We are a family of relatively short people. Yes it makes it easier to fit in cars and airplane seats. There have been some articles to suggest that taller people are more highly compensated or are more likely to be selected for higher level positions (no pun intended). Anyone remember those citations?
That height is not unusually short for men. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_11/sr11_252.pdf (table 12) indicates that 67.3" (5’ 7.3") is the 25th percentile height for men (age >= 20) in the US.
Median height for women is 63.8" (5’ 3.8", table 10), and median height for men is 69.3" (5’ 9.3").
Some very short people may have difficulty in some cars due to difficulty in adjusting the seats to be able to see out of the car while driving.
“That height is not unusually short for men. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_11/sr11_252.pdf (table 12) indicates that 67.3” (5’ 7.3") is the 25th percentile height for men (age >= 20) in the US.
Median height for women is 63.8" (5’ 3.8", table 10), and median height for men is 69.3" (5’ 9.3")."
My daughter just smacked me with this information after I made a comment about 5’10" being short for a man. When I saw your response, I thought, mm-hmm.
Note that the racial/ethnic mix of your area may influence what height you see as “tall” or “short”. Median height for non-Hispanic white men is 69.8", but median height for Hispanic men is 67.0". For women, the medians are 64.2" and 61.8" respectively.
VERY short people have lots of challenges. A friend’s mother had to put a block on the gas pedal and brake to reach them. But we aren’t, nor was I talking about, VERY short people.
D2 is 5’ 11 probably pushing 6’. She hated being tall in HS and maybe in most of college. She would never wear heels. She now lives with 3 roomates, including her boyfriend and another female, who are all taller or equal height to her. She said she feels good when they all go out together. They stand tall and strong.
She did buy heels in the last year or two. That made me feel good because that was a small indication that she was comfortable with her height.
But I do not think either D’s wear heels now because they say they are uncomfortable, not good for the feet and believe woman should not be expected to wear them to be considered professional or sexy. So both my 5’4"and 5’11"D’s don’t wear heels. Nothing to do with height.
I teach Pilates on big apparatus and I often need to adjust things either way for height. You all are making me rethink how I verbalize that when I am doing it.
I may have been a bit tactless without realizing it.
I am 5’2" by the way
I’m 5’2" and would love to be taller, but only for the clothes - they don’t really make a lot of good petites any longer. I have a short boys too which I have always felt guilty about (except my oldest which is 6’5", but a different dad).
I’m 5’9"(and like, 1/4" on a yoga day when my spine is stretched out), H is 6’4".
Interestingly, both daughters are a little shorter than me-the 17 yo is 5’8", the almost 16 yo is 5’7". They’re sometimes mad they’re not as tall as I am, but they also like dating guys taller than they are so the pool is bigger. I think the 16 yo might have some growing left in her. When we were on a cruise with a lot of non-americans they were struck by how they were taller than all the international kids-evidently we’re growing them tall here in 'Murica, lol.
My parents are tall (both over 6 feet) and H’s parents are short (both under 5’9"), and it’s interesting to see how there’s such a variation in height over generations.
H works out with a bunch of guys his height and age, because there are some crossfit things that tall older (late 40’s) guys really struggle with, and it’s nice to be with a group that has the same struggles.
What's the problem? Use a booster seat and extensions to reach the pedals. If you are too tall, I don't know how to compensate for having your head scrunched against the top of the car (assuming its not a convertible) and having your vision blocked by the top of the windshield. Drives me crazy when my wife in the passenger seat puts down her visor to protect her eyes from the sun - it blocks my vision on her side of the car.
As mentioned earlier, I’m 5’ tall. When DH and I were shopping for a mini-van many years ago, we tried the Dodge Caravan. The problem for me was that when the seat was adjusted as forward as it could go. so that my feet reached the pedals, every time I tried to lift my foot from the gas to the brake, my knee hit the steering column. I realized that little problem was going to inhibit me from using the break as often as I should – say, in stop-and-go traffic. It never occurred to me to put blocks on the pedals. Besides, who wants to put blocks on the pedals, and then have to take them off for other drivers, every time they want to drive a particular car?
We wound up with the Ford Windstar instead, a car which I absolutely hated. (I still have scary dreams about driving that car and not being able to see over the dashboard or not being able to stop, not matter how hard I press on the brake.)
My friend’s mother was the only one who drove the car she had to retrofit with blocks. This was before we were old enough to drive and her husband had his own car, IIRC. Seemed unusual to me but it worked for them. We are talking like 50 years ago.
Blocks on the pedals or similar modifications may be necessary for a short driver to sit far enough away from the airbag. However, removing and installing the blocks when different drivers share the car can be inconvenient.
Some cars have offered adjustable pedals to allow sharing between drivers of different heights when the shorter driver would otherwise need to put blocks on the pedals.
I am guessing if this friend’s mom were still alive and driving today, she might use a back support thing to get her closer to the pedals. It’s nice too that steering wheels are now adjustable so the short folks don’t have to peer through them. Way back when my friend’s mom did the block thing, there were no airbags. Not sure there were even seatbelts. Anyone remember the long strap that stretched across the back of the front seat for the rear passengers to hold onto?
My “baby” is 6’5", and sometimes I think he does feel self-conscious about it. People always ask him if he plays basketball which he doesn’t and never has. He is a complete technophile and cares nothing for sports except for running.
When we were in Italy in a hotel, we stepped off an elevator where the people getting on literally stared at him. It was strange!
Yes, people do stare sometimes. We were in the Whole Foods in Charlottesville , H, and sons (all 6’5" plus) and then two of the UVa very tall basketball players happened to come in at the same time. So, there were five 6’5" plus guys in the store at the same time. One of the customers asked, what is this, is there a tall convention in town ?
It was really funny when my 3 guys and also 6’10" BIL and 6’11" nephew were walking around together at a baseball game. Even I thought it was funny and people did take notice.
Seat belts were offered in some cars in the US in the 1950s, but did not become required to be installed in new cars in the US until the 1960s.
And I remember the hue and cry over seatbelts, that Big Brother governmental intrusion was eliminating our ability to make choices for ourselves.
At 5’8", I really don’t consider myself ‘very tall’, but as I’m also ‘a few’ pounds overweight, finding pants is horrible. I say all the time when shopping, as a woman I guess you’re allowed to be tall OR overweight, but not both.
There used to be one store in my area that sold ‘women’s’ sizes in taller styles, but now they’ve stopped stocking them and that store no longer even carries them online.
So, I guess my choices are to buy one of the very few styles you can find online without being able to try them on for fit before hand, take the retailer’s hint that I need to lose about 20 pounds, or my preferred choice of buying the regular length off the rack and telling those I know well at work that I just pretend they’re Capris ;).