# Forget your age? **URL:** \ **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:** 2
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/21 "2011-08-16T17:00:14Z")
> [@FrancisCastle](#): > > I’m another one who always has to do the math. At least 1980 is an easy year to figure from… 😕 I have a sock? I didn’t know that … Yeeeaaaah, after I turned 21 there didn’t seem to be much point in keeping track anymore. I mean, the number _keeps changing_ - who can remember? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/22 "2011-08-16T17:14:46Z")
My birthday is in late December, just before Xmas. I tend to have early birthdays in my head, where I start to think I’m the age I’m going to be before I’m actually that age. Then, as my birthday gets close, I correct myself. Finally, I get lost in the Xmas festivities and forget when I my age actually changes. To sum, I think I’m a year older than I am months before my actual birthday, then correct myself and forget to change it on my birthday, so I think I’m actually younger than I am for a little while after my birthday. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/23 "2011-08-16T19:14:35Z")
I answered the age question incorrectly just the other day. I’m always a year ahead or behind. Now I answer with a question mark attached like an imbecile. :(…27? shit, 26, I’m almost certain this time. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/24 "2011-08-16T19:24:39Z")
Yes, it did happen to me. I thought I was 35 for the entire year, and when it came to what I thought was my 36th birthday I realized I was just now turning 35!?!? I don’t know how I made such a stupid error, and believed it for an entire year, but now I call that the magical extra year of my life. Not many people can turn back time a full year and have it be true! ---
**Author:** ![geneb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e4f/32.png) [@geneb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geneb)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/25 "2011-08-16T19:48:11Z")
I can never remember. I have a birthday fairly early in the year so I generally just take the current year and subtract my birth year. I’m right more than I’m wrong this way. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/26 "2011-08-16T19:53:01Z")
Yes I forget my current age most of the time. It doesn’t bother me as I don’t need to know it except on special occasions. What bothers me is when I can’t figure out how old I am knowing the date. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/27 "2011-08-16T20:00:51Z")
When I was young I used to add 1 to my age, because I was one of the youngest in the class (when I was 6, everyone else was 7.) I still sometimes do it, if I don’t stop and think. ---
**Author:** ![SparkleLilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SparkleLilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparkleLilly)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/28 "2011-08-17T01:33:04Z")
All the freaking time. I tend to have to actually think about it. I am actually 35. I am otherwise always oriented to date, day, year, and time. I wonder why this is? ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/29 "2011-08-17T02:06:31Z")
I have to calculate it whenever I’m asked. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/30 "2011-08-17T02:11:25Z")
I’m lucky if that’s all I forget. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/31 "2011-08-17T02:26:31Z")
I’m somewhere between 37 and 39 right now. I’d have to do the math. I have a good friend who was born about 5 months before me. I figure that when his wife throws him a 40th birthday party, I should be ready to turn 40 myself. Until then…no one will know! -D/a ---
**Author:** ![OneMissedPost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@OneMissedPost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneMissedPost)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/32 "2011-08-17T02:30:58Z")
It hasn’t happened to me yet. ---
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/33 "2011-08-17T02:33:46Z")
I do all the time. When people ask me my age. I always look at them like they asked me in foreign language. Like seriously, the moment they ask me I forget. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/34 "2011-08-17T02:37:19Z")
Nearly the whole year I was 32, I thought and told people I was 33. To make up for it, I did the same thing when I turned 34. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/35 "2011-08-17T02:41:52Z")
For the last couple of years I knew I was somewhere between 41 and 43 (inclusive), but I always had to do the math in my head to be sure. Now I’m 44, which is much easier to remember. ---
**Author:** ![taffygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@taffygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taffygirl)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/36 "2011-08-17T02:42:59Z")
Sounds like there’s a natural tendency to forget about age as we reach the time of life when who we are on the inside quits matching what society tells us were supposed to feel like at that age. My guess is it’s rather common. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/37 "2011-08-17T04:53:32Z")
Interestingly, when I was younger I had no trouble remembering what age I was, but it took me a while every January to get used to remembering what year it was. Around the same time that I started getting good at knowing what year it was, is about when I started losing track of my age. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/38 "2011-08-17T05:18:24Z")
Yes. For quite a while in my 30’s my age was so unimportant that I had to do the math to figure my correct age. I see others had the same problem at the same time. When I turned 50, that was sort of a milestone year, so I had my age down. For a few years. Now I’m back to I just don’t care, and have to use the abacus if someone really needs to know my age. ---
**Author:** ![scootergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@scootergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scootergirl)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/39 "2011-08-17T05:30:45Z")
Yes, I spent my 45th year thinking that I was 46 and most of this year thinking I was turning 49. I don’t really care. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880/40 "2011-08-17T05:47:22Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > 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. That’s how I remember my family’s ages. My next brother is five years younger, sister 10 younger and other brother 17 younger. Mom is me plus 23, dad 30. and it goes on from there for aunts, uncles, grandparents etc. Of course all of this relies on remembering my own age, so who knows when the system will break down. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forget-your-age/592880.md?page=3)