....that perfect strangers think they can comment about the physical attributes of children? At the medical complex yesterday, we were joined on the elevator by a woman who smiled down at William and said, "Well, as petite as YOU are, and unless his daddy is very tall....." I cut her off. I knew she was going to comment on my boy's poor chances of being a tall man. "He's six-foot, two," I said bluntly. "Oh," she said as she watched my behind leaving the elevator. The nerve of people.
I suppose I'm sensitive to this because I spent Lauren's early childhood hearing "she sure is short (small, petite, enter your own adjective) for her age" and right in front of her. It didn't help that her sister, two years younger, was the same size, something that strangers also felt compelled to point out, as if we hadn't noticed. Adults have no reservations about making comments about children's appearance, height, age, etc. While I don't encourage my children to answer back disrespectfully to adults, I'd sure like to.
For example:
Short? Short of what?
Yes, we stopped feeding himso he'd always stay little.
He's really 6' tall, but he's in disguise right now.
We prefer quality over quantity.
He's trying to stay short because he wants to ride in the Kentucky Derby.
Oh, and Wm is in the 75th percentile on height.
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1 comment:
Amen!! Except that I received comments on the flipside of that. The comments I heard were always on how tall I was & how I must be good at sports & I should be a model... I've never been good at sports, I hate having my picture taken & I now notice a hump forming at the back of shoulders from slouching (gee, wonder if it was trying to not look so tall?)
I also heard about how my fingers were so long, I should be a piano player... I've never been able to tap out anything more than Twinkle-Twinkle-Little-Star.
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