not sure what else I can say to him to make him feel better about this. He seems to still be growing, so the situation will improve, but he is just unlikely to wind up being especially tall. He has a girlfriend who is slightly taller than him (5'5"), and is happy in the relationship, so I am not sure why he is as hung up on this as he is. |
Anonymous
| I don’t think that’s actually short. It’s basically average. My kid that age is 5’6.5”, and that’s over 70th percentile. He must just have tall friends. |
Anonymous
| I don’t think there’s anything you can say. He will grow more and probably feel better in a few years time. But not everyone can be tall; he’ll just have to develop other aspects of his personality. In the end, that matters more! |
Anonymous
| Boys are so self conscious about their height. I feel for you as a parent! All o can say is my 17 yr old just grew another inch and I thought he was done! I think this is simply something boys and men have to come to terms with because you can’t change your height. |
Anonymous
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Your kid is above the 40th percentile OP. I’m not seeing the problem. Girls on average finish growing long before boys so I’m not sure why the surprise the girlfriend is taller.
My rising 9th grader is 4’11”. That is short. |
Anonymous
| He’s probably not done yet. As long as he is over 5-8” he will be okay. |
Anonymous
| reassure him , he has a late growth spurt. he will shoot up in high school. |
Anonymous
| What can be done to help him to grow taller? Better nutrition, more exercise? |
Anonymous
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He’s still growing! What was your husband’s growth trajectory?
I said something once about how tall our sons will be in HS and my my husband said to expect them to keep growing until their early 20s! He is 6’2”, but he was 5’11” when he graduated from HS - also young with an August BD. That is wild to me because I have been the same height since 7th grade. |
Anonymous
He's not tall. He's from Central America. My dad is relatively tall (5'11") and I am about average (a little over 5'5"). |
Anonymous
| My turning-14 in a week 9th grade boys are right around that height too and I’m not alarmed. They’ve been growing steadily and I sure don’t see any sign of slowing. I think it’s the wide range of ages in each class- 9th grade can have 14,15 and some turning 16 year olds. |
Anonymous
My 18 yr old is 5'5" and he is okay. I'm just happier he is taller than me and his dad (from Mexico). |
Anonymous
No, sorry if I gave that impression. I'm not surprised. My point was more, yes, she's a little taller than him but not that much, so that's likely not adding to his self-conscious feelings much. |
Anonymous
| My DS didn’t have a significant growth spurt until 9th grade. Major growth between 9th and 11th. |
Anonymous
| That’s normal. |