Is it wrong to lie about your age?

How silly is it to prentend that you are younger or for that matter older than you look? In these days of anti-age discrimination legislation why would you bother? Why shouldn't we she ask a woman her age with out occurring the wrath of a she god? Why, because it does matter how old you are, it matters to other people, it changes the way they react to you, interact with you and even treat you.

Let me give you an example - Imagine that you work with a small group of people. You would go out occasionally for a drink together, you tell each other the kind of jokes that only friends tell each other and if you fall out it is generally over work rather than anything personal. You'll sit together in the staff canteen and bitch about him/her indoors but only to make them laugh or occasionally to elicit sympathy - that's because you're mates, work colleagues, friends. But then what happens when you find out that one of these friends is old enough to be your Mum? It isn't as if she has ever lied about her age, she just hasn't felt the need to share that with you.

How do you feel about her now? The same a before? Nothing has changed?

Now be honest, will you still send her that risqué email? Will you invite her to your 30th birthday party - the one in the club in town not the drinks in the pub after work do. When she talks about her kids now do you think, Oh my God her son is older than me? Remember you've got to be honest......

So yes age does matter because other people's perception of you changes if they find out that you are younger or older than they thought - it's shite but true and all the anti-discrimination legislation in the world won't change that.

So I'm going to carry on putting on the slap, having hi-lights to cover up the grey hair and dressing the way that I want to not the way that a woman of my age should - and if you ask me my age I won't lie to you but I will have to kill you afterwards.