# Forget your age?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 16, 2011, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880 "2011-08-16T09:16:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/1 "2011-08-16T09:16:43Z")
I’ve spent the last month thinking I just turned 38 only to be informed I am in fact now 37. Somehow 3 years away from forty makes me feel a decade younger than only two. Has this happened to anyone else?
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### Author:  [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/2 "2011-08-16T11:09:18Z")
Well, I can always remember I was born in 1943 and do the math. I do need to allow for my birthday being late in the year. I am only 67 now.
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### Author:  [@JohnnyMac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyMac)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/3 "2011-08-16T11:22:57Z")
Someone asked how told I was last Saturday, and I answered “uh…24”.
I remembered a little later that I’m still 23. My next birthday isn’t even for another eight months. :smack:
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/4 "2011-08-16T12:28:19Z")
> [@thelabdude](#):
>
> Well, I can always remember I was born in 1943 and do the math. I do need to allow for my birthday being late in the year. I am only 67 now.
My birthday is 12/31, which makes doing the math easy on my age in any given year: “On the last day of [year X], I was/will be [age], so for the rest of that year I was/will be [age - 1].”
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### Author:  [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/5 "2011-08-16T12:41:06Z")
If you ask me straight up how old I am, I’ll respond with “Uuuhhh… 27?”
For some reason my brain is still insisting I’m 23.
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### Author:  [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/6 "2011-08-16T12:42:35Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#):
>
> I’ve spent the last month thinking I just turned 38 only to be informed I am in fact now 37. Somehow 3 years away from forty makes me feel a decade younger than only two. Has this happened to anyone else?
Hah! This happened to me when I was 36. For the greater part of the year I thought I was 37 until my husband heard me state my age to someone, at which point he corrected me. It really shook my faith in my self-knowledge; I haven’t been sure of anything since then.
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### Author:  [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/7 "2011-08-16T12:57:31Z")
The entire time I was 28, there was a part of my brain that insisted I was 29. Now that I actually am 29, that little section of my brain has decided to reclaim that lost age, so it tells me I’m 28.
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/8 "2011-08-16T13:03:05Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#):
>
> I’ve spent the last month thinking I just turned 38 only to be informed I am in fact now 37. Somehow 3 years away from forty makes me feel a decade younger than only two.
You can honestly tell people that you are closer to age 30 than you are to age 20. 😃
Ever since I took up running, I have much less trouble remembering how old I am, because I have to put my age on every race entry form, and it’s printed on my race bib.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/9 "2011-08-16T13:29:41Z")
This happened to me this year, with me thinking I was turning 39 until my son ran the math and said I was turning 38.
Ever better, when I was a kid my mother spent months fretting over the fact that she was turning 40. We were even planning a special birthday party and everything until about two weeks before the big day when someone realized she was turning 39.
So it runs in the family.
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### Author:  [@Romeo\_and\_Whatsherface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Romeo_and_Whatsherface)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/10 "2011-08-16T13:33:34Z")
Almost the exact same thing happened to me as happened to Sudden–at the same age, in fact. In my case, I would always prepare for turning another year older by periodically reminding myself, " NEXT year I’ll be saying, ‘I’m\_\_\_.’" When I was 36, that somehow morphed into, “I AM 37.” I spent 6 months thinking I was 37. Then I read an interview with Patty Hearst, who is 2 years older than I am. She said she was 38, and I thought, “What a liar!” until I did the math and realized my error. So I had 18 months of being 37, which didn’t seem so bad, once I turned 38 (for real).
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/11 "2011-08-16T13:41:03Z")
A doctor asked my age last month and I said 28… five minutes later during the exam I had to say “Wait a minute, I’m 31!”
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### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/12 "2011-08-16T13:45:52Z")
I was born in 1940 so the math is always easy to do, provided I can remember the current year, month and day. My sister is seven years older than me and I always have trouble figuring out how old she is-----you’d think it would be easy but first I have to figure my own age and then add seven to it. Getting older sucks.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/13 "2011-08-16T13:50:03Z")
I’m 32.
I’ve got my age wrong in both directions, and not just by one year.
e.g. last year I was dating a girl who was 23 and I kept thinking I was 29 and I was only 6 years older than her.
Actually I’m usually getting it right now my age is a nice, neat power of 2.
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### Author:  [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/14 "2011-08-16T13:53:15Z")
I’ll proudly tell you I’m 50, and that’s a hard number to forget.
My sister, however, has been 35 for the last 14 years. I tell her she does that because it’s easier for her to remember.
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### Author:  [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/15 "2011-08-16T14:02:38Z")
I always have to do the math. What is embarrassing is when I can’t remember the current year. When you pay bills online it doesn’t come up that often.
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### Author:  [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/16 "2011-08-16T15:02:55Z")
I tend to think I’m a year older than I am… I think that started around age 40.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/17 "2011-08-16T15:08:25Z")
I keep forgetting I’m 26, not 25. And I feel more like I’m 23.
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/18 "2011-08-16T15:12:49Z")
It’s an enormous relief to me to hear that other people do this. It started right around 35 for me, and I’ve been counting on my fingers ever since. . .
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### Author:  [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/19 "2011-08-16T15:25:55Z")
Ever since 45 I’ve been hazy about how old I am. 47? 48? What’s the difference, really?
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### Author:  [@FrancisCastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrancisCastle)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/20 "2011-08-16T16:35:07Z")
I’m another one who always has to do the math. At least 1980 is an easy year to figure from.
To remember my parents’ ages, I just have to add 30 to mine for my dad and 30 to my sister’s for my mom. It’s nice that they made it easy on me. 🙂
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