AIBU to worry my 15-year-old son will stay short?

Take him on holiday to Portugal where there are lots of hot short coupled up men.

As long as he’s Happy

I don't think there's much you can do to help him with his feelings about this, other than acknowledging them but also being calm and positive about it. I'm not sure all the 'some kids shoot up' anecdotes are necessarily helpful, because he might not (especially given his parents' heights). On the other hand, he's still quite young and has a fair bit of puberty to go, so he may well grow some more.

I have a short-ish son (17 and 5ft8). We talk quite a bit about how much more he will grow (when he brings it up!). I think he probably will grow more (various reasons, including how late and long his dad grew for, he still hasn't really grown into his feet, late to start puberty as many of the men in our family are etc), but he might not (he's nearly 18, I'm tiny!). He'd like to be taller than he is, but he knows it might not happen and he's OK with that too - it's only a tiny, tiny part of the person he is.

Anecdotally, we have 6 boys/men in that generation of the family aged 16-19. Only the 19 year old is taller than his dad at the moment, but I really doubt it'll end up that way.

My DS 26 is 5’ 6”. His first girlfriend, who he was with for 2 and a half years, was taller than him. His dad is 5’ 7” and I’m 4’ 9”. This height business seems to be a UK / US thing; it doesn’t seem to be an issue in Europe. OLD in particular seems to have fostered this “6 foot 3 or a friend” bollocks. Tell him that as long as he’s himself and gets on with friends of both sexes he’ll be fine.

OP I knew a kid in senior school who was 5’4 at 17. Had summer holidays away and came back and had grown 8 inches. I kid you not. It was shocking actually. Mega growth spurt in three-four months.

Your son isn’t through puberty yet it isn’t worth worrying about yet.

That's interesting as shows that those who reach puberty late often actually end up the taller ones. It's something to do with how people only have a limited number of years to grow after puberty starts - so when puberty starts at a later age they have already gained some height by age (even if they seem shorter than peers - that's just cos the peers have already been going through puberty), and then they have the puberty growing to come on top of that starting point.
Not sure if I've written that clearly.... my coffee hasn't kicked in yet! 😲

Some children are later developers than others and I think at his age he still has some growing to do, especially as he doesn’t have any facial or underarm hair yet.

One of my daughters was very late developing. She was one of the shortest in her class for much of her time at school and at 13, she was taken for an 8 year old! At 15, she grew several inches and started her periods (she says she was the last in her class to do so). She is now 5’8”.

My husband was also a late developer. My mother in law once told me that she had taken him to the doctor when he was 16, because she was so worried about his height. I don’t know how tall he was at the time, but it must have been pretty short for her to have been that worried.

The doctor said there was nothing they could do but to bring him back at 18 if she was still worried. By the time he was 18 he had grown to 6’3”.

His father was about 5’8”. His mother was about 5’4”.

I thought you were going to say he was 5ft or something, 5’6” isn’t that short your DS is already taller than one of my brothers and same height as my other and I assure you they never had any issues with girls. I think my Dad was about 5’7 ish and had shorter brothers. I towered over my grandfather on my maternal side by the time I was 16 and I’m only 5’2, the man did alright for himself and was a successful semi-pro boxer.

Yeah, I agree you can't just go and ask for growth hormones. But with sufficient commitment you could get them, not necessarily in the UK. I'm not sure if it's too late though.

He's over the 25th centile. That really isn't short, it's normal. And if he's only in early puberty, he likely has loads of growing time left yet.

I read somewhere that Danish people are as a nation the tallest in Europe, and eat and drink the most dairy produce.

He’s got another 10 years to carry on growing!

It's important to help him feel confident in himself rather than anxious about him growing. In all honesty short men don't always have it easy but as a 5'10" woman the worst bit is insecurity, shorter men who act and live like they're confident and not threatened by height are never going to have a problem finding women, partners and people that enjoy being around them. Also as a tall woman, so many men are shorter than me. Tall men are more of a minority really

My husband was a late developer. He remained quite small throughout school by the time we met when he was 21 he he was 6'3"

My short king husband is 5’2 and he has had plenty of relationships. If anything, it filters out the shallow arseholes who think height means anything and can’t get beyond what someone looks like. He was raised to be proud of who he is and i savour watching him tear down people who make short jokes with his quick wit and intelligence.
5’6 is not short but teach him it does not matter at all.

Wow my 15 year old ds whole love to be 5ft 6 he’s currently only 5ft 1 me and dh are both quite short so not expecting him to be really tall but hoping for a couple more growth spurts soon

Can’t get specifics out of him even when it might assist his upset son?!

Genetic destiny.
I'll be using that term a lot ❤️

Tdll him he is lucky to have a natural built-in superficiality filter

Why are you saying people are mean or aggressive when they say that as shorter than average parents you'd anticipate shorter than average offspring?

going on his parents heights what do you expect. He’s not expected to be a tall one. My was husband’s 6ft 6 my 17 year old boy is probably 5ft 8, I’m 5ft 6. His sister looks like she wil be taller than him and she’s younger. It’s just how it works. Although my husband did say he wasn’t tall until 18 and then grew until 21.

you sure this isn’t more of an issue for you than it is him?

Wow some of the answers on here are awful, I hope your teenagers are blessed with everything you think society values aesthetically 🤬