Big Man Syndrome

I had the most interesting conversation with my Son the other day.

At 5ft 7ins, and with no genes that say he'll suddenly grow to a strapping 6ft 19 before his short remaining growing time is done, he could hardly be described as tall.

Over the weekend, I happened across him and his mate, Mark, measuring themselves, after reading about the reach, height, weight, etc. of two boxers who were due to have it out that same evening.

After taking down each other's measurements we found that Mark currently stands at an ever increasing 6ft 4ins. He has no genes that he knows of that dictate this either, but I digress......

This makes Marky Boy a full 9 inches taller than my boy, and this prompted Charlie to express a very interesting thing, in my opinion, about self perception.............

He was utterly stunned that Mark was this much taller than him, and said that the shock stemmed from the fact that he has never seen himself as smaller than his life long mate.

He then went on to say, that on giving it some thought, he sees people that he compares himself to every day; on the train, in pubs, in the queue, whatever, and never feels short, or even shorter.

We are surely all familliar with the concept of 'Short Man Syndrome', and I am not immune to being convinced, that as a parent, I have not done enough to ensure that my child sees himself and others as individual, and that he can disregard all the media hyped cliches as just that.

This throw-away, time-filler conversation has made me see that there can so clearly be such a thing as 'Big Man Syndrome' and my Son (Mine! Can you believe it?!!) personifies it.

When I've had time to think about it, I see that this is not just in his attitude to himself, but also to others.

I am pleased as Punch by this quiet, complicated young man's insight, and can barely believe he is partly my own work.

It's given me a sense of peace and he cannot know how relaxed he has made me feel in those simple statements.