I was a big, big kid. In fact, I was such a tall child that at nine years old, a neighbor down the street told me that I was too big to be trick-or-treating at Halloween, and that I should be ashamed of myself. By age twelve, I was 5 foot 8 and the boys in my class looked up at me in horror during square dancing class (yes, they make you take square dancing class in Canada). By the time I was fourteen, I swore that if anyone asked me if I played basketball again, I would scream and run out the door. As a matter of fact, I did not play basketball for exactly that reason: I was tall, and the constant questions about it made me crazy. I suppose I am a little bit of a contrarian.
My daughter is having a similar childhood. At age one the comments had already started. She didn’t walk until she was one and a half, and she looked like a crawling giant. I carried her in a sling until she was three, and my chiropractor looked on in horror (and secret delight) as she grew to be over 40 pounds, still happily sitting in a carrier on my back.
At four, she is one of the three tallest in her class. The others are boys, and they’re all in a dead heat as to who is the tallest. In the recent class photo, she occupied the place of honor that was all to familiar to me as a child – the middle of the back row.
Now, some say that being tall is a wonderful gift. Well yes, you can reach high objects on the top shelves. The cookies are never far away. And yes, you can play basketball and volleyball and all sorts of sports in which height helps. Except gymnastics – it hurts when you thwack your head on the ground as you flip around the bars.
But there is a downside to being a tall preschooler, and it’s this: people think that you’re a lot older than you are. So when you start to act like a four-year-old, there are a lot of backward glances and frowning looks. When you refuse to share a toy, whine loudly in the mall, and scream that you can’t and won’t leave the store unless your mother buys you that giant pink fluffy purse, that’s normal four-year-old behavior. However, when you look like a six-year-old or even a seven-year-old, you get Those Looks. And your mother withers.
For all of those tall preschoolers out there, I’d like to make a shirt. One that says, “Children may be younger than they appear.” Or maybe just a general-purpose shirt that says, “Caution. Preschooler approaching.” Or something.
Do you have a very tall or very short child? How do you deal with the comments?