My son hates being short.

My response is legitimate.

If he had severe cystic acne would you tell him to love the skin he is in?

If he had benign growths on his body would you dissuade him from seeking surgery?

It’s the same thing.

But he doesn’t have 2+ years to “wait and see” what happens. He needs to take action now before his growth plates fuse.

Exactly this. His parents are both quite short.

Yes, this is what I was trying to argue but you have put it better than me.

If you genuinely thought that telling someone their son would never be considered attractive was helpful then no wonder you struggle to connect with people in real life.

If you actually believe that keeping a child off school for 2 YEARS is a proportionate response to them being potentially average height rather than 6 foot then you are all kinds of messed up.

Get therapy. Honestly. For your sake, for your kids sake, for the sake of anyone who has to encounter you.

Nah, you're not a serious person. 'live a full life'? He's not missing his bloody limbs! 😂😂

Especially because the goalposts would just move if the averages were higher. If we all started breeding selectively for height (which we clearly don't else the averages would already be taller!) then the terminally online Alpha Males (morons) would shift it to 6ft 2 rather than 6ft & so on & so on.

Where previously height was a throwaway 'ooo love a tall man' thing for women it's become a serious social pressure from the unpleasant online male communities - and they are least attractive men on the planet!

It was intended to be helpful. Words can’t fix the issue that the OP’s son has. It’s a legitimate disadvantage to his life that can absolutely be fixed. I’m not advocating he have surgery. That’s barbaric and risky. He can have pharmaceutical intervention that will enable him to live a full life.

If he had acne I would suggest something that would help him. He’s short - I’ve suggested something that will help him but the window of opportunity is very short (no pun intended).

He can fix this before his growth plates fuse. Telling him to love the skin he is in is unrealistic. Life is tough enough without a height disadvantage.

In reality though, most men (in the UK) aren't 6 foot and most women aren't pretty enough to experience 'pretty privilege'.

Nobody should be attempting to conform to some unachievable beauty standard.

Well it wasn't a thing in the past and is evidently something totally promoted by social media so that does make it a shallow aspiration grounded in no reality.

Equally, there are plenty of shorter women in the UK if the average height is 5ft 4, why would women expect many UK men to be above the average for a man at 5ft10 If a UK woman is on average 5ft 4?

Can I just say I tried all of this with my son but anything team related he was put off of because of his height. It can be crippling and that’s not easy to understand if you don’t face the same challenges.

Where do you expect her to get growth hormone from?

Welsh people are shorter! My long lost cousin sent me a lovely photo from one of Welsh Uncles funerals and I was towering over everyone. And I'm only 5' 7"
But my friends son was like the OP's - he looked about 12 at age 16. The next year he had a massive growth spurt and now at the age of 27 is about 5'10"

I'm 5ft 6, wife is 5ft 4, so the natural law suggests Son should be in-between or just above, Son shot up around 14 and is now 16 and hovers around 5ft 10 which for a while he had a complex about, until I told him the Godfather (Al Pacino) is only 5ft 6, as well as Tom Cruise. He will learn to accept whatever size be becomes but yes OLD height filters are ridiculous and so is anyone to rule out a life partner due to height alone.

I did an advanced search on that poster, assuming that would be their only post or that they'd have a pattern of just bitch plopping goady shit round the boards. But, nope, their history suggests they are for real. There's even a post bemoaning how they have no friends IRL. Can't think why that might be the case!!

People can be annoyed and write about how it’s shallow but many studies show being tall as a male does give advantage. Just like studies show pretty privilege is most definitely a thing. It shows deep down how humans are less evolved than they think. DS and a couple, of his mates were all on the same dating site. One of his friends is short at 5ft 5 and he has had far less dates than the others.

Due to genetics he is unlikely to be tall but you grow when you’re asleep. The hormone for growth is released when we sleep. So make sure he gets plenty of good quality sleep.

Apologies for my language above as not an 'attainment', I should have used 'be that'.

My nephew is a short king (5’6 at 19) and we just enforced in him from a young age that he is a short king. We also told him that some girls won’t date him because of his height and that’s their preference. Lying to him would be cruel. I remember telling him he needs to be funny and have a banging personality if he wants a girlfriend, and he is genuinely one of the funniest and most confident people I know. My only advice is don’t coddle him or lie to him, life is brutal and being a short man probably sucks, like being a fat woman. If he develops wee man syndrome, it will be really hard to undo.

My son didn’t have a big growth spurt until he was 15 - still not tall, but around the height his dad was. He hasn’t finished growing yet!

I don't really understand the obsession with the idea that a UK man is disappointed not to be 6ft when the average is 5ft 10, it would be a more a reasonable expectation If you were a Danish man for example as the average height for a man is 6ft. In Italy the average height for a man is 5ft 9. Social media has a lot to answer for as if your heritage and country of origin has an average quite a bit below the 6ft figure it is unlikely many men will ever attain that. My Danish family have tall men but it is average there so when I am visiting with DH he feels smaller at 5ft8 but it isn't and never has had any sensitivities over this presumably because if the average height for a man in the UK is 5ft 10 then he like many other UK men fall to the one below to make the average. My DS in late teens is taller but seems to have my Dad's size genes, amongst his friends he is smaller than one friend who is very tall at 6ft 4 and taller than all the other friends who are more around 5ft 9, 10& 11.

We recently seen a consultant for my DS’s height OP. He is 12 and the shortest in his year and despite DH being 6’4 and me being 5’8 the doctors didn’t see anything wrong with his height (15th centile) and said that the bar for treating with growth hormone is very high. Given that you and your DH are both on the shorter side I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

I agree it’s shit how height is talked about these days though, like being tall is an achievement. My DH hates being tall.

Help him find some good role models who are shorter men. If he's sporty, look to sports - there are lots of shorter men in football, gymnastics, cycling. It can be a huge advantage to be strong & light in some sports. As pp have said, if he's within the normal range, it is what it is. Puberty will make a huge difference so if he's not yet all the way through he'll gain a few inches there.

Does he have a good positive bond with his dad? Thats a good place to start for a below average height role model.

Well women generally do prefer the man to be taller but no matter what height he gets to I’m sure there’ll still be a lot of shorter women!

And that being said I know plenty of couples where the man is shorter anyway.