To think she thought I was 10 years younger than I am

I used to look very young for my age. At 40 I could have passed for 28. However, I know look every one of my years and more!

If you're getting this from strangers then something's amiss. Are you wearing a t-shirt with "Guess my age and please be kind"? That is an extremely personal thing to say to a stranger and I would think them to be inappropriate and back away.

Friends do say things like this. They are hoping for return compliments also. It can be a bit of a faulty echo chamber if you're not careful.

Also, on mumsnet there are lots of people who claim they or their mum doesn't have wrinkles

Hehe yes. I've seen people swear blind their 93 year old gran has no wrinkles whatsoever. Perhaps she doesnt, but I can guarantee she still looks elderly and not 21- wrinkles are not the only signs of age on a person lol

😁

I've no idea but OP, I think it was just a typo and not thinking about it, she wanted to get you checked in.

You may look young for your age but, who would know? What does a 20/30/40/50/60/70 year old woman look like? Who is the decider of these things? Is there a blueprint that we should be comparing ourselves to?

I'm 55. I'm careful with my skin being very pale so out the sun and plastered in factor 50. I probably look every bit 'my age' but I do know that I look better after I've had a nap.

You're lucky, when I go into a café they get out the high chair!

Everyone thinks I'm 5 😂

I always have a laugh when I’m age checked for buying alcohol at the supermarket.
It only takes a glance to work out I’ve passed 18 at least three times over!

I get this from strangers as well.

Besides, I can't imagine five or six of my friends saying exactly the same thing, especially when I hadn't even mentioned wanting reassurance about looking old.

But of course, if you want to believe I'm making it up for attention, feel free.

I’m regularly taken for younger than I am - but funnily enough it’s only ever men who have guessed ten years or more younger 😄

My mother had an accident a few years ago and the nurse treating her said “There must be some mistake - the chart says you’re 63”. She said it was worth getting concussion just to hear that 😆

It's really because people look better now. When I was young, a woman in her 50s looked far older than they do now. Better nutrition, more leisure time, more self care and better cosmetics mean that women in their 60s and 70s often look younger than their counterparts in previous generations.

If she had assumed your birth year rather than misheard it, she probably would have made a comment about you looking much younger.

This isn't about me but I have several friends (we are all, ahem, older) who generally look a good 10 to 15 years younger than their actual age.
Three of them are in their early 80s, one looks as if she is in her early 70s and the other two look to be in their mid-60s.
We all marvel at how great they look, and they are definitely not the types for 'tweakments' apart from hair colour.
One is platinum blonde and always has been, she's tall, slim and fit, one has had a silver pixie cut for several years and has good facial features so it really suits her. The third has mid brown hair and is always busy and active with her great-grandchildren!

Because she didn't really engage her brain. She just typed it in. People don't really look at customers they just go on autopilot

Oh come on, don't be silly. She just misheard you. She does this all day, she'll be asking for DOB from people on autopilot without even looking up.

You probably just mumble your words indistinctly or don't speak loudly enough.

Being asked for ID doesn't mean anything. They just have to do it regularly and don't really look at people.

I'm 57 and was IDd when I was 56 I'm sorry to say. It's just autopilot on their side

I feel like a dentist's receptionist just goes on whatever DOB you give and that she simply misheard you on this occasion. It makes no difference to them what age you are/look, merely that they get the correct person.

Also, on mumsnet there are lots of people who claim they or their mum doesn't have wrinkles. If they are white, this is probably a lie, but even if they are- there are so many signs of ageing over the whole body, hands, neck, lack of skin elasticity, hair going coarser, and that's without starting on how you dress/carry yourself. The lack of wrinkles isn't convincing anyone a 53 year old is 23 under any circumstances! But Botox, good genes, creams and potions, good lifestyle might take you down by a few years, not more.

Absolutely not!

“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realised how seldom they do.”

She was not sitting there doing the maths. Sorry.

There's a whole Agatha Christie book about this.. SPOILER ALERT.... Poirot advises there's no way that the woman masquerading as an 18 yo would ever be mistaken by him as such, 'just look at her knees and elbows, you can never mistake the knees of an adult for a teenager' to paraphrase!

@Lostmum1906 you look stunning for starters and not 45 IMO. It is funny how aging goes in fits and starts, you don't age evenly, it suddenly lunges up (like when you get jowls which I did around 51/52, there's no disguising that). And surely most people look roughly their age, but might look 5 years younger (like you) as some look much older. The range of guesses is probably mid-thirties to mid-fifties for someone who is 45 depending on life, lifestyle, genetics, smoking/drinking and so on.

I have a colleague who is late-fifties but looks in her 60's, I think it is the combo of white hair (not grey, white and short, not styled out) and dressing older, it's not her actual face that it is older, it's all the other clues we have about someone's age.

They’re your friends… 😬

Bless you op, she was looking under 1993 instead of 1983, she didn’t know it care which was the real one.
Why would she have guessed a year exactly ten years out? Or guessed at all…