Learn English – What does ”overdue for a spurt” mean

meaningmeaning-in-context

In a comedy series a mother is buying her children (two kids) some shoes. They're too big for their feet.

Here's the conversation

  • Mom, these are at least two sizes too big

  • Perfect, you'll grow into them

  • When?

  • Oh, you're both way overdue for a spurt.

What does the last sentence mean?

Best Answer

The mother is talking about growth spurts, which occur during the teenage years.

growth spurt Pediatrics A period of rapid growth in middle adolescence

The mother is saying that she expects the children to have a growth spurt soon, so she'd rather buy shoes that are a little too big than ones they will grow out of before they have been worn for very long. As you said, it's comedy. Any parent who has seen a child quickly grow out of an expensive pair of tennis shoes might chuckle at her remark.

You probably already learned about these in health class, but for the sake of completeness, you can read more about growth spurts on Wikipedia.

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