The other day, I was chatting with a friend and she was lamenting about how small her son is. At eight years old, he’s just 59 pounds, and his six-year-old sister is catching up. They’ve been worried about it and working to help him gain a little weight.
Now, I don’t like to brag, but when it comes to small sons, I win, every single time. You think your kid is skinny? You think your kid is short? You think your kid is little?
Yeah. The Captain is little. At age 10, he weighs just 51 pounds. (Actually, since Gal Smiley at age almost-9 also weighs 51 pounds, he likes to point out that he weighs 51 POINT EIGHT pounds, which is TOTALLY BIGGER.) He’s the shortest in his class, at four foot two. Given that it’s a combo 4-5 class, there are some real big guys in there with him, making him look even tinier. I’m always worried that one of the other kids in the class is going to huff and puff and blow him away.
He never expresses any concern about it, and he has friends and buddies and fits in okay and it’s all good. But sometimes, I’ll catch a glimpse of him with his school mates and see that, oh my heavens, he is SMALL. The other day, I was picking up the Little Miss from kindergarten and we saw his class heading into the gym for an assembly, and it was like tall, tall, tall, SUPER SHORT DUDE, tall, tall, tall. I was a little alarmed.
So lately I’ve been all about the chips, and ice cream, and pie (he has discovered pie!!! He’s my child after all!!!). His lunches have cookies every day. I worry, oh I worry, about what he’s eating, about how much he’s eating, and how much he’s gaining, or not.
Gal Smiley is small too, the smallest and shortest in her class (it’s genetics), but it’s never as big a deal when it’s a girl, is it? Little girls can be sweet and charming. Little guys can be pushed around. NOT FAIR.
All this is to say, there’s no resting easy when you’re a parent, is there? There’s always something. This one is too big, this one is too small. This one has a weird rash, this other one sniffles all the time for no apparent reason. One has too many friends, questionable friends, not enough friends, no friends.
I have a happy, healthy, smart, and funny kid. He’s also small. There’s just has to be something to worry about, doesn’t there? A mother’s mind is never at rest. GAH.
TurtleHead 
I used to think that once they slept through the night we had it made. No more worries! NOT so. There will always be something to keep our minds busy and fretful. The Captain may yet have a growth spurt that surprises everyone. I am happy to hear that he has discovered the joy that is (your) Pie.
I have SKINNY kids too. Super super skinny. Like, you can see all their ribs and their spines and OMG skinny. Nothing invites people’s weird judgements about your kids like weight issues, am I right? Mark is 9, he is 4’5″ and 56 pounds. Jake will be 8 in Sept, he is 4’1″ and 47 pounds. They also have giant flipper feet. You can imagine what they look like. Ah well, it’s genetics I guess. But you’re right, for girls it is okay to be teeny. Boys – it’s a BFD. Where is the equality, I ask you? Anyway. My kids still drink full-fat milk, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to cut back on butter, ice cream, what have you.
My Monkey has the ribs and spine thing going on as well. He’s tall and gangly and is one of the tallest in his grade. My niece, who is only 2 days older, is the tiniest little thing in hers. I have no idea what ‘average’ is even supposed to look like. I figure as long as he’s eating enough to keep healthy and active, I’m not going to worry. I envy his metabolism, actually.
SO TRUE. It’s definitely not the same when it’s a girl (although with Eve I have the opposite worry, about her weight – I try so hard to help her develop healthy eating habits without making it look obvious that I don’t want her to end up with a weight problem. It’s exhausting.) I’m glad your son doesn’t seem to be bothered about it. I’m sorry that means you end up with all the bother about it. xo
at the moment its the amount of snot the jellybean is producing. really, the snorting is out of control (because of course he REFUSES to blow.his.nose.). i am trying my best to avoid it because i fear it will be a dietary thing, which i just can’t wrap my head around. but look who i am talking to! 🙂 hugs
As you know, I am the mother of the giant kids in the class – my grade 3 son is taller than most of the grade 5 kids in my older son’s class. Still, there was a point where it was hard to keep weight on them. During that time, I researched and wrote this story for CanadianLiving.com – http://www.canadianliving.com/moms/kids/is_there_such_a_thing_as_a_too_skinny_kid.php – in case it’s useful to anyone!
Yuh huh. There’s always something to worry about. And then you worry about worrying too much. #cantwin
I too have a tiny boy. Trying to find pants that fit around the waist (6-6X) and aren’t too short or long is impossible (inside band type pants work great, thank goodness someone invented those).
I look him and think he’s too short or too skinny for his age and then realize the boys he mostly hangs out with are a year older (so in Grade 3). Next to his Grade 2 friends he’s average (for boys, lots of girls are taller than him but they say girls grow quicker). I look at some of the kids he competes against in hockey of the same year as him and he’s average in size, maybe on the short side of things (but not the smallest). I worry about the hockey part more bec some of the kids he plays against are HUGE compared to him (and still the same age, year 2005). But really, he may seem small to me, and he is shorter and skinnier than most (but also more active) so I wonder, should I even worry about it? I supervise his eating 98% if the time, there is nothing I can do I’m not already doing.
It’s funny, this size thing. Didn’t we worry about every ounce back in the newborn stage too? It truly never does end.
But like your small kids and so many others, it’s the healthy part that is most important. That, and the fact that they are growing. Show me any parent who doesn’t have to buy shoes or clothes for the kids every few months, they’re the ones that would have to worry about growth, I think.
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Just starting to realize that as my little man turns 3 months old and changes faster than I can keep up with worrying. I’m glad your fella is happy, healthy, smart and funny – even if he is small now. I bet he’ll hit a growth spurt soon (I seem to recall grade 6-7 all the boys grew leaps and bounds over the summer!) and continue to be a happy, healthy guy.
I know a guy who’s name rhymes with Mr. Batty* who was TINY. I bet if he were 10 years old now, he’d give the Captain a run for his money.
I fully expected Mr. Batty to have all kinds of stories about being bullied, but he doesn’t have any. It could be because his mom was a teacher at his school most of his life, and everyone dug his mom, but he claims it’s because he was actually well liked and fairly popular and strategically made friends with the nerds, the jocks and the cook kids.
So I’m not convinced now that being short is all that bad so long as you do well in other aspects of your life, mainly social ones.
(* Name protected to protect the person who tells me REPEATEDLY to STOP TELLING STORIES ABOUT HIM.)
My kids are average in the height department, but weight is a whole other story. The boy (9) is totally scrawny, while the girl (7) outweighs him by 9 lbs. They eat exactly the same food and portions, just have completely different body types. He’d probably still wear a size 6x pant for the waist if they weren’t 7 inches too short. And she couldn’t squeeze herself into a pair of size 12 skinny jeans if her life depended on it….I used to love shopping…
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