Things that just don’t make sense.

[TheFaerieQueene]

I wonder why, when we are a metric based society (except for miles rather than kilometres) do we measure baby milk in ounces and still quote their weight in pounds?
Recipe books are now metric as are petrol stations, shops etc . It baffles me!

Its to stop us from accidentally baking our children FaerieQueene . Like they did in the forests of Europe until 1971.

I think a lot has started changing with them though, ds is weighed in Kg and has been for a fair few years now, I think even when he was born 8 years ago he was weighed in kg then if was converted to lb just because that was what people understood.

For formula it may be to do with ease, iirc it was 1 scoop per ounce so easy to remember!

Because changing the official measurement system doesn't change how people think.

I was only taught in metric but as pretty much most of my 'life' knowledge was provided by my parents/grandparents/aunties etc I'm far more comfortable using imperial weights and distances.

For example I can easily visualise how I'd look weighing 10 stone but I'd have to work out how I'd look at 63kgs (just had to then)

The curious anomaly for me isn't in cooking, or measuring people but on the roads. The UK has been officially metric since the 70s I think but all road measurements and speeds are still in miles/yards.

UK people manage just fine driving in the EU with metric measurements and speeds so I'm putting it down to bloodymindedness in refusing to change...or a cost challenge to replace every single road sign in the UK that mentions mph or miles to destination.

&saggital

I guess it takes time for the changes to happen @MrsBlaidd e.g. my grandmother would be 99 if she were still alive and used the imperial system (this is in NZ) and even the £ at one point. Fast forward to now and it’s very much only the older generations who know and understand imperial measurements. I only have a basic understanding despite having my grandmother around till my mid twenties. Funny thing is though I’d still say a pound of butter (but never a pint of milk) and when I had my DD I was told her weight in Kgs and asked for the weight in pounds (which the midwife had no idea, I’d just assumed she would, this is Australia though) 🤷🏼‍♀️ My own body weight however I’d have no idea in stone and my DGM would have had no idea in kg.

@AhoyDelBoy absolutely - my daughters don't like being measured in feet and inches. It's all about the cm for them. I think I'm just the in-between generation where behaviour from parents was in direct contrast to content at school.

I just wonder when the watershed moment will be for the UK to fully switch to metric...or if all the knuckle draggers baying for brexit will see metric as some euro-facist thing that we no longer have to tolerate and we go all the way back to imperial.

My brain doesn’t work in metric. I measure height in feet and inches, weight in stones and pounds, bake in ounces, travel in miles.... I’m only 30.