The long and the short of it

I know a couple who are friends of my family who are approaching their 50th wedding anniversary.  The husband is a couple inches shorter than the wife.  About ten years ago the husband told me that when he was considering proposing he had a serious talk with my grandfather about whether it would work out if he married a woman who was taller than he was.  Apparently my grandfather encouraged him to follow his heart and it turned out really well.    I was amazed that he had ever worried about it. Actually, until he told me that story I'd never noticed that he was shorter than his wife.

I'm 5'7" and my husband is just over 6 foot.  I've had a long term boyfriend who was the same height as me and it never seemed weird.  I don't know if I would be attracted to a guy who was shorter than me or not.  I guess it just hasn't come up.

 I'm 6 ft and DF is also 6 ft.

 I have dated one guy that was shorter than me, he was 5'9 or so....it made me feel big and beastly!

 I never wear heels since I am so tall, but I do buy them sometimes.....to look at, I guess. Maybe DF will have a growth spurt and I will feel okay rocking them.

I've heard it said that men always grow up to be taller than their mothers. Is that really true?

I'm not really 6' 2", (you gathered that was my little joke) I'm 5' 9", the same height as my mother, so I guess I'm living proof that it ain't so. I have a friend who is shorter than his mother. I believe that during the period (say) 1900 - 1960, most western countries experienced improving child nutrition, which meant kids were often taller on average than their parents generation. I don't understand the genetic part of it all.

I'm not really 6' 2", (you gathered that was my little joke) I'm 5' 9", the same height as my mother, so I guess I'm living proof that it ain't so. I have a friend who is shorter than his mother. I believe that during the period (say) 1900 - 1960, most western countries experienced improving child nutrition, which meant kids were often taller on average than their parents generation. I don't understand the genetic part of it all.

You know, strangely enough, I have been noticing that here lately. I am a middle school teacher. At 5'9" I'm not really short or even just "average" (for women at least). I would say a good 25% of 8th grade *girls* (13-14 years old) are taller than I am. That may be an underestimate. I even have 7th grade girls taller than me! And often, they are 5'11"+!! It just seems odd that all of a sudden I am noticing realllllllly tall girls here now! I was also thinking it had to do with nutrition, etc, and that we're just in one of those phases where the average height has increased.

There is some correlation, (I have read) between age of mother at birth and eventual height, so if women are having children later, that would be another factor. Obviously generations won't go on getting taller otherwise everyone will be 10 feet tall.

You know, strangely enough, I have been noticing that here lately. I am a middle school teacher. At 5'9" I'm not really short or even just "average" (for women at least). I would say a good 25% of 8th grade *girls* (13-14 years old) are taller than I am. That may be an underestimate. I even have 7th grade girls taller than me! And often, they are 5'11"+!! It just seems odd that all of a sudden I am noticing realllllllly tall girls here now! I was also thinking it had to do with nutrition, etc, and that we're just in one of those phases where the average height has increased.

Personally, I think it has something to do with genetically modified food, particularly the stuff the pump into meat. But, that's just me and my thoughts!

I have seen scary stories about hormones in chicken... kids in Brazil having puberty at 4 or 5...

I am 5'10 and my husband is 5'6, I love it... you get to pin them down and giggle at them when you wear high heels, its evil I know  I used to alway date taller guys til I met him. Its kind of funny because his torso is longer than mind but I tower over him.

I could never, ever have a relationship with a shorter guy.  It's the one appearance-based deal-breaker in my book.  One of my first boyfriends was quite a bit shorter, and I was so uncomfortable with it that I eventually broke up with him even though I really liked him.  Shallow, I know, but I am quite big (not tall, 5'5 1/2", but big) and I hate feeling like a lumbering elephant, which I do standing next to short, slender men.  DH is about 6' and hefty, which I love. 

I seem to remember hearing something about florescent lights making people grow taller....anyone else hear that? 

I am 5'10 and my husband is 5'6,

That's an even bigger difference than my parents had! 

Good friends who began dating in high school, and later married, had the biggest height difference I've come across.  She's just barely 5' and he's 6'4"!

I'm over 5'11" and will admit to noticing height a lot.  I was always quite attracted to height, but also frustrated at how often it shut me out of dating possibilities.  I remember one time in particular when a guy that I had a huge crush on in college, and who flirted with me shamelessly, made some off-hand comment about how he couldn't ask me out because I was taller than him.  I could have throttled him.

My DH is a little shorter than me, which I was somewhat conscious of when we were first together, but we don't ever notice now.  I think the only time it comes up is on the rare occasion that I choose to wear high heels.  I rarely do because of a bad back, but I've noticed I wear them less since marrying, because I feel like I'm towering over DH and I don't think he likes it as much.

I've dated men of all heights. I'm between 5'0" and 5'1" and my husband is 6'.  However, my ex-boyfriends have ranged from the same height as me to 6'4".

Height isn't a factor for me in relationships.

The oddest things was when I was dating the guy who was the same height as me. I once casually mentioned that we were the same height and he got very upset and had to prove that he was taller than me.

I suppose men have more issues about being short than women do.

I wonder if other very short women here have  encountered the "short men in a bar" syndrome when they were single?

When you walk into a bar or club, all the short guys immediately start swarming around you. It's as though they are desperate to find a woman who is shorter than they are.

ETA: I think you tend to see more height differences as more people become involved in  inter-ethnic and inter-racial relationships. Some ethnic groups tend to be different heights than others.  For example, people of Eastern European Jewish ancestry (like me), Latinos and East Asians tend to be shorter. So it makes sense that if I marry into a different ethnic group (which I did) I would end up with a husband who is of a very different height than me.

i'm 4'11 1/4" (yes the 1/4" counts!).  dh is 5'10".

i never think about the height difference until i see pictures of us together. makes it look like he has a midget fetish.

i'm pretty sure the beast will be taller than me by the time she's three.

I did notice that sometimes, sweetpeach, in bars.  At 5'1, I'd be one of the shorter people in the bars, so I did find the 5'6 guys were more confident in coming over and talking to me than they did to my friends who were as tall if not taller.