I’ve got an eight year old who has always been on the taller side for his age.

Reliably, I could buy one size up and it would always fit him.  Maybe a tad bit too long, but nothing to cause anyone to point and stare.  Sooner rather than later, he would grow into them, and all would be well with the world.

Except this fall I go to buy him some cold weather pants (he prefers fleece cargo pants) and I blithely order a size 10/12 online, because he’s already got 8’s and they are beginning to look like high-waters.  I inadvertently used the term “high-waters” in front of him, and he looked at me like I was a creature from another planet. Mother, what is this strange language you speak?

Anyhoo, the 10/12’s arrive and they are about three inches too long, and falling off at the waist, even with me trying my darnedest to shrink them.  Shrinking never works when you want it to, does it?

So I start looking for the obvious thing, a size 9.  If a size 8 is too small and size 10/12 is too large, then size 9 it is!

Except nobody really makes a size 9 in boys’ clothing.  Oh a few do here and there, but they are mostly jeans, and my son refuses to wear jeans.

Do clothing manufacturers have some sort of problem with the number nine?  Do they think that boys suddenly stop growing at a size 8 and suddenly shoot up three inches overnight?

He hates the long ones more than the short ones, so he’ll just have to go around looking like Pee Wee Herman for a while.

Insert deep sigh here.