Roanoke Rapids daily herald., 1948-11-16
If Your Child
Is Sensitive
About His Size
b GARRY CLEVELAND MYERS, PL.D.


est and smallest pigs of litter.
Nor does it take much more intel
ligence to compare the size of two
children Of about the same age,
when one is noticeably taller or
heavier than the other. Yet the harm
to the pigs who hear themselves
compared may be zero, while the
harm to one or both the children
compared may be Unreasonable.
II you have a child two, five or
eight noticeably shorter or smaller
than most children his age, there
will be a lot of people who, after
ascertaining his age, will express
surprise, contemptuously perhaps,
at how small your child is, and right
in your child's presence. Occasion
ally similar surprise will be ex-
pressed if the child is abnormally
large or tall. In the latter case, how
ever, II the child is under twelve or
10 and not over-fat, you and the
child may consider the remark COM
plimentary.
Average Stature
Go visiting with your child under
size where there is another child Of
his age, Of average or above aver
age stature. You and your child
may hear not only unfavorable COM
parison Of your child's size but some
adult may ask the compared chill
dren to stand up back to back. Such
is more likely to happen if the chill
dren are cousins. And the adults do
ing this silly thing won't all be IL
literates. Some will be college grad
yates or professional persons. Edu-
cation often seems to be no respect
or Of stupid treatment Of children.
An old friend told me the following
story:
"My son, who is successful dem
tai surgeon and is nearly six feet
tall now at thirty, was considerably
under size during his pre-school and
elementary school days. We, his
parents, knew at the time that he
was worried because he was so
small, but not until he was in his
early twenties did we realize how
grave the matter was to him, when
he eonfided in US how he had really
felt about it and the satisfaction
he was gaining over the squirt then
occurring in his physical growth.
Worried Over Size
'Then he recalled that during
those years when this lad was wor-
rying over his diminutive stature
the family had once or twice year
come in touch with his cousin al
most exactly the same age and his
family. Our family and his were
never together when one of his fam
lily did not have the boys stand up
back to back and hear some one say
how much taller and bigger the
cousin was. Be it added" the father
said, "that our son, while trailing
the cousin in stature. surpassed him
In talent and school success.
"As our son grew older, went on
with his profession in which he ex-
celled, and occasionally visited near
the cousins family, this son never
expressed great cordially toward
the cousin. He seemed to avoid the
cousin when possible and was al
most rude to him. We have often
felt embarrassed over the matter
because there seemed to be no fault
in the gracious cousin. He was the
innocent victim Of the silly adults"
II you find your child at two, six
Or older being tortured over MS
stature by stupid. meddiesome
adults, try to distract the torturers
and help your child gain feeling
Of worthwhileness in more worthy
ways.
Answering Parents Questions
q. Do you think teachers often
encourage children to tattlek
A. Yass and I wish they didn't