9 year old gets made fun of for being small?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What? My 9 year old is 65lbs and probably bigger than 75% of his class. Where is this???

Right? Seems strange. Not sure what my sons weighed at that age but nowhere near 100lbs. Pretty sure they would’ve both been 60-something lbs, and looked pretty average.

[Anonymous]

I hate to ask but is there any possibility that your son could be exaggerating?

My DD’s elementary school best friend was legitimately on the short side. The girl’s mother was always worried about this and checked in with me a few times saying her daughter was being made fun of at school for her size. She would ask me if my own DD had noticed anything or mentioned anything that could shed some light. My DD was totally baffled. She was together with this friend constantly- lunch recess and the same classroom- and had never once seen anyone say anything about her size.

I’m not sure what the real issue was, or why the girl said those things to her mom. But it did not seem to be true.

[Anonymous]

Immigrant trolls obsessed wit height and athletic prowess

[Anonymous]

My son is obsessed with being tall. He is almost 9, and sort of normal to slightly above average, maybe? But he talks about it A LOT. I have no clue why. He does have some unusually tall friends (like seriously taller than my 8th grade daughter) so maybe that's part of it. I've tried to deflect, but now I just kind of nod and move on.

For my son it is totally a sports thing. He equates height with sports ability

[Anonymous]

So here's the thing with kids making fun of each other. Many kids are mean. They will latch onto whatever bothers kids and keep pushing it. True or not. Important or not. Ridiculous or not.

My kid was bullied over things that, when I was a kid, would have made the bullies look dumb (not watching certain really little kiddie cartoons in upper elementary). It wasn't really about that - it was that DC was an easy target and the bullies just wanted to pick on somebody.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Immigrant trolls obsessed wit height and athletic prowess

Nope, Immigrants are obsessed with education. Americans are obsessed with sports and travel teams.

[Anonymous]

How tall is he? 80 lbs seems average to above average at 9. Just asking because it might be a tactic to arm him with statistics so he can non chalantly say "I'm 70% percentile you idiot"! Then move on with his day.

I do think kids this age talk about size. My son is tall, but in 4th grade there were a lot of other tall kids too and I remember him saying "i dont like not being the tallest" or "im really not tall" even though he was, it just seemed like there was a larger than usual tall kid class that year.

At age 10 he is 5'1, 105 lbs. And definitely not the biggest in his class.

[Anonymous]

Kids are much bigger nowadays! I was 105 in college freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids are much bigger nowadays! I was 105 in college freshman year.

Im guessing youre a woman. Lots of petite women are around 115.

Not so much teenage boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So here's the thing with kids making fun of each other. Many kids are mean. They will latch onto whatever bothers kids and keep pushing it. True or not. Important or not. Ridiculous or not.

My kid was bullied over things that, when I was a kid, would have made the bullies look dumb (not watching certain really little kiddie cartoons in upper elementary). It wasn't really about that - it was that DC was an easy target and the bullies just wanted to pick on somebody.

A lot of kids are not intending to be mean. They are kids and still learning social norms and social expectations. They aren't particularly skilled at friendships and they are often in forced social situations that they have little control over. Often they are commenting on what they see o hear around them, or they think they are funny, or they speak somewhat impulsively without thinking things through. Many kids that age are not self reflecting on the impact of an off handed comment nor are they sensitive to others who have differing levels of emotional sensitivity than they do. Most kids are not future oriented, they function in the present moment in time. They say things they hear at home or on the internet or that their older sibling says or that they heard in a show or a movie. The majority of these kids are not bullies or mean kids at all. Most kids say off the cuff things that someone else understands or perceives differently than it was intended. They don't have expertise in effective communication and ensuring that the message sent is the message received or that there aren't unintended messages. Many adults aren't even skilled communicators.

[Anonymous]

My almost nine year old is small. Weighed 45 pounds last week. I think he might be the smallest in his class, but he doesn't look out of place small. I cant imagine that would be the case if the rest of his class was 80+ pounds

[Anonymous]

Bullies are going to bully OP. Please teach him to make comebacks and bully them back. They are testing him.

[Anonymous]

My son is 7 and he’s almost 52 inches tall and weighs 62 pounds. Parents comment all the time about how tall he is, and how good he will be at xyz sports. Kids picked up on our conversations that it is great for a boy to be tall. Perhaps the fault lies with us as we are perpetuating this notion that taller is better.

[Anonymous]

Many boys are now hitting puberty ridiculously early. It’s actually not a good thing for them long term because while they are huge by 6th grade, their growth plates close earlier and they ultimately end up shorter than the later bloomers. I really think a lot of these huge 4th and 5th grade boys are in puberty.

[Anonymous]

DS is 13, 5'5" and 120 pounds. I would say that any 6thg rader who is his weight is probably unhealthy or off the growth chart on the high end.

We did see some of his classmates in 6th grade hitting puberty, there were some mustache growth and some growth spurts but none of them where in the 120 pound range. I do know a 6th grader who fit that description, but he was already close to 6 feet tall, both his parents are tall but even they thought he was way off the charts. That is not normal.