Burst my friend's bubble?

[Flyingmonica]

My friend goes on about her son likely being tall - 6 foot 3 based on the UK growth chart. Would I be unreasonable in telling her that because she isn't very tall, this is unlikely to be the case and that the growth chart predictions are rubbish?

She is sold on the idea of her son being tall and her son has come to believe that too but I think that now he is approaching puberty, he may become very disappointed.

Should I just leave it be or should I give her a dose of reality?

Such an odd thing to take issue with.

My paternal grandmother was around 5'2" and my paternal grandfather was about 5'4". One of their sons, my uncle, was 6'4" so it does happen. Having said that, my parents were 5'1" and 5'8" and my brother was very tall as a child. We all thought he had taken after our uncle but, as an adult, he is just under 6' tall. Still quite tall but nowhere near as tall as his early height projection. Personally, I can't understand why people are obsessed with children being tall.

You really seem to want to bring your friend down a peg or two just because she wants her son to be tall! Surely, if it happens, it happens and if it doesn't, well, they'll get over it, I'm sure.
I really don't get why you feel the need to 'burst her bubble' in any case!
You seem determined that you're in the right anyway, but you can't possibly know in advance how tall her son will be. Or can you see into the future? That's a handy thing, if you can!

Take no notice. It isn't important anyway.

I'm 5ft 1, husband 5ft 9. Sons are 6ft 2 and 5ft 10

I am at a loss as to why you are at all bothered by this.

Yup.

Dd2 ( adult) is taller than her dad.
It happens.

@Flyingmonica I think the obsession some women have with height (whether it's them being really short, or men being really tall) is really weird. For me, it's not something I think about. It doesn't affect anything, so why would I care?

It's very difficult to predict the future height of boys. There were some boys I went to school with who seemed to be on the shorter side, but now they are tall. For other boys, they may initially be tall, but may stop growing sooner. No one knows, and more importantly, no one cares.

By the way, I think you should just say nothing.

I'm 5ft 2 and my ex is 5 ft 5. Our youngest child is 5 ft 11. My granny and Grampa were both small and my dad and uncle are 6ft.

My first proper boyfriends parents were really quite small I don't think either of them were over 5ft 4 my then boyfriend was about 5ft7 and his brother was well over 6ft.

You seem to be overinvested in this trivial matter which in any event is nothing to do with you!

She's a fool to raise her son's expectations before puberty, because she can't possibly know that he will end up tall and he might feel like he's disappointed her.

But you're a fool too, to think you know better. Neither of you knows. So your post just comes across as weirdly malicious.

All of my children are much taller than me. I'm 5ft 2 and one of my daughters is 5ft 8,maybe more. Her dad would say he was 6ft but that's not true 🤣

I wouldn't say anything because you don't know any more than she does. Time will tell.

I have 2 DDs (same dad) - one is 6' (and taller than her dad), the other is 5'7" and shorter than me.

you and friend are both odd. You with your fake concern that the boy may be traumatised if he doesn't grow as tall - so what, he will figure it out. And there's no way for you to know if he will be tall or not.

Your friend is also weird though if she keeps going on about her son's height. 5'6'' at 14 is a bit taller than average, but certainly not off the charts tall, no need to call the papers.

Why does it matter? Height isn’t a measure of quality of life or attractiveness, so why would it bother you? I have a son who is over 6 foot and another who is 5 foot nine. Both fine.So what? I am 5 foot zero.

Agree.

What an odd post.

After this update you need to mind your own business. It sounds quite nasty of you considering this is your "friend". I'm only 5ft 4 and DS dad is around 5ft 6 or something but our Son is nearly as tall as me and he's 10 years old and size 9 in trainers.

Just to add to my PP. it was obvious actually even before birth that my 6' DD was going to be very tall - they measured one of her femur bones in utero and said it was remarkably long. At age 3, we went to the primary school to watch the reception class Christmas performance and she was taller than all rbe receipton kids, despite being almost 2 years younger than some of them (she is summer born).

Why are you bothered it sesms an odd thing to make an issue out of? Fwiw I'm the shortest of my siblings at 5 ft 8 my mum was only 5ft 5

This. With bells.

Well, you'd be telling them something that may not necessarily be true, as evidenced by many posts here, so what's the point? Also - what's with this underlying assumption that having longer bones than other people makes someone inherently superior?

Boys in recent decades have almost always tended to end up very slightly taller than their fathers where nutrition is good and there are no unusual factors such as genetic disorders or medical problems.

Although this will flatten out because the fathers were also well fed as children so reached their maximum potential height, boys will still end up roughly the same height as their fathers.

So if the father is about 5ft 10 the son has a reasonable chance of being just under 6 ft.

If the father is 5 ft 10 by your estimation rather than his own claim, he probably believes/ claims he's 6ft anyway...

So if his son is slightly taller than his dad he'll believe he's over 6ft

Problem of boy being disappointed is therefore probably fairly non existent.

Boys with tall mothers tend to be among the tallest in the class at 10, 11, 12, maybe 13 years old. Boys with tall fathers often don't have their growth spurts until a little later and start overtaking the boys with tall mothers but average fathers at around 14-15 but end up a lot taller as adults.

Okay wait I'm not quite sure I understand what you're saying here....
Your friend's son is 14 years old and is 5'6 currently and based on growth chart projections she thinks he's going to be 6'3. His father is 5'10, and she's going on about her son going to be a tall guy....

At the moment, he's 5'6. He shorter than I am.
He'll be whatever he is. He might have hit his growth spurt already.

True, she may speculate that he's going to be a tall guy, maybe he will be, but the only way is to wait and find out.

My best friend, a male, was 6' 10" by the age of 14, now, that's a tall kid. Poor guy hadn't been able to go out for Halloween since the time he was 9 because everyone thought that he was an adult