Am I the only person annoyed by 'dc is 2.5 etc'

[waitingforbedtime]

When people say their dc is 2.5 to me that means they are two and a half and when people say their dc is 3.9 it means they are 9/10 of the way to being 4 but on mumsnet it doesnt mean that does it? I find it really irritating and I don't know why.

Am I the only one?

You are not the only one. Even if people wrote 2,5 it would somehow be better. A . in the middle of numbers suggest decimal, which months are not!

suggests

Yes! It is the decimal point isn't it? Very annoying! [must get out more emoticon!]

2,5 means 2 and a half in the rest of europe. I always read 2.9 as two point nine, you are not alone.

Why not 2y6m?

Isn't that a lot more intuitive, even if it one character more to type.

it annoys me too and I do it,because everyone else does (sheepy emoticon).I have now been shamed and will revert to the 2y 9m.

I didn't even know such an irritation existed until reading this! Argh leaves pedants corner immediately

You are not alone. I have no idea what age "they" mean when "they" do this.

God no, this bugs the hell out of me too.

Although I have found myself doing it because I know that everyone understands it.

yes, I used to think it was shorthand for 2 and a half. I use 2y6m

and me though I find myself to have started to join in this annoying thing

I still read it wrong though. By that I mean right but not what the author has meant

and I'm no pedant

In fact it was only when I saw 2.7 or something and thought "how on earth do they know to that accuracy?" that realisation dawned

I've never given it any thought really and just assumed it was the MN way. I can't say it bothers me, however in a show of MN solidarity and to stop the possibility of any eyes bleeding I shall now use 'y' and 'm'

Coz I is nice, see

Well it's partly done because it's harder to work out the fraction in twelfths and convert to decimal. Also does it really matter, I mean if someone reads it the wrong way i.e. 2.5 as 2yrs6mths then they're hardly way off the mark and not a lot of baby development will be different in that time frame (as development is different for each child anyway)

no Lionstar, just causes confusion when you see 2.7!
What's wrong with 2y7? Same no of characters and unambiguous

okay so a year isn't ten months so you cant decimalise it
is that rightI hadn't even realised I was annoying you lot

I would love to be a pedant but I'm too stupid

so my children are

3y and not quite 1m

4y10m

and 9y11m

is that ok

I don't disagree Stealth, I was just advancing a theory about why it was done and why it didn't really matter. It has just gained currency on MN therefore difficult to change. Your way is less confusing though - I shall endeavour to use

much better Trinity

I stopped thinking in months after about eighteen of 'em I think. Then they were toddlers, nursery age etc etc. I genuinely forget how old anybody in my family is tbh- especially me

I think because when they're young (and especially when they're your first) you know their age to the day, literally. So I genuinely thought people knew that their babies were 2 and 7/10 of a year. And felt stupid.
I only have 2 but how things change. I text DH's cousin who had her PFB 13 hours after my youngest to see how old they are now

Does it actually confusion though, or does it just annoy you? Is it ever necessary to know the age of another poster's child to such a degree of accuracy?

2.5 seems ok as 2 and a half, but 2.11 confused the hell out of me the first time I saw it.

I sometimes do 2.5 because 2 1/2 looks weird.

It doesn't cause confusion it is just annoying!

I will admit though that I have done it because I thought I 'should' and didn't want to be outed as a non mumsnetter!!!

From now on I shall just write 3y2m or normally I just write 3 or 3 and a half etc.

It really doesn't bother me - it's just a form of shorthand.