17 January 2018

Tall People Problems

My shoes are the purple ones on top.  Woodjie's boots are in the middle and Emperor's new boots are (sort of) in the bin on the bottom.

Emperor is 16 now and he has his permit.  You would THINK that a minivan is not a little car, and therefore just about anyone not starring in "My 600 Pound Life" should be able to squeeze in and go, right? 

Nope.

No matter how we adjust the seat or torque the steering column up and down, my child looks like he is giving birth to the steering wheel.  I know the smartie engineers over at Chevy were so busy building cars that don't explode and maybe even last a while (my Chevy is 16 years old!) that they forgot to account for the dimensions of actual people who are over five feet tall.

Poor Emperor.  Now he has to duck to go down the stairs.  He is only 6ft 6, but he is still growing and it's actually getting to be a bit of a problem because I now realise most things are just too little, including some doorways.

Even our furniture is all totally and absolutely wrong.  When he's at the table trying to eat, Emperor's face is so far above his plate that everything will slop on the way to his mouth.  So he slouches wayyy down to try to minimise this.  I'm not sure he's even aware he's doing it.


I am working with a woodworker on Etsy to make a cherry wood place setting for him so he can eat at the table like a normal human being.  I don't want a flimsy short "breakfast tray."  I want something beautiful and made just for him to my specifications (note the highly detailed concept drawing I sent that poor woodworker).  I cannot wait to see what it looks like when it is done.  It will be a while.


I am hoping that this custom piece will help solve the terrible backaches he's been getting, trying to live in a little people world.  Above are some of the exercises he has to do and hopefully they help a little.  Otherwise, it's back to the doctor and maybe physical therapy.

One last pet peeve and I'll open the floor for comments (and ideas, please!).  Who on earth decided that "tall" is between 6ft 1 and 6ft 3?  That's the height range Eddie Bauer clothes will fit, and they're one of the better manufacturers I've found so far.  I positively love love love the bargain we got on their boots (it is not easy getting a men's size 14 at this price!) but it seems the best I can do at the moment is to buy the "tall" products in this catalogue and let the kid look like a white Urkel.  I found a few "specialty" shops about on the internet but at $160 to $200 for a sweatshirt, it's not happening any time soon.



9 comments:

  1. 6foot 6inches and still growing? Yikes! I thought I had problems being only five feet tall. I have absolutely no solution to your problems, sorry.

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    1. Yeah, if you're five feet tall, it's probably pretty hard to associate. I can tell you my son G is 6ft 5 and could not play tea set with his little sister. His hands were too big to grasp the tiny cups and he would break them. Many problems I never thought about.

      Meanwhile, Elf is now just under 5ft 8 and fully grown. He thinks he is very short and I guess he is when compared to his brothers.

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  2. one brother of my husband is 6 feet and he got married with girl who is 15 years younger than him and less than 5 feet ,they make weird couple yet they have nice family of five children .

    i feel little worried about the height of your dear son my friend ,if there is some kind of special medication to reduce the speed of height growth then not bad to try this as being more taller than normal effects on the length of life(God forbid) i heard this please forgive me if you mind it i heard it from a saying here so this is why i wanted to say that you should look for specialist advise .
    my mother's first husband was taller than 6 feet and lived for 76 years though we should not worry about that i think .
    sending you and family heartiest best wishes my friend

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    Replies
    1. Oh dear baili, thank you for your concern! It is something I have thought of also. All of my family and my husband's are tall, and he is actually only a few inches taller than my grandfather was. But those few inches make a big difference. The doctor and our local endocrinologist think he will slow down and stop soon. I am bringing him back regularly. At this point my worry is more that nothing fits him because apparently he is meant to be this size.

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  3. I know some tall fellows but I think they are all under 6ft 6ins, wow how do you find things to fit.
    Merle............

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  4. Hi, there is an Australian store called Joe Bigg.

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  5. My son topped out at 6'4. The car we ended up getting him was based on head clearance... that was the main criteria.

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Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

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