Ask Marilyn

When we revisit our childhood homes, why do they appear so much smaller than we remember? It’s hard to believe it’s just that we were little back then.

—Don Chance, Baton Rouge, La. When we were much shorter, our angle of viewing made our surroundings look taller, but our innocence also increased their apparent importance. Everything in the house loomed large in our lives. When we moved out and saw more of the world, visiting our parents in that same house frequently, this impression slowly corrected itself. But if we leave the house when we are young and don’t see it again for decades, that old image will have remained and likely clash with reality.