It’s not the defence many Americans seem to think it is of their insane method of writing the short form.
I’ve never once been confused about a written date whilst in the US. Your country’s other-side-of-the-Earth flip-floppery on how it uses dates really doesn’t (and shouldn’t) impact our system, which we continue to use because it has proven effective and easy. Trying to stagnate an evolving culture/language is pointless and about as futile as trying to force a river to run backwards. If people start jumbling up how we do it here, like you say Australia does, then that will be right, too.
When I was a kid, I was diagnosed as being lactose intolerant as well. The thing is, I’m not lactose intolerant at all. I’m actually gluten intolerant. It’s very hard to diagnose without cutting gluten out of one’s diet. And I only figured out because I started making bread a few times each week and got very sick.
The thing is, I always used to think I’d outgrown my lactose intolerance, too. If you have the time, maybe give a gluten free diet a try. My life is so much different now after cutting out gluten. At one point I was going to the gym for 2 hours a day, trying to lose weight, but I just couldn’t. Now, I’m the skinniest I’ve been in years and I mostly sit around.
Unfortunately, the diet really does have to be totally gluten free. Even cross contamination will give me noticable problems for days. The body basically cripples its ability to intake nutrients after having any amount of gluten and it takes time to heal. On the bright side, it’s a pretty easy diet to follow when eating at home and a lot of restaurants now have gluten free options, too.