THINGS just keep getting bigger! The other day, driving in Sydney rush-hour traffic, I felt like a mouse surrounded by stampeding elephants.

Once described as “large” and “family-sized”, our car was dwarfed between enormous four-wheel-drives that were so high I could barely see their occupants.

I remember when many “experts” predicted that small cars would be the way of the future because of the high cost of fuel, but they got that one wrong.

The same seems to go with pretty much everything else.

Driving through some new suburb a few hours later, I was struck by the huge new houses. A few decades ago we would have regarded such buildings as extravagant mansions, far beyond the needs of the average family, but now they’re the norm.

Perhaps we need such palatial accommodation because everyone seems to have so much more stuff – and most of it is bigger than ever before. So many of us have enormous kitchens, giant fridges, ovens and barbecues that could supply a regiment rather than a small family. We have king-sized beds, large dining rooms and expansive entertainment areas.

The TVs in our home are at least four times larger than what my husband and I thought was large when we became a couple nearly 20 years ago.

I love a big comfy couch. King-sized beds have a lot to recommend them. I love to be able to buy groceries in bulk and store in a large pantry so I don’t have to go shopping quite as much.

I love my larger mobile phone – it doesn’t get lost in my large handbag and I can read the larger print much more easily. I love a large coffee – that’s essential to kick-start the day. The argument for the larger wine glasses is very compelling.

But going large does have its downside. We aren’t doing ourselves any favours when it comes to the sheer volume of food people eat.

You can see it everywhere – from the size of portions served in restaurants, the mega-sized serves of popcorn at the theatres, to the ever larger bottles of soft drink or so-called “sports drinks” on sale in the fridges at delicatessens and service stations.

I have my own weight problems, but I am constantly struck by the number of severely obese people I see in the streets. I’m particularly concerned by the number of overweight kids I see – most of whom are being doomed to a life of health problems as they get insufficient exercise and consume large quantities of concentrated sugar and fat.

My kids are extremely energetic, do many hours of sport each week, and are only allowed soft drinks on special occasions. As a consequence they are very fit, but sadly that places them in a small minority amongst their peers.

I’m not sure what the solution is, maybe we need to develop a new national ethos that bigger really isn’t better; but I do get the feeling that as a society we have fallen into habits of excess that will prove big trouble in the decades ahead.