Where have all these giant children come from?

[CredulousThickos]

And by children I mainly mean young teens.

I am a short arse at five foot two and a half. But growing up I was about average among my peers, with maybe one or two who were 'tall', which would still be under six foot.

My teens are 13 and 15 and roughly my height. The vast majority of their mates are MASSIVE. Two of DD's friends are over six foot, the rest shorter but still much taller than DD, and all but one of DS's circle are. He is actually the shortest kid in his year.

My much younger brother is 6'4 (he's 23), whereas all three of us sisters (early to late 30s) are my height or shorter. Same parents, btw, so not that.

Is this just confirmation bias or are the next generation taller in general?

I was used to being on the lower side of average but now I feel like a proper short arse.

Is it me or has anyone else noticed this epidemic of height?

sailors tended to be quite tall, partly due to diet as well. boys started their apprenticeships during pre-teen years, so before greatest growth spurt and they were fed very well.
ceilings/doors/beds on ships were small to save building costs.

I wonder if part of the answer to the obesity crisis lies in the way rationing and its aftermath affected our parents' and grandparents' metabolisms and the genes they passed down. Perhaps the current generation has been landed with genetics shaped by rationing and unable to cope with plenty, and further down the line future generations will develop to handle the surfeit. It's called epigenetics I think.

Bacchus, the God of wine and debauchery is always very well endowed. So are satyrs. The difference between a faun and a satyr is fauns are family friendly, and satyrs are R rated.

Gallicos
That is interesting. My Dad's family all tend towards obesity. All of his siblings were obese and my Dad battled with his weight. Every single one of the siblings children (first cousins) have similar weight issues. This is despite the fact that not all of my Dad's siblings were brought up together due to a death in the family, my dad and one of his three siblings moved to different countries to live so the first cousins were not brought up in the same / similar environment.

However, the one common element is that they come from a part of Ireland severely affected by the potato famine. I wondered if that favoured "thrifty" genes.

Gallico's Cats. That's an interesting theory. As I said upthread, my mum was one of those for whom rationing provided unheard-of plenty and range of vitamins in her young life (compared with the very poor diets my grandparents had as children).

There is no obesity in her children or grandchildren - in fact I would go so far as to say than many of the boys, in particular, are unusually tall and slender. So perhaps in our family the rationing = deprivation = predisposition to 'hoard' food metabolically didn't happen.

DH 6'
Me 5'6
Adult DD 5'7
Adult DS1 6'1
Adult DS2 6'1
DS17 6'6

Rationing was probably not much fun BUT it wasn't unhealthy per se - there's data that shows the population was actually nourished better (possibly due to reduction in inequality) during rationing (did you see the Mel and Giles supersizers wartime one? Great fun)

To the rest of your point though, yeah, generations of diet can certainly affect both genetics and epigenetics. You look at populations like polynesiians for example - very thrifty metabolisms and HORRIFYING rates of T2 diabetes and associated ills when on a standard western crap diet.

Ditto arctic populations - the rates of diabetes and obesity go through the roof when a western diet is introduced.

Humans are omnivores and we do pretty well on a huge variety of diets - from vegan to the almost meat and fish of traditional art if poulations. We do adapt to our surroundings. peoples like sherpas/s American Indian tribes in the Andes who have lived at altitude for generations have developed different oxygen transport for example - lowland populations are less fertile (due to the oxygen gradient needed during development in the womb and also resistance to altitude sickness.)

epigenetics is more a short term change and doesn't affect the actual genetic code.

Interesting stuff and nice that people have heard of it (I did my PhD in a related field..)

Gallicos
Height requirements for joining corps de ballets vary, but most companies accept dancers shorter than 5'6" for the corps - NYCB being one of the most famous exceptions (Minimum Height 5'7" AND Must Have Trained At SAB). You'd never see that in Russia, though - it might have been 2003 that they fired Anastasia Volochkova for being too tall - & thus too heavy - to lift at 5'7", but the desired aesthetic hasn't evolved...

I've felt this way moving down South! 5ft 4 and in my South Yorks town I often tower over girls, rarely are any taller and the guys are same height or a few inches above.

Not in my new South East abode! I'm the second shortest I know there and 9/10 guys are over 6ft.

I'm not sure nutrition is the whole answer. I am 5'8 and my daughter is 5'4 and much curvier than I, despite being a keen athlete in her junior school years.

That's normal abra.

The rough rule is add the parents height together, then add 13cm for a boy, subtract 13 for a girl then divide by two

But height is a multifactorial trait (controlled by many genes) there's a good deal of variety

Im 5ft3 and my 14 month old is over half my height, you can tell from her body proportions she's going to be tall.

I use think 5-7 years were tiny kids but they look lanky these days.

I am now officially going to attribute my being a stone overweight to the Irish Potato Famine.

I've heard the same theory applied to some in the Mid West--descendants of people who survived conditions of near-famine making the trek west in the C19th.

Well I went for 14yo ds's school shoes yesterday and he has his first pair of size 14's! They are like canoes.

My dd is 6 and in a size 1 which seems to be big for her age according to her friends shoe sizes ( about to start year 2 )

I remember being 7 and in an adult size 5, was a size 8 by 10yo and thankfully they stayed at an 8 but my true size is closer to 9 as one foot is bigger than the other and I often struggle with 8's.
Used to love Dolcis as a teen of the 90's as they had lovely shoes up to size 9.

It's really difficult having a 14 yo who would pass for your toyboy stealth boast I got called a milf by one of his friends the other day I'm far from one

A bit like bbpp, my height feels different depending on where I am. At a smidgeon over 5'2'', you'd think I was a shortarse by anyone's standards, but I towered over two of my best friends at school, and when I stood in the playground waiting for primary aged DC, it was a similar story. But in an average crowd situation, I'm suddenly surrounded by giants.

Some of them are huge I agree.

I don't think it's changed that much.

When I was in the last year of primary 30 years ago my female friend was 5'8 already. At the school gates most of the mums tower over me as I'm only 5'5". There are a fair few mums who are either around or over the 6 foot mark and in their late 30's/40's.