Meanwhile, what’s Barron Trump been doing?
Growing, that’s what.
He appears to be about 6’5″ or 6’6″ now, at fourteen. This is not a case of regression towards the mean.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
Growing, that’s what.
He appears to be about 6’5″ or 6’6″ now, at fourteen. This is not a case of regression towards the mean.
Good grief! Well, at least his parents can afford a different size of clothes every week for him, I suppose.
The White House cooks are feeding him too healthily – yes, that’s the problem.
Both of my sons are 6 to 8 inches taller than me. Granted, I am or was short and wiry in my heyday, but that seems to be the way it goes. (Everybody Knows)
parker:
Nope, what you are describing is regression towards the mean. In other words, parents who are very unusual in some way tend to have children who are more usual – regression towards the mean. If a parent is 6′ 10″, odds are that the child will be shorter. If a parent is very short odds are that the child will be taller. Both are example of regression towards the mean.
Trump and Melania are both quite tall although not stupendously so. Barron is taller than both, and will probably end up taller than both by far, because he may not have stopped growing at only 14.
Tall father tall mother usually means taller children.
I am 6’ 3” and reached that height about thirteen or fourteen so it is possible he won’t get much taller.
Griffin:
Yes, there’s variation on that. It depends whether his growth plates have closed down, which depends in part on whether he is completely through puberty or not.
Girls tend to stop growing much earlier than boys. The average age for boys in the US to stop growing is 16.
Griffin:
The formula is here. By that calculation, Barron should end up 6’3″, taller than both parents but not as tall as he actually is or seems destined to end up.
By the way, using that calculation I come up with my son’s height exactly. It doesn’t always work out that way, of course – as you can see with Barron.
Former Yugoslavian countries have some of the tallest people. Maybe those genes run in Melania’s family.
parker,
I’m quite a bit taller than my father, so always assumed my sons would outgrow me. One’s a hair shorter and one’s a hair taller.
Well, I am 5’8″, a height I reached at age 13. I was 2 inches taller than my father. My sons height seems strange to me, so regression towards the mean explains nothing to me. Must be something in the water. 😉
The REturn of the Giants haha
Must be something in the water.
Sodium fluoride, a waste chemical byproduct of metal processing, that cities pay to have in the water supply for drinking.
Tested to cause bone and tooth decay in infants, plus other problems.
Do we know exactly how tall he is? Is there a full picture of that or is he standing on slightly higher ground than his father? Plus a lot of people lose height when older ( often from worn cartilage in joints I was once told) so the President may not actually be 6’ 3” any more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMIe5utv4n4
I am somewhat of an outlier in that my mother is about average height of around 5’5” or so and my dad was about 5’11” and I don’t think I have a close male relative over 6’0.
I always thought my height was about perfect. Tall but not so tall as to stand out in a crowd.
My sons grew rather steadily, no huge growth spurt. Just continual growth. My daughter didn’t grow much at all. She was sort-of normal size until 3rd or 4th grade, and then when the other girls started growing she didn’t. But now, as an adult, she seems to still be growing a bit. Now she’s almost as tall as her mother. I just went and looked at a recent photo. Nope, she’s still a few inches shorter than mom.
My wife’s folks immigrated from Germany as adults. My wife’s brother is about 5’8″ My wife is about 5’7″. All their cousins in Germany are giants, despite their parents marrying spouses of normal stature. Not to go all Dr. Strangelove, but her relations swear it’s the fluoridation in our water.
I’m 6′ and when I’m somewhere around a lot of young girls and woman, like a shopping mall, I am amazed at how many women under the age of 30, or maybe even 25, are 6′ tall, or taller. When I was young it was rare to see a female that height, but now it seems much more common. I don’t notice a big difference in young men’s heights.
Ymarsakr,
I wrote my comment before I saw yours. Dr. Strangelove indeed…
Griffin,
In Junior High I was big into basketball, and since I had an early growth spurt, was able to start on my school’s team. However, I never gained any more height after Junior High so set my sights on Football and Track, but was always envious of the 6’4″ guys. I have three close friends who are in that 6’4″ range and they all have back issues now; so I’m with you; I’m now very satisfied with my height.
In my observation; most every male I know with an unusually tall mother has been tall, but that doesn’t seem to be the case if they have an unusually tall father. Probably nothing to it, but in the sample size of people I know it’s always been true.
Melania Trump is 5’11”.
Rufus T. Firefly:
I have long observed that girls seem taller these days. I don’t know why.
However, I don’t know whether you saw where I gave the link for a height formula. The principles are fairly sound, although of course it doesn’t predict every individual case properly. See this.
Griffin:
Most sites I’ve seen list Trump as being 6’2″. I think Barron’s height differential is real. There aren’t a lot of photos of him because most of the time he’s only photographed entering and leaving planes with his parents. He also doesn’t stand very straight; he slumps a bit. My guess is that he’s many inches taller than his father already.
Rufus,
Yeah it’s funny about sports. I went to a high school with not a lot of students so my being 6’3” meant I was a post defender and often played down low on offense even though I kind of liked to roam the 3 point line. Also meant I was doomed to the OL in football so I didn’t play.
Also there was a kid in our town who was huge in Little League. Like 6”4” at age 12 and he dominated like a cross between Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan. Well he didn’t grow much from there and by the time he was in high school he no longer played baseball.
Isn’t the average height increasing for both men and women in at least the developed world? Because of far better nutrition and probably health care in general I would think.
Though an old fashion notion nowadays, how about reasonable intake of nourishment?
Younger brother and I are baby boomers and towered over mom, dad, and older sibs. Why? he and I were born in post war occupied Iran and thanks to British expeditionary force and her rashan [ration] scheme some Iranian kids -my bro and I included-could have access to regular, predictable, reliable supply of food thus our physical growth were not stunted unlike those of others.
Rose:
Nutritional improvements can certainly make children taller than parents, because they fulfill their genetic potential and their parents did not because of lack of good nutrition, as in poverty or war situations. However, there is no reason to believe that Donald Trump and Melania did not get excellent nutrition and fulfill their own genetic potential. The phenomenon of poor nutrition and stunted growth was more prevalent in previous generations.
Griffin:
In some parts of the developed world, yes, but not in others. See this.
My husband grew several inches in his first two years of college. Barron’s growth spurt stopping point may be affected by genetic programming. In my case, and my younger daughter also, we reached full height (5′,10″+; 6’+) at age 13. Boys often grow for several more years.
Zack, exactly. Barron looks like a number of basketball players from the Balkans.
But news reports are that Barron likes soccer. Goalie?
If you have ever seen pictures of Abe Lincoln in the presence of others, you can appreciate how his height stood out amongst them, who were mostly what we consider today short. Our colonial founders were mostly short.
Stu,
I recall reading something along the lines of Lincoln was the equivalent of a 7 footer to our times.
I think it would be a gift to him to stop growing right now. He’s already awkward next to all but a tiny minority of fully grown women. He’s going to need to fly first class his whole life and drive big cars.
Exceptionally good genes inherited from both parents. Plus of course the best of everything.
Maybe he’ll live as long and active a life as Prince Philip.
Those same genetics are why Trump seems to have gotten away so far with eating crap, drinking sugar water and being a bit of a porker without having become a diabetic amputee in one of those electric Walmart Karts.
One thing is for sure: Not being a misshapen asymmetric-faced mutant is going to earn Barron the hatred of Progressives all his life, so he’d better stay on his toes.
@Art Deco of The Economist Back Pages
As long as he can fit through the door of a G650, he’ll be fine.
And when it lands, the limo will be a Long Wheelbase variant.
Sorted.
However cannot see him doing well at Limbo Dancing.
Or Basketball. White Men Can’t Jump.
He will be able to afford to fly first class and drive big cars, so no worries.
I was 5′ 2″ when I graduated high school at 17 years old (And I weighed 85 lbs!). By the time I was 19, I had finished most of a growth spurt and was 6’2″. I eventually stopped at 6’3′ by 21 and I was 180 lbs. (I’m 45 now and weigh the same).
My wife, who is German (fresh off the boat as they say, back in the day anyway), was 5’11” by her freshman year of high school and that was the end of her growing. But she had always been the tallest girl in her clas until then and was often taller than the boys in her younger grades.
Our children, who are twins (a boy and girl) are 11 and both are average height, if slightly short. Both are slender like my wife and I.
My daughter lives and breathes soccer and prefers to play the goalkeeper position. She’s pretty good too. Lightning reflexes! She’s made some crazy saves. I’m somewhat jealous of her natural athletic prowess at times. She is, however, quite anxious that she won’t be as tall as her mother and won’t continue to play her favorite position competitively.
Fractal Rabbit:
Interesting. There was a boy in my high school who was about that size on graduating, although not quite as thin. I saw him a few years later, after college, and he was at least 6 feet tall. So definitely, some boys don’t grow till after high school. Girls almost never do. I was one of the tallest girls in the class in grade school, but I reached my full height of 5’4″ at around 10 or 11 years of age and never grew again. At the end of junior high, I was stunned to discover I was just of average height.
Neo,
My father’s growth pattern was nearly identical to mine, only one inch taller: 5’3” at graduation and 6’4” when he stopped. He was in the US Navy (PBR: Patrol Boat River In Viet Nam) for most of that growing period and claims it was pretty tough to be constantly growing out of uniforms.
Zack writes: “Former Yugoslavian countries have some of the tallest people.” Both the Dinaric Alps (Western Yugoslavia…but Croatia today), and the Dutch have the tallest people in the world.
I’m 6’4” and like tall, Amazon tall women, so I keep abreast of these things.
Kate notes “ He will be able to afford to fly first class and drive big cars, so no worries.” But even Porsche’s and Ferrari’s (eg, Tom Sellicks in the TV ‘80s), are too small for this sporty late middle aged man. Sad.
I retired to west Michigan, Dutch country. I was used to being the tallest guy in the room, even with a lot of people, at 6’2″ Now….not at all Even older guys, maybe a dozen or more at church or other places are taller, and not scrawny. Big shoulders and chest.
Reminds me of a couple of lines from a piece about Dunkirk. One of the boats was a Dutch fishing boat with “mighty bunks for mighty men”. Never figured that out until now.
In Fehrenbach’s “This Kind of War” (bang up history of the Korean War and musing about the military in a liberal society) is a picture of the Gloucestershire Regiment marching to their POE. Alongside the four files stretching back out of sight are the officers, one every ten ranks or so. All taller than all of the enlisted men.
Been said it wasn’t until the Fifties that the classes in Europe had the same height.
Was in Spain in 73, and 97 and 99. The difference in size among the young mean was notable. Three or four inches taller in my later visits, it seemed.
I have the great good fortune to live and work in Beverly Hills, where the most beautiful women in the world come to break into entertainment, television, or modeling. While they are waiting for their big break, taking acting classes, going to auditions, working out, and eating (some are known to eat even as often as once a week!), they work as secretaries, production assistants, receptionists, and the like, so I see a lot of them in my and other office buildings. They are very tall, and the interesting thing is, tall girls and young women of my generation wore flats to minimize their height, while these young women frequently wear the highest of high heels. Sometimes the heels are so high they have to be very careful getting up and down the lobby stairs. So now height in women is no longer to be minimized, but instead is emphasized. When did that change take place?
I realized it’s display (display in a sex always decreases or increases depending on the availability of members of the opposite sex — compare the long dresses of women, even prostitutes, on the western frontier where there was an overabundance of men, to the flapper dresses of the post-WWI “Roaring Twenties.”
Fractal Rabbit,
That’s crazy!
The guys I knew who grew when they were older were often great athletes because when they were shorter they had to develop skills to get picked to play. I think Michael Jordan had a late growth spurt.
Griffin,
There was an Irish kid in my neighborhood who seemed to be about six foot and 180 lbs. in 4th grade. He dominated all the organized sports throughout grade school. Freshman year of high school my team went to his high school to play his team. I was stunned that he rode the bench and played the position of punter. All the rest of us had growth spurts and he was still the same size.
Well, as I like to say, I am not over-weight, I am under-tall.
I had a growth spurt of nearly 11 inches in one year, so I have some empathy for Barron.