Short people problems!

[WibblyWobblyHead]

Why oh why do almost every clothes shop put short length jeans on the top shelf/hangers? Where's the sense in that?!

What other short people problems really annoy you?

Not a great annoyance, but I always feel mildly patronised by "mind your head" signs that are about a foot above my head.

Getting into my car after it's been in to the garage to find the seat back to a normal distance and sighing at my feet being miles from the pedals.

Chairs - I like sitting into the backs of chairs so I have back support but then my feet dangle like a child's. Makes me feel very professional and grown up!

Lovely dresses from lovely shops that are designed to hit above the knee and end up halfway down my calves, making me look stout!

At 5'4 I'm not short as such but still can't get trousers to fit. Regular length trousers are far to long and petite usually start at 5'3 so are always a little too short. I still need a stool to reach top shelves and today at work when no one was looking had to climb onto the desk and kneel on the windows sill to shut the window.

On the bright side our bathroom has a sloping ceiling so I can stand up in the shower but 6ft DP has to kneel down mwah haha

4'11 tall here - standing in pubs is my bug bare, I refuse to do it now......standing in a group which slowly closes and pushes you out as 'oh I didn't see you down there' Hilarious! I know! And you can't hear a bloody word! So if I can't sit down I ain't coming. Hmmph!

worst part about being short is people COMMENTING on it. Constantly. It's (rightly) considered mean to just randomly drop 'You're so fat/ginger/lanky/hairy' into conversation but short jokes are commonly accepted banter. Strangely enough, most of the comments come from people who are only a little bit taller. People of average/tall height don't mention it so much.

Linked to this is surprise re: small hands/feet. Well yes, I do have small hands, because I'm small. It would be weird if I was 5'2 and had giant clown feet, wouldn't it?

Handy to get cheap clothes in kids section though. Buy all my work cardies, and a few shoes, from New Looks teen section - often exactly the same style as the normal range but much cheaper!

Why, in Sainsbury's, can none of the staff be arsed to move the last 3 1pt cartons of whole milk to the front of the top shelf so I can reach? This happens most times I go to buy it.

fuzzy - oh, I quite like smugly walking upright under 'mind your head' signs, or through woods and on occasion caves (we live near the yorkshire dales) without ducking.

Does anyone have accurate statistics for average women's height in the UK? Googling just now I've turned up various between 5'3 and 5'5. So it really does show how stupid a lot of design is - a combination of sizism and sexism I think.

Agree with you there - Anotherone!

My FIL is always having a good 'hur hur hur' at my height. He's sweet about it, but it's an eternal joke.

One day I must have been feeling a bit cranky because I suddenly 'joked' back at him about him being bald.
He look so sad and taken aback that I ended up apologising (but i still get a bit cross when he jokes about it but have learned to bite it back as he's nice really).

DC have bunk beds and DH has to change the top bunk, I can't reach.

I'm 5ft 1 and a half. The half is very important.

Agree with pp on short people silly jokes, opening windows with potato mashers and climbing on cupboards and the like to reach for things.

On a positive for me, I can lift up my legs and get myself curled up on the seat comfortably when the seat belt signs off on an aeroplane :)

Lemonyone - agree the premium flight, had dead legs by the time we arrived, whingy I know but really uncomfortable, another one here also fallen head first into the chest freezers they used to have in supermarkets, pre the posh upright ones they have now.

It is handy to be able to comfortably lie down and sleep on most sofas though

Most weird one was getting told to move when labour to hang onto the headboard of the bed in case I fell off over the footboard - how tall did the midwife think I was the headboard was too high!!

Dentist chair for any time consuming work, most uncomfortable... Need to use the children's moulds for my mouth!

On a packed train people want you to start in the middle of the aisle in a 3 - 2 seat arrangement and my arms are too short to reach the pole attached to the shelf. Same on the tube. So bloody annoying and people don't care they just ignore that your too short to reach and keep bleating move down the middle - yes I mean you!

Bar stools - omg I loathe them and now all the bloody make-up counters have them and there is just no dignified way of getting on and off them. My feet never reach the support bar at the bottom either. I always ask to stay standing but once the girl at the counter gave me a real attitude about it. Sorry but I am not going to make a fool of myself trying to get on those bloody things. Often the seat is at waist height - fecking thing is almost as tall as me.

Any type of deep seated chair where my legs can't reach the ground annoys me too as I have to sit forward on the chair.

I like jumping (carefully) under mind your head signs. Especially when DH has to duck!

The new Freezers at my local Tesco has chest freezer underneath and extra tall shelf ones above, can't reach the top 2 shelves and can't climb up to reach

Fellow short arses - this video will revolutionise your life!!

www.mirror.co.uk/usvsth3m/easy-way-change-duvet-cover-5351071

Downside - I fell head first into a freezer once reaching for some icecream at the back, and had to be helped out by young man.

Upside - Steven Mangham once reached down some muesli from the top shelf for me.

I couldn't view the duvet video, but I worked out how to do a double duvet single-handed with the aid of 4 large klipits. Essentially, you get the bottom two corners clipped, stuff the duvet in any old how, clip the top two corners, shake well (slightly easier to do that with two people but can do alone) and it all goes into place.

Bathsheba and RandomMess - find a member of staff. Ideally a busy one on the other side of the store. Regardless of their height. Make them come all the way over to get what you need down for you and if you need something else down, get them again. And if they can't reach it either that just makes the point that they are being U to have such high shelves.

Head rests in cars and on planes that do just shove your head forward rather than sitting under your head and supporting your neck as they are designed to do.
Seriously they are so uncomfortable - and must be for at least a third of the population as they are designed for your average man. I don't understand why they are there completely flat back would be more comfortable and more universal.

I was so glad when the DSs could walk by the side of the trolley so that I didn't have to use a big one any more. I was struggling to even lift them in to the seat in the end.

I also used to have a problem with my Aged Parent's chest freezer - I had nightmares about ending up at the bottom of it getting something out!

I was desperately sad when I went to have a 'well woman' appointment with the nurse and discovered I'd shrunk by 1/2 an inch (I'm not 5' as I thought!).

There's a child in DS2's (year 2) class who is almost as big as me and has bigger feet than me and some of the others take great delight in telling me so.

I forgot that - when I couldn't get my hugely tall toddler out of the trolley!!! The blessings of having dc with a very tall partner, not.

My 11 year old moaning about her stupidly small size 2/3 feet. I was at least 14 before my feet got that big!

Conference rooms with huge seats that mean your back kills by the end I the day ...

Oh, and I won't travel long distances on trains any more as it's just too uncomfortable.

I'm not normally grumpy though - I tend to just get on with life

I hated working in London in the summer. Packed Tubes. My head was always at armpit height. Not funny