# How old is your kid when you stop referring to their age in months? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 6, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126 "2006-12-06T21:51:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/1 "2006-12-06T21:51:10Z")
Being a recent father of a 6-month old I wondered at what age people typically stop referring to their childs age in months. Personally I think after he reaches a year old I will refer to his age in 1/2 year increments. “He’s 1 and a half, he’s two, he’s two and a half.” If it’s somewhere inbetween I’ll be saying “He’s almost 2 and a half”,“He’s a little over 2”,“He just turned 1” etc. I think it’s silly when I read on these baby boards with mothers stating “well, my 37 month old did such-and-such.” Annoying to have to figure okay, so she really means he just turned 3. (For the record I’m a 442-month old) ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/2 "2006-12-06T21:57:48Z")
2 1/2. My youngest child (of four) is about to turn three, and in the cases of all her siblings, we kind of segued from “28 months” to “two and a half” or the ever-popular “she’ll be three in August.” ---
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/3 "2006-12-06T22:11:39Z")
For fathers I’ve known, myself included, the age was never stated in months, only years, and after about 5 this is computed by calculating from the model year of your car. Let’s see, my car is now 3 so Junior must be 6. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/4 "2006-12-06T22:16:10Z")
[QUOTE=According to Pliny] For fathers I’ve known, myself included, the age was never stated in months, only years, and after about 5 this is computed by calculating from the model year of your car. Let’s see, my car is now 3 so Junior must be 6. 😃 [/QUOTE] That’s perfect! We got a new car 20 days after he was born so this should be a snap. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2006, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/5 "2006-12-06T22:20:03Z")
I’d say for me it was after he turned 2. Then he was “just over two,” “almost 2½”, 2½, etc. I asked another mom how old her little boy was and she said 38 mos. I was like, “Huh? So he’s 3 then?” ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/6 "2006-12-06T22:24:37Z")
At about 20 months, I started saying “He’ll be two in November.” At this point I’ll just go with two, two and a half, etc, rounding off. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/7 "2006-12-06T22:38:49Z")
Of course, the kids themselves have a different take on it: Stranger: “How old is he?” Me: “Eight.” Young Feller: “I’M NEARLY NINE!!!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Machine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Ice\_Machine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Machine)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/8 "2006-12-06T22:49:22Z")
For me it was after my daughter turned 1, and I’m into the halfs like you mentioned (she’s almost 2 1/2). I’m not sure when the half years stop. For my son I haven’t progressed out of the weeks (he’ll be 3 weeks old tomorrow) 🙂 I’ve yet to hear someone express a child over 2 years of age in months, I think I’d be put off if someone talked to me about their 42-month old. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/9 "2006-12-06T23:42:48Z")
I think you switch increments when you get up to two of the larger increment: 1-13 days, then two weeks 2-7 weeks, then two months 2-23 months, then two years We do still use half-years for my daughter (who is 2 1/2) - I’m not sure when those stop. ---
**Author:** ![anamnesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@anamnesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anamnesis)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/10 "2006-12-07T00:08:25Z")
I think after the eighteenth month, it starts sounding like a bad attempt by the parent to preserve the kid’s infant status. Never understood this myself. On the other hand, I guess it could also be an attempt to make the baby sound older than it is since higher numbers sound older … ? I like to use triple negatives with folks who do this to return the favor of superfluous verbiage: _“How are you feeling today?” 🙂 “Well I wouldn’t say I’m not unwell!” 😃 “Uh …”_😕 On second thought, people like that usually can’t be bothered to ask me about myself because they’re too busy shoving photos of their twenty-nine-and-a-half-month-old in my face and telling me how adorable they are. Just a courteous observation for all you proud parents to keep in mind when you find yourself getting ready to launch into a gushfest about how wonderful your one-hundred-eighteen-week-old sweetie pie is! ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/11 "2006-12-07T00:14:21Z")
[QUOTE=ENugent] We do still use half-years for my daughter (who is 2 1/2) - I’m not sure when those stop. [/QUOTE] I would guess at around 18. It starts again about 80. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/12 "2006-12-07T01:43:42Z")
If I make her stop, will that mean my Mum won’t bake my 363rd month birthday cake? Mmmm… cake. ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/13 "2006-12-07T02:15:08Z")
I don’t have kids, but I have 5 nieces and nephews, and my dad’s a retired pediatrician. Reading through this thread, it hit me that the last round of baby shots are given at 18 months. So it makes sense to move on to years after that. -Lil ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/14 "2006-12-07T02:51:40Z")
We were heavily into the “How Your Child Develops” type parenting guides, and they all had separate monthly chapters up to age 2, so we counted by months. After that it was “let’s see, we bought the bigger car when she was six months old, so…” ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/15 "2006-12-07T03:24:14Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] Being a recent father of a 6-month old I wondered at what age people typically stop referring to their childs age in months. Personally I think after he reaches a year old I will refer to his age in 1/2 year increments. “He’s 1 and a half, he’s two, he’s two and a half.” If it’s somewhere inbetween I’ll be saying “He’s almost 2 and a half”,“He’s a little over 2”,“He just turned 1” etc. I think it’s silly when I read on these baby boards with mothers stating “well, my 37 month old did such-and-such.” Annoying to have to figure okay, so she really means he just turned 3. (For the record I’m a 442-month old) [/QUOTE] If I remember, I followed the pattern you describe above. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/16 "2006-12-07T03:25:22Z")
> [@](#): > > I think it’s silly when I read on these baby boards with mothers stating “well, my 37 month old did such-and-such.” Annoying to have to figure okay, so she really means he just turned 3. PS, the denizens of baby boards are quite insane for the most part! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/17 "2006-12-07T03:44:15Z")
My middle son turned 2 yesterday, so I’m done with the months. Now he’s just 2, and in 6 months, he’ll be 2 ½. My little one, however, is six and a half months old. He’s my last, so yes, I’m hanging on to his babyhood a bit more than I did with the others. With my first, I could have told you how many _days_ old he was, for the first year or so. Thank goodness I got over that. Now he’s simply five. (Actually almost 5 ½, now that I think about it.) ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-is-your-kid-when-you-stop-referring-to-their-age-in-months/383126/18 "2006-12-08T03:59:07Z")
Actually, my 2 1/2 year old was 1000 days old on Friday.