<nitpick>
Actually, it’s the same accuracy, but more precise.
My daughter just turned two a few weeks ago, and I’m glad to let go of the month-by-month aging, if for no other reason than I always had trouble remembering exactly how old she was, especially during her second year. I know that’s horrible, but it’s true. I’m the same way with my pregnancy–I have my weeks marked on the calendar and I have to reference it all the time to remember how far along I am.
I’d always try to target my answer to whoever was asking. A fellow Mom at preschool? Would get the “she’s 15 months” answer. The guy ringing up my purchases at the grocery store? He’d get “she turned one in November” or “almost one and a half.”
Imho, it is because strangers come up and talk to you about your baby all the time, and the average person can only say “1” so many hundreds of times before their brain explodes. At least by saying it in months, they can say something different every 30 days.
When they hit 20, are you going to start referring to them in decades?
'Cuz that’d be awesome.
I’d say that’s a little later than 20…but I usually say my age as “in my 40s” And I’m planning on continuing to refer to my age in decades for the rest of my life.
When they are little, months is a more accurate description than years. The difference between thirteen months and twenty three months is HUGE. That goes on until around two or so…when you move to half years. Because the difference between two and two and a half and three is pretty big. Around school age, it just goes to years.
I suspect someone who has gotten to “38 months” in referring to their kid’s age has just established a habit. I don’t hear it much past 2 1/2 from other moms. But it isn’t like there is a hard and fast rule on when to stop calling months - its usually around two… And come to think of it, its pretty close to the age at which your kid starts answering the question - when months are hard to keep up with, but birthdays are cool. So “almost two” “two” “two and a half” and “almost three” are toddlerspeak for age - and those almosts and halves are really important to them.
This is something that I never get tired of. My mom meets an old friend on the street. The friend remembers my mom’s children, but we were all kids, so she doesn’t know which one I am. My mom says, “and this is my baby” to indicate that I am the youngest of the 5 and the person smiles and remembers. And I stand there, 35 years old, feeling like my mom’s baby.
But, people do that month thing so that the person they are talking to (usually a mom of a toddler) will know where the kid is at, developmentally. Because they develop in such leaps at that time. So 1 may mean just a baby if the kid is 12 monts, but 23 months means the kid may be potty trained. Big difference.
My parents did, as do many people I know. There are specific words for it in Spanish: “veinteañero” for someone in his “veintes” (20s), “treintañero”, “cuarentón”, “cincuentón”, “sesentón”. I don’t think I’ve heard similar words for 70+ (whether because “setentón” would get confused with “sesentón” or for other reasons, I don’t know) but people do say someone is “70 and change,” “80 and change”… (“70 y pico”)
The other reason is that all the stuff you buy for your kid is sized in months - NB, 0-6, 6-9, 9-12 and so on…up to about 24 months. After that its 2T, 3T …
Nitpicker… 