a smallish mistake

A very pleasant middle-aged muslim lady at the checkout in the supermarket today asked me if I was old enough to buy the bottle of wine I handed to her. I was wearing a strappy summery dress and my (light)make-up by then had probably run into non-existance. Perhaps the flowery dress and no make-up are pre-requisites for teens nowadays (though I doubt it, where's the goth make-up and piercings, mini-skirts and fishnets??!); or maybe this lady's (rather naive?) impression of what a sixteen year old should look like, squeezed unlikely me into fitting the bill?

I hesitated, thought she was quipping a joke. But, she insisted on ID. I showed her my driving licence: 1969 - "That's 40, rather than under 18!!", I declared, as if she couldn't read the date herself.

"Oh", she said, "how do you keep yourself so slim and young looking?!"...
("you need glasses, me dear!" I quietly thought, despite being rather flattered, under the being majorly perplexed...)

Thing is, I had my daughter with me, who's 3 but could pass for 4. Which worried me even more than the lady's mistake. I mean, what is society coming to, bla bla bla, for had she been correct I'd have been a Mum at about 14....I'm sorry but there I draw the line!