...to expect other parents to have ^some^ empathy? Long & Ranty

It's sad when people give her age 4 clothes and they don't fit her.

American clothes seem to be cut for much taller children, however, and nearly all the trousers have adjustable waists, so that's where she gets most of her clothes.

Misdee, I bought a plain tshirt in Matalan and had a local shop customise it with sewn-on appliques.

Because age 4 tshirts look like midriff tops on 'Miss Spanky Lanky' as her father calls her .

expat, i want dd2 to have one of those for days out over the summer. do they do them in age 7-8?

I got DD1 a tshirt that reads, 'I'm 4'.

I've had similar issues with the ds of a friend of mine. He is 2.5 but seems much bigger / heavier (can't comment on the speech as he only speaks Swedish). He seems a bit of a terror to me and has upset my ds (2) greatly. He can do stuff that any two year old will do, but he can do it harder and more aggressively than a typical two year old.

As an aside, I think my friend wanted me to tell him off whilst he was staying with me but I didn't like to because of the usual 'telling off other people's children' thing plus he can't speak English, so a bit harsh. I did always send him to his mum for a telling off but even so.

The unintentional roughness thing I really relate to, I'm absolutely sure this little boy didn't mean any harm by constantly sending my ds flying /nicking his toys etc. but I have to say my gut instinct as a mum was to want to defend my ds despite any reasonable expectations of behaviour I tried to have.

Ds is quite tall, although nothing as extreme as some of the children mentioned here. And I've had occasions where I've had to explain 'he's only three or 'he's not old enough to be in school'. People usually look surprised and either shut up or say something apologetic or kind, thank heavens.

Once a 7yo boy in a playground started laughing because he spotted ds's nappy (as ds scrambled up the climbing frame). I had to explain ds was still only two. Boy just looked taken aback and said 'Oh, OK then' and they played very nicely together.

Maybe I'm just lucky enough to live somewhere with lots of people who aren't particularly nasty to tall children.

I frequently used to say "My daughter is being vile because she's 2 years old; what's your excuse?"

(She wasn't vile, btw - just being a two year old!).

people ask me if Ds and Dd1 are twins as they are the same height, there is 2.5 years between them.

he is dinky sparkly. same height almost as dd2 lol.

People think my 9 year old is a very advanced 6-7 year old, he is so small lol

definate advantage to being tall, DP is a bit of a short arse and DD let her balloon go in the shop today, was rescued by incredably tall young man, how small did DD feel?

i'd opt for the "fuck off" approach to be honest. I guess i might be cheesed off if DD was sent flying but if the mother apologised or tried to prevent then i would be happy with that. Id probably think, thank heavens i have a girl - lol. But i hate smug mothers (You might have noticed) who look down on other people, in fact i hate smug people full stop. I would tend to use reins if he is such an escape artist, i use them with DD, i cant be doing with the worry otherwise, but that is your choice of course.

Yep...tallness is a definite advantage throughout life...I think it even extends to health advantages and socioeconomic ones too...so lucky little Loveangel/misdee...

Same here mozhe, my dd is 5 but miniscule!!

interesting mozhe, as my dd2 has just been scored very highly at end of nursery year. she is at ta reception/yr 1 level already

There's research that shows,( I will try and dig it out but am based in SCBU atm...so bear with me...),that tall children are advantaged educationally in the long run....probably for all the reasons that you outline,ie; being treated as an older more intelligent person...
You are right there is nothing wrong with him...he is 2,gets treated as older and is bright as well...
I know how frustrating it can be my children,( in particular my 6 year old ), have opposite problem...they are very small/short for their ages....people are forever saying,' oh don't make him do that mummy he's still very little...'
I smile,( in a very determned way...), and say, ' he's 6 '.
Not everyone is average....

'My 2 and a half yr old is a bit different from most of his peers. He's very very tall (he looks about 4) and talks exceptionally well for his age - however, his height and speech both cause him some problems.
Firstly, people expect him to act in a more mature way because they mistake him for an older child.
Secondly, because of his height, he is quite clumsy and heavy-footed, and often bumps into people, pushes them out the way more roughly than I think he means to and can generally appear quite rough. He also has a very short attention span when he is in a busy place/crowd, which I put down to over-excitement, as he is capable of long periods of quite play and concentration at home; and he is an escape artist - let go of his hand for a second and he will run off extremely fast (a fit adult would struggle to catch him), which can obviously be very dangerous (not to mention frustrating!). '

you could've been writing all that6 about my dd2. she was the size of a 4-5yr old at age 2, and a lot of people expected her to act older than she is. she is now 4, and the size of a 7-8year old. and it still happens. people have a go at her for acting 'like a 4 year old' my reply? 'she is 4.' she is a bounceym enthusatic, charming, chatterbox who is always smiling when we are out.

she is also clumsey as hell, walks into people, knocks people over by accident, walks into walls, falls over etc etc.

the looks and sneers make me angry.

when she was two, she was walking at the car boot sale with me, holding my hand. a lady(ha she wasnt a lady) bashjed into dd2 hard, whacking her face with her handbag and bruising her nose badly and then walked off. i shouted after the lady 'you could've said sorry you know!'
'well she should've been watching where she was going'
'she is 2 years old!'
'no she isnt'

Being tall can be tough.

My niece is 12 and 5ft., 9in. She hasn't even gone through puberty yet and she's 8 inches taller than her own mother.

She's had some counselling to help her deal, but she's a pretty tough cookie, thankfully.

You have my empathy.

DD1 turned 4 a fortnight ago and stands 47 inches tall, but only weighs 2.5 stone despite eating for Scotland.

She has dyspraxia, so in addition to looking 6-7, she has speech and gross/fine motor skills delays, hand flaps when excited, has an abnormal gait and is nowhere near potty-trained.

She's been tutted over so much, I've stopped noticing tutting, disapproving looks, whispers, head shaking, comments, etc.

Onto the rude questions . . .

Oh, we got those often enough.

Like gess, you get a pretty thick skin after a while.

I think i would be a little miffed if someone child pushed me out of the way or my dd when i was in town. It has nothing to do with age in my opinion, but i certainly would never say anything to parent.

Lisa

Develop crocodile skin. Ds1 is 8, looks absolutely like any other 8 year old boy, but is severely autistic so behaves anything but normally. My hide gets thicker each year (although I do remember it being paper thin at the beginning). You know the score, who cares what a bunch of strangers think? Let the sour faced trouts suck on lemons as long as they like (thinking about it the worst for giving a good old gawp and shake of the head are fathers of young children).

I have occasionally mouthed 'don't stare' at particularly bad offenders, but usually I mutter any profanities under my breath.

Also helps to remember that they'd be floored if they were trying to deal with it.

some friends have a daughter who is extremely tall for her age - she was in 7/8 year old clothes at 3/4 and now at 9 she is in age 14/15 clothes. People obviously expect her to be much more mature than she is and finding clothes is a nightmare as of course the clothes are for teenagers not for little girls.

Nothing to more to add than that really. I would probably explain that he is still a toddler despite his height. If my child was getting pushed about I'd probably be the one tutting and grissling to be honest because it is entirely natural to be protective of our kids but I think he can be excused because he is at an age where pushing and shoving is entirely to be expected (they all go through it and anyone who says there child didnt will probably get it at some stage).