I need to know how old Gideon is

[andrewducker]

Poll #25349

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 44

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Gideon was born on the 31st of August. He is six months old as of...

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28th of February (as it's the final day of the month)
26 (59.1%)

1st of March (as he's *definitely* into the next month by then)
10 (22.7%)

He only gets to get a month older in months with a 31 in them
1 (2.3%)

Something Else Which I Will Explain In Comments
7 (15.9%)

Comments

[doug]

Six months already! Wow. Awesome.

Months are inherently vague as time periods, so I'd have started saying he was six months old roughly around the middle of February.

You're absolutely not allowed to do this for birthdays because that would be cheating, but even then, "I'm *very nearly* six!" is actually a more useful statement than saying the kid is five or "I'm five years, eleven months and thirteen days old".

[doug]

Sucks not to get a neat date for your half-birthday.

Because I started to wonder:

You have this six months/half-birthday problem if your birthday is on the 31st of any month, except 31 January and 31 July, which are the half-birthday date for each other. Late August birthdays are particularly short of luck because six months on is February, so you have this problem if born on the 29, 30 or 31 August.

[andrewducker]

Oh yes, I say "Almost six months old" when talking to people about his age.

And she's "Almost three" although it's two months away.

[ggreig]

Voted 3 to be contrary. Probably 1 really.

[emperor]

matthew@aragorn:~$ date -d "31 August 2021 + 6 months"
Thu 3 Mar 00:00:00 GMT 2022

[andrewducker]

Interesting. That doesn't sound commutative to me.

What happens if you add one month 6 times?

[emperor]

You get 1st October (and then onwards to 1st March). So it's presumably giving the equivalent of 31 February :)

[andrewducker]

That makes sense.

[fanf]

Six months is 26 weeks and a bit, which is 1st March and a bit

[rhythmaning]

How old was he on 30 September, and extrapolate from that.

[andrewducker]

2,592,000 seconds

[rhythmaning]

I have no doubt that you celebrate every second since his birth. But I think you might be some time...

[conuly]

He will have been alive 183 days, a full half a year, tomorrow, Tuesday March 2.

[andrewducker]

And an ⅛ I assume.

[gingicat]

I love all of these answers. :)

How does the pediatrician measure it?

[andrewducker]

In weeks :-)

[gingicat]

Thought that might be it :)

[azurelunatic]

Aha! Yup! :D

[pink_halen]

I think this is splitting hairs.
How important is a half birthday?
Generally he is 6 months old. The exact date doesn't really matter much.
All months are not created equal. In the last six months there have been several months of 31 days.
Have you considered how many Moons old he is?

[andrewducker]

"How important is a half birthday?"
Barely at all.

"Have you considered how many Moons old he is?"
I'm fairly sure it's the same moon now as when he was born. Surely we'd have noticed if someone changed it for a different one?

[azurelunatic]

Most important to the kid in the years between 4-ish and 8-ish, in my limited experience, especially when the actual birthday falls outside of school term or shares the date of an overwhelming occasion.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, my brother's birthday is Boxing Day. Pretty rubbish.

[azurelunatic]

For babies, 6 months is 26 weeks, which is March 1st.

[calimac]

If you're measuring in months, use whole units, regardless of small variations in their size. We pay the same rent for a 28-day month as we do for a 31-day month, because it averages out. You don't shift the celebration of the birthday off 6 hours each year that isn't a leap year, do you?

[andrewducker]

*I* don't.

[starwatcher]

.
We don't bother to calculate a few days' difference with other months. EG, if someone is born on the 31st, we don't fuss if the 6-month falls on a month with only 30 days. So it makes no sense to twist ourselves into knots by trying to account for a couple of days' fluctuation.
.

[agoodwinsmith]

Since we all have the February month in our yearly time progression, we are all short-changed. Basically since you are counting by the ends of the units, you'd use the end of the unit: 28 February 2021.

[beckyc]

26 weeks later (plus half a day if you’re feeling keen)

Which is 1st March (plus half a day). Which is sort of one of the answers but not for the stated reason :-)