You’re right, and I was little ambiguous and unclear what I meant by formality.
By formality, I was suggesting that the US government spends a lot of time hand wringing about the budget, delaying for compromises, and then exceeds the budget anyway in certain areas.
Worked at a business which offered reduced pricing for kids. Front desk was trained in the habit of asking, not how old the kids were (because parents had trained them to give the age under the pricing shelf), but “what grade are you in this year”?
Not having prepared for that particular question, the kids would always answer honestly, and we could derive their age and charge accordingly.
I’ve heard great things about these self-help tools from the Australian Centre for Clinical Interventions: https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself/Social-Anxiety