Bragging about tall kids

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


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?

Pretty much, and after seeing what lengths people go to for beauty, it shouldn't be surprising to know some men wear shoes with lifts inside to appear taller.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Height
Beauty
Intelligence
Athletic ability

Most of us cannot control these about ourselves but they are still aspirational qualities.


You can’t make yourself professional athlete or a rocket scientist, for example, but you can work on increasing your athletic skills so that playing sports is enjoyable. You can study and learn to the best of your ability. You can work on your beauty with make up, clothes, plastic surgery. There’s nothing you can do about height if you’re a typical American without any serious illnesses.

No one should waste their time aspiring to be tall.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Do they tend to mention their heights or just that they grew X number of inches? A coworker just told me her 15 year old son grew 14 inches in a year and I was envisioning a super tall kid, but he grew to 5'8". So a lot of growing but not tall.


That’s unusual, he must have a lot of stretch marks. That’s over an inch every month! Wait, he was 4’6” when he was 14 years old?
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.


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.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Do they tend to mention their heights or just that they grew X number of inches? A coworker just told me her 15 year old son grew 14 inches in a year and I was envisioning a super tall kid, but he grew to 5'8". So a lot of growing but not tall.


That’s unusual, he must have a lot of stretch marks. That’s over an inch every month! Wait, he was 4’6” when he was 14 years old?


PP here. I asked if he had stretch marks and she said no. He did have some growth plate problems in his ankles.

Yes, she said he was a very small kid. I think attributes it to a short dad and ADHD meds.
Anonymous
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.


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.


If he was 5’2” in middle school he was right in the middle of the pack and had nothing to be self conscious about.

My son was 5’3” at 13 and Tanner 2 for puberty. He ended up being 6’. He was always in the 50 - 75%tile. Always rolling along in the middle. Perfect place to be in my opinion.
Anonymous
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.


Shut up
Anonymous
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.


Agree. It’s bizarre when people claim there is a height that their child is destined to be. Those things are accurate plus or minus 3 inches and clearly a six inch difference is pretty big meaning they are worthless.
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.


Agree. It’s bizarre when people claim there is a height that their child is destined to be. Those things are accurate plus or minus 3 inches and clearly a six inch difference is pretty big meaning they are worthless.


NP here. In my 14 year old's case, he is 2 inches shorter than his father and if you follow his growth curve, he's projected to be at least the same height as his dad. Plus, he had an arm injury so had x-rays and orthopedic surgeon said his growth plates are wide open with more growing left. So between being in Tanner 2 stage, his dad's height and his male cousins' height, and the open growth plates, I would say there's a better than good chance he'll reach his father's height.

I'm 5'3" which isn't tall, but my husband's mother is 4'11" while my husband is 6'1" and his nephews are 6'2" and 6'3", so the male height in that family doesn't seem terribly impacted by the women's height.
Anonymous
I am proud of his height but I don’t ever mention it unless someone comments on it, then I say oh yeah thanks.
Unfortunately it’s like the looks - just luck! Too much meaning attached to it.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Take a deep breath. People are not "bragging" that their kids grew, they usually are just in kind of shock. And you yourself are putting value on height with "he’ll be taller than most of you when he does grow"



This.
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?


Johnny is kind AND tall.

And he will always be taller than Larlo.
Anonymous
I’m surprised that people think they can predict their kids’ heights based on parents, grandparents etc- it really doesn’t work that way IME. For example, my own sons will be likely 4-5 inches different in height (one is full grown and the other had a bone scan and full work up due to late puberty which gives a pretty accurate prediction). We know a set of (full grown) brothers- where one is 5’8” and the other 6’2”. Tall dad and short mom. Lots of other examples like this that I can think of in our families/friend group. For example my DH has four sisters- they range in height from 5’3”-5’8”. We know a family with 3 sons- the older two are both 6’2” but the youngest is 5’9”.

I’d caution against making assumptions about height (or worse, promising your kid that they will be a certain height or will outgrow others etc).
Anonymous
Are you ok? You sound like an angry short person.
Anonymous
I have a friend who is constantly talking about how “huge” her 7 year old is. He looks totally average to me lol.
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