Height issues as an adult-Petite

[Mindmatters668]

It’s recently come to my attention that I think I have issues with my height!!
I’m 5ft and weight 8 stone and 36 years old. I’m the same height as my friends 12 year old daughter.

I do look like an adult though, when I’m out and about and kids are running around people say “mind the lady” etc, so I don’t look childish in my face.

I would like to become more independent in my life, go places alone, travel around the U.K. but for some reason I have it in my head I’m extremely vulnerable on the basis I’m small and petite!!
I don’t know what it is I think would happen, but I sometimes get scared of actually doing the things I want to do because I’m the same statistics as a bloody 12 year old! I suppose I also do get scared like a child would, I suppose sometimes I actually feel like a child and why I can’t go off and do things on my own, because a young child wouldn’t do them things. I can hear this sounds mental!

Is there other petite ladies who go off travelling by themselves or go out late and night to take the dog through the woods and it doesn’t phase them? Does your height bother you?

Am I being stupid or is this some kind of valid concern?

Is this some weird kink thing like "I'm so smol I'm like a child tee hee" stuff?

Either way it's weird.

Is this a new thing - I mean you must have been this height since your teens, no?

It sounds a bit weird and extreme, sorry!

@Thirkettle

5 foot 1 and never even thought about it. I travel independently all the time.

You're making it a big deal when it isn't.

I think the op is saying she thinks and behaves like a child in certain adult situations.. Even though she does some very adult things, like shagging, and that even though she’s not physically comparable to a 12 year old she somehow thinks she is.. She perceives herself as child like and perceives herself to be vulnerable due to an erroneous under estimation of her size ,and an odd perception that children don’t do certain things due to their size and doesn’t understand it’s actually due to their age. It seems her size is a really really big deal to her, she thinks she looks child like and acts it in certain scenarios, but not others, like work, sex, relationships etc.

If the OP has always been the smallest, delicate looking one, has been babied by family, then getting together with her now DH when still under 18 and he took on the "little girl to be looked after" approach, its very hard to see yourself as equal to him and equal to everyone else.

OP- does your dh act like you have to be looked after, not treat you like equally adult to him?

If you are being treated as a teen and delicate and somehow less adult that anyone else your age because the way you look, then its hard to get out of that mindset. Only you can change that. You are no more childlike than any other woman who happens to have a couple more inches of height on you.

I think this kind of thing starts quite early. When I was in school (and 5 ft 7 by the age of 13) I used to detest it - probably through some kind of misplaced jealousy! The girls who were short and petite were the ones who used to inspire some kind of protective instinct in the boys, and several of them then used to exploit that.

I'm the same height and was the same weight, though heavier now. It has never crossed my mind that I needed to take extra safety precautions due to my size. Maybe try some therapy to explore why you are feeling as you do? It would be horrible if you held yourself back in life, unnecessarily.