this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
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It makes more sense when you're comparing month to month development.
If you have a perfectly normal child then it doesn't matter to measure anything and you can call it whatever.
However if you're in a maternity group and all the other children started pointing at things at 13 months and yours doesn't, then it might help to remember that yours was born prematurely and you can expect that behavior at 14 months.
Now, you can convert numbers as much as you please, but this doesn't make sense as 1.08 and 1.16 years. You can say one year and one month and one year and two months, but it does makes sense for everyone in the conversation if you use the conventional method of communication which is 13 and 14 months. Don't even get me started on Tiger leaps. Those come on schedule by the week.
It's convention. If you go to a car mechanic to get new tires, you also don't ask for "big wheels" if you want a 226/40R19.
That's absolutely right, but ignores context. People often use months even when the exact age isn't relevant to the other person.
If I (as someone who doesn't have kids and don't know anything about e.g. what behavior is appropriate at what month at all) ask a friend "how old is she now?", I'd be fine with a "about a year and a half" or "she's getting 1 year old next month" or whatever. I don't need an exact month cause 1 month difference doesn't matter to me in a casual smalltalk/conversation setting. I wouldn't know "oh, that's the month she might start pointing at things" anyways.
Of course I'm aware that parents are probably just used to it, so I'm not mad when someone says it in months. But I'd prefer it in years if I had the choice.
To reuse your analogy, I would say 226/40R19 to my mechanic, but to my mother I'd say I'm buying "big wheels". Cause she doesn't know what exactly 226/40R19 is/means, so "big wheels" conveys the information better to her.