Can children's ages be rounded?
When people ask me how old my kids are, I usually reply "1 and 2". It's easy, succinct, and really, most people aren't too concerned with increments beyond that, right? Although if you ask any child in grade school, you inevitably will get the increment whether you ask for it or not. For example, being "9 years and 10 months old" is WAAAAAY more developed, mature and responsible than say, "9 years and 3 or 4 months old". Surely any logical person would understand the grade-schooler's reasoning. Which possibly, is why I have been met with a few eye rolls and quizzical looks when I reply "1 and 2". I get this from experienced moms mostly, who know my one year old is too big and speaks too well to only be 12 months old or that my two year old is definitely too vocal and responsible to only be 24 months old.
I however, am sticking to my guns. Most days I have a hard enough time remembering what month it is (they fly by so FAST) let alone do the quick math in my head to deduce what fraction of a year or increment of months I should be providing. Plus I'm probably in denial.
In my defense, for all intensive purposes she has not left her "terrible twos". Her latest evidence of this is testing the difference between truth and fibs. She will wake up (I know this because I have a video monitor that watches their beds), walk out her bedroom door and into mine, crawl in bed with us and when I ask her if she has gone potty on the toilet yet she always answers "YES". Or she is alone in a room and I hear something fall/break. I go in and ask her what happened. She inevitably blames her brother. I've told her it makes me sad when she doesn't tell me the truth and I figure she'll grow out of this stage (not soon enough) but in my book this classifies her as "two".
Really, I should be telling people that HE is two as well. I can round up too, right? His latest little trick is telling us "NO". It doesn't matter what we are asking him or what the current situation is. He usually will even oblige us with our request as he is stating his defiance. I tell him that he "doesn't tell his mommy no" and "mommys' the boss", which he seems to be figuring out, but I can just see all the wonderful other "terrible two" tricks looming on the horizon for him as well.
Maybe from now on I'll just tell everyone "they're two".
