Grown up kids are generally taller than their parents!

So why do TV shows NEVER show this?

[donovanh]

I must be going insane. I've just tried many searches on G to try to find out why every TV show portrays grown-up kids as being shorter than their parents. I even asked jeeves, but he gave me some irrelevant rubbish. Maybe he's sick of being asked questions.

Is it really the obvious answer.. that shorter people are cast as kids, and taller people cast as parents, to suggest through height that one is older than the other? That seems too rediculous.

The last straw for me was in 24 when Jack met up with his brother and father, and the father was nearly a foot taller than both sons! Never mind the fact that Palmer towers over his kids, and each of the parents in Heros are taller than their teenage children.

Is it me?

[ronin]

Is this true? Did I just get some rotten genes, then? >;->

[sonjay]

I'm no expert on this, but I believe that the principles of "regression to the mean" means that the children of shorter-than-average parents tend to be taller than their parents, and the children of taller-than-average parents tend to be shorter than their parents. (As in, they are regressing to the mean.)

[King_Fisher]

Yeah, What he said!

[donovanh]

Is that regressing to the mean really true? I've met quite a number of my friend's parents, and in no cases have the parents been taller. Hardly a scientific study, but it certainly gave me the impression that children have a tendency to be taller than the parents.

My point was that even if some children are shorter, and some are taller, why do TV shows always show the children as shorter?