Bragging about tall kids

[Anonymous]

I hate this too.

[Anonymous]

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.

So true at that age. All the height talk does seem to fade away by age 16/17- no one really cares or discusses it socially anymore. Though often the later bloomer types have quit sports a long time ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seeing yet another boastful social media post about how tall little Johnny is, how much he’s grown, how big his feet are at only 13 etc etc

Being tall isn’t something to brag about. It just happens. I’m tall too and it’s not an achievement.

Short kids, especially boys are overlooked and often literally pushed out of the way by the taller kids, who frankly are only taller most of the time because they went through puberty earlier.

Look down on my 5’4” 15 year old now, but he’ll be taller than most of you when he does grow. What does it get you to determine a pecking order based on height during teen years?! Is it really something to brag about? Wouldn’t it be better if Johnny was kind? Isn’t that more worthy of a brag?

You’re completely undermining your own post by implying that your short kid is going to be a winner one day once he’s tall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seeing yet another boastful social media post about how tall little Johnny is, how much he’s grown, how big his feet are at only 13 etc etc

Being tall isn’t something to brag about. It just happens. I’m tall too and it’s not an achievement.

Short kids, especially boys are overlooked and often literally pushed out of the way by the taller kids, who frankly are only taller most of the time because they went through puberty earlier.

Look down on my 5’4” 15 year old now, but he’ll be taller than most of you when he does grow. What does it get you to determine a pecking order based on height during teen years?! Is it really something to brag about? Wouldn’t it be better if Johnny was kind? Isn’t that more worthy of a brag?

You’re completely undermining your own post by implying that your short kid is going to be a winner one day once he’s tall.

Read the rest of the paragraph.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seeing yet another boastful social media post about how tall little Johnny is, how much he’s grown, how big his feet are at only 13 etc etc

Being tall isn’t something to brag about. It just happens. I’m tall too and it’s not an achievement.

Short kids, especially boys are overlooked and often literally pushed out of the way by the taller kids, who frankly are only taller most of the time because they went through puberty earlier.

Look down on my 5’4” 15 year old now, but he’ll be taller than most of you when he does grow. What does it get you to determine a pecking order based on height during teen years?! Is it really something to brag about? Wouldn’t it be better if Johnny was kind? Isn’t that more worthy of a brag?

You’re completely undermining your own post by implying that your short kid is going to be a winner one day once he’s tall.

+100

[Anonymous]

Uh okay. "ut he’ll be taller than most of you when he does grow." You just did the same thing. You're pretty disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I’m not bragging about his feet so much as looking for sympathy. Size 14 shoes are hard to find in stores and expensive AF.

And as a PP said, he’s just really freaking tall. It’s an objective fact. And your son may be kinder or smarter than him, but he’s definitely not going to be taller than him.

You’re the one making a big deal out of it.

How old is your kid? And how tall? Kids who are 5’5” at 15 and delayed can end up tall. Especially if they have tall parents as OP indicated. My 6’4” brother is a case in point.

Just turned 14 and he’s 6’4” (and also has tall parents). I don’t dispute other kids his age can still grow and also get tall, but the vast majority of the older, shorter kids aren’t catching up and they’re almost certainly not surpassing his height.

And that’s fine, but “my kid will be taller than your kid someday” is a weirdly competitive statement by OP and probably not something she’ll want to hang her hat on.

I didn’t take it as competitive - it was pointing out that even if you put value on height as being a sign of superiority then denigrating short teens is short sighted as it often evens out. Many kids who are tall at 12 and 13 (even 14 or 15) end up being surpassed by other kids. (Obviously not PPs 6 4 kid)

Yep. If you focus on height then you’ll look foolish when you end up having the short kid once they are all done growing. That’s the point.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I’m not bragging about his feet so much as looking for sympathy. Size 14 shoes are hard to find in stores and expensive AF.

And as a PP said, he’s just really freaking tall. It’s an objective fact. And your son may be kinder or smarter than him, but he’s definitely not going to be taller than him.

You’re the one making a big deal out of it.

How old is your kid? And how tall? Kids who are 5’5” at 15 and delayed can end up tall. Especially if they have tall parents as OP indicated. My 6’4” brother is a case in point.

Just turned 14 and he’s 6’4” (and also has tall parents). I don’t dispute other kids his age can still grow and also get tall, but the vast majority of the older, shorter kids aren’t catching up and they’re almost certainly not surpassing his height.

And that’s fine, but “my kid will be taller than your kid someday” is a weirdly competitive statement by OP and probably not something she’ll want to hang her hat on.

Well he may well be stopping growing now or soon. A kid with a growth delay May continue to grow until 20. Kids who start puberty later tend to be taller on average than kids who have early puberty.

Okay? I thought the point was 'stop making a big deal about height,' not 'don't count my kid out of the tall person contest!!'

Er, I was responding to your certainty that your kid was going to win a contest against a kid you don’t know. Like I said my brother (and several cousins too) would disprove that.

The immediate PP is not the one with the tall 14 year old (that’s me) but your brother (who is the same height as a kid who hasn’t started high school yet) doesn’t remotely “disprove” my assertion that a kid a year older and a foot shorter is not going to end up taller. Sorry that bothers you, but it’s pretty obvious.

Reading comprehension. I mentioned my brother because at 15 he was 5’4”. Actually he may have been shorter than that. And he’s not an anomaly. He had delayed puberty, as do many short kids with tall families. Then they grow. So you have no idea.

Statistics comprehension. Your brother absolutely IS an anomaly. Not because he had delayed puberty, but because he has an adult height of 6’4”. That is about 2.5 standard deviations above average for an American man. My son, who is on a normal puberty timeframe (i.e. not early, not late) is ALSO an anomaly, in that he is taller than 99% of American men. And he is nearly 4 standard deviations taller than average for same age boys. And, as I said before, he has tall parents (he is not yet as tall as his father, for example).

I realize this is a pointless argument but I am utterly baffled as to why you are digging your heels in on this. At no point did I disagree that many boys have delayed puberty.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I’m not bragging about his feet so much as looking for sympathy. Size 14 shoes are hard to find in stores and expensive AF.

And as a PP said, he’s just really freaking tall. It’s an objective fact. And your son may be kinder or smarter than him, but he’s definitely not going to be taller than him.

You’re the one making a big deal out of it.

How old is your kid? And how tall? Kids who are 5’5” at 15 and delayed can end up tall. Especially if they have tall parents as OP indicated. My 6’4” brother is a case in point.

Just turned 14 and he’s 6’4” (and also has tall parents). I don’t dispute other kids his age can still grow and also get tall, but the vast majority of the older, shorter kids aren’t catching up and they’re almost certainly not surpassing his height.

And that’s fine, but “my kid will be taller than your kid someday” is a weirdly competitive statement by OP and probably not something she’ll want to hang her hat on.

Well he may well be stopping growing now or soon. A kid with a growth delay May continue to grow until 20. Kids who start puberty later tend to be taller on average than kids who have early puberty.

Also a valid point. Keep in mind, however, that unless you’re seeing man-sized muscle mass and/or a full beard or something, you have very little information about when some random tall kid started puberty. Height itself is not indicative of early puberty. My tall kid has literally always been tall.

Some people are just tall. Just like some people are just smart, or beautiful, or artistic, etc.

Being smart, beautiful, artistic are all positive traits. Being tall is not in the same category.

1. Being tall is as desirable to men as being beautiful is to women (and women typically desire tall partners while men desire beautiful partners). Neither are inherently positive traits but you’re being disingenuous if you pretend our society doesn’t value them.

2. If being tall is unimportant why are you arguing about it?

[Anonymous]

Yup. Some people just don’t get it. Only grandparents care about such things. The rest of us roll our eyes and move on. 😂😜

[Anonymous]

Chill out kid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not bragging about his feet so much as looking for sympathy. Size 14 shoes are hard to find in stores and expensive AF.

And as a PP said, he’s just really freaking tall. It’s an objective fact. And your son may be kinder or smarter than him, but he’s definitely not going to be taller than him.

You’re the one making a big deal out of it.

How old is your kid? And how tall? Kids who are 5’5” at 15 and delayed can end up tall. Especially if they have tall parents as OP indicated. My 6’4” brother is a case in point.

Just turned 14 and he’s 6’4” (and also has tall parents). I don’t dispute other kids his age can still grow and also get tall, but the vast majority of the older, shorter kids aren’t catching up and they’re almost certainly not surpassing his height.

And that’s fine, but “my kid will be taller than your kid someday” is a weirdly competitive statement by OP and probably not something she’ll want to hang her hat on.

Well he may well be stopping growing now or soon. A kid with a growth delay May continue to grow until 20. Kids who start puberty later tend to be taller on average than kids who have early puberty.

Also a valid point. Keep in mind, however, that unless you’re seeing man-sized muscle mass and/or a full beard or something, you have very little information about when some random tall kid started puberty. Height itself is not indicative of early puberty. My tall kid has literally always been tall.

Some people are just tall. Just like some people are just smart, or beautiful, or artistic, etc.

Some tall kids end up tall. Other tall kids grow early then stop and end up average. Some short kids develop late and end up tall.

(And BTW when a 13 year old has facial hair and a deep voice it’s a good indication they have had an early puberty. There are other ways it’s obvious depending on the sports they play)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not bragging about his feet so much as looking for sympathy. Size 14 shoes are hard to find in stores and expensive AF.

And as a PP said, he’s just really freaking tall. It’s an objective fact. And your son may be kinder or smarter than him, but he’s definitely not going to be taller than him.

You’re the one making a big deal out of it.

Truth. Thankfully we have the internet. My son also wears size 14 shoes and they are especially hard to find when they want a certain brand. I just ordered a specific pair of slides that ran small in 15s.

I’m not bragging but happy if I talk about it. He was 5’2 for most of middle school and self conscious.