are your kids bigger than you?

[MissHannah]

Me and my older sister are both 5'9", our mother is 5'4", her mother was 5' and HER mother was 4'10". It all seemed very logical until our little sister was born, 16 years after I was, and has now, aged 21, reached the grand height of 5'2"!

Interestingly, all 3 of us girls were small for our age for most of our childhoods but then the 2 eldest shot up aged around 16 whilst the youngest stayed put where she was around aged 14.

 

[Mid-fogey]

That would...

... I even have a pension file from my fourth great grandfather who was in the Revolution, and he was listed as being 6' 2" and of "heavy build"...

...have made him very large compared to his Continental Army comrades. Not only were men shorter in those days, but the predominance of taller men was less. George Washington at 6' 2" or so was considered a virtual giant, and was thought by many, despite being in his 40s, to be the strongest man in the Army.

 

[Mid-fogey]

Perhaps...

...So I don't really see much evidence of a general trend for kids to be taller than their parents - at least, not in my nuclear family...

...If you were a nuclear family you'd all be taller, or at least have spider powers.

 

[Mid-fogey]

I doubt...

...my daughter will pass me at 6'4". At 11 she is already past her mother at 5'4" or so.

 

[cookie]

I am 5.9 (nearly) my wife 5'.8' and our 2 sons are 6'4'' and 6'2"! My Dad was like 5'4'' and Mum about 5'2". My mother in law is about 5'8'' and my late father in law about 5'7". But my wife has cousins that are 6'6". Go figure....