DS aged 3.9 is stood on our gate …

[indurently]

He’s looking at cars, tractors and so on. We live on a country road. I’m pushing his sister on a swing.

And a couple just walked by and told me he shouldn’t be on the gate.

Racking my brains somewhat as to what we have done wrong!

Racking my brains somewhat as to what we have done wrong!

You wouldn't have to rack your brains if you'd asked them why?

Was there really a need to be so rude?

First to write a comment on a missed apostrophe 🙄
Then to state I didn't need to understand it beyond that, if that's the case, why type it in the first place? The OP made it clear she was trying to show age because being closer to 4 is different to being closer to 3 when speaking of younger children, which I completely agree with. Your comments are just beyond rude.

ETA - I had actually thought you were being helpful when you pointed out the missed apostrophe, hence why I kindly thanked you. Obviously now, I know you were being deliberately rude.

Silence!!!
The decimal winds me up too but I wouldn’t be so rude as to say it 😆

Or 3yrs 11mths, how is that written?

It's usually written as 'nearly 4', IME.

Duodecimal. (Maths pedant)

I’m being about as helpful as you are, I would say. And as rude too!

It is widely understood to mean 3 years 9 months.

(Almost) no one divides a year by ten.

I agree

Is it?

Ideas here:

I am not saying I agree it should be used for everything. But it makes absolute sense to use it when expressing ages in years. And people do use it like that a lot-even if they wouldn't describe it as the dozenal system, that's what they are doing and everyone understands what they mean. The people saying it's wrong are the wrong ones.

Yep, pretty common.