Comparing heights of children

[Led92]

I have a mum friend who often mentions her kids’ heights when they happen to be taller than mine at the time. Like oh is James taller than Ben now? Oh yes look he is. And with our girls as well. I don’t get it. My DD is taller than hers now I think and suddenly it’s not mentioned.

She herself is quite tall but within normal range.
My sister is 5ft10 and often mentions her height. I’m not that much smaller than her.

aibu it really doesn’t matter if kids are taller or shorter unless you think there’s an actual medical problem?!!! Not sure why she keeps mentioning it.

Well, being tall is generally seen as a positive thing in society- especially for males. The average married man is taller than the average single man. Taller men earn more too. It isn't fair but I can see that unfortunately there are advantages.

Just to be clear of the ages of the children they’re all under 6 years old!

Look at the thread about rishi sunak and see how obsessed people are with height😳

And I know about the tall thing… more likely to be CEO’s, presidents etc. fill your boots but no need to compare. I never really thought about it but maybe because I’m quite tall and my brothers and Dad over 6ft so short stuff hasn’t come up but even if you care about height…. Not sure what’s the point in comparing your DC with another one!
It’s obviously it a big deal but when she started comparing our DC #2 today like she had DC #1 I thought oh here we go again! 🙈

• it obviously isn’t a big deal

Personally I think average height is best for both sexes, maybe an inch or two above for a man. Very tall men never look like Jason Momoa, they look like prey mantises

Agree. I think it's a thing from when they're weighed at birth. I remember people in my group being like oh my baby is now x pounds! And me feeling inferior as my baby was born underweight. I think as they get a bit older then height is used instead of weight. It's really dumb but it also happens with all sorts of things, just look on here. Ultimately many of not most mums are competitive to make up for their own insecurities (me included)

Yeah so strange! And it wasn’t even mentioned until he was prime minister!

Ha ha, so true. I think men use height as they can't compare other parts of their anatomies (which from my experience hasn't had a direct correlation in height...)

Interesting she doesn't mention it now. You should, I would but I can be a petty bitch 🤷‍♀️

We have a freakishly tall one in our generally tall family and it's not me banging on about his height, it's everyone else.

The poor bugger can't go anywhere or do anything without random strangers commenting.

There are limited benefits- being scouted for sports teams and passing for 18 when they're not. Otherwise it's a pain in the arse (and knees, and back!).

I think I may have a habit of doing this. DD was prem and always very small compared to her peers. Like a full head smaller than a lot of her class mates for the first few years. She started puberty fairly early around 8 and started catching up with her friends. Now at 10 she’s the same height as most of her friends but also very physically mature. Most of her friends haven’t started maturing yet so won’t be long before they are all taller again. I have a habit of saying ‘oh my Mary has caught up to Sue’, ‘Oh I think Mary is a touch taller than Jo now’.

My family were obsessed with my height (I'm just above average so hardly a giant 😂) but I come from a small family.
Now, my eldest is TINY despite my DP being tall and it's something lots of people comment on

I'm 160cm and always told I'm tiny so can't win 🤷‍♀️

DH and I are short in comparison to English people (neither of us are English, we are average or above for our own countries). Our children are all short. The number of times people have said to me "Oh isn't your child short, of course my child is so tall, they just eat all the time". Like I'm deliberately starving my children 🙄. I just tell them there's no virtue or achievement in being tall

If it's very young children up to about 11 then excessive height us often due to bring overweight

It brings puberty forward too so actually for girls probably not a good indicator of health at all

Jesus mn it's almost impossible to use a phone on here with the jumping around, thousands of lines added and weird substitution of words typed!!
Is
Being

It’s pretty rubbish that people think they’re superior because they’re tall, when you or your children are very short.

What you tell her is true though….I’m just over five feet and no man has ever said I’m too short!

I hate this. It happens on here though all the time, small man jokes in other threads. One of my boys is tiny and he is so self conscious. Doesn't stop family and friends wanging on about how tall the others are. Every single time they see us.

Some people just like their kid to be the most whatever they can find to comment on. I know a woman like this and it is exhausting. Made worse by us both having fraternal twin girls the exact same
age. Your kid is tall? Hers is taller. Your kid is short? Hers is tiny. Your kid is smart? Hers is smarter. Your kid is sick? Hers is sicker (seriously, this one is weird but I swear it happened). We don’t see them anymore. It got to the point I started actively avoiding social situations where I knew she would be present.

It certainly doesn’t

People always mention how tall kids are. Never how small.

I’ve had people banging on about my height my whole life. I’m not even super tall 5’9” but I’ve been 5’9” since I was 11 and it took others a while to catch up. My brother is over 6’3” and self conscious as all my mums family ever do is drone on about how tall he is as they are all short arses. He gets really sick of it and my mum exclaiming ‘when he stands up I think he’ll never stop….’ Although she says it continuously and it grates a lot.

My kids are both very tall at 7 and 4 but I'm not very tall just about 5 foot 6 and it's always wow they're so tall but you're not. Then I have explain that dad is tall and my siblings are very tall. That winds me up.

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