There is a scene shortly into "I Can Get It For You Retail" in which Shirley Partridge tells her youngest son, Chris that she herself is currently 23 years old , and her older son, Danny says to her that she cannot expect Chris to believe it, to which Shirley says that the last time she told Chris her age Chris went all around the neighborhood shouting "My mom is 32." So she is not going to chance he will do the same again thus she is telling him that she is 23. Chris says that he was just a kid then and did not know better.
Chris seems to be about 8, maybe 9 years old. If he is referring to himself as a kid, he could be talking about when he was 3 to 6 years old.

However Shirley's oldest son, Keith is supposed to be 16 years old at the youngest, or at least in the earliest episodes. I don't recall hearing in any of the very early episodes that Keith is 16. It seems that it is left to the audience to have an approximate idea. It seems to me that in the very beginning episodes, Keith is no younger than 18. That is, he looks no younger than about 18, maybe 17.
It seems that the indication is that Shirley started having kids at a young age. She had to be 20 at the oldest, but after the first few episodes Keith seems to be in his late teens at the youngest.
Somehow if you really think about it, Shirley seems too young to have a son as old as Keith unless she was a teenage mom.

Keith was her Step son. Danny was adopted.

Good observation, I never really thought about it. It is possible for a woman to have children at age 16, but based on the context it is more likely that she is not being honest about her age. She could have easily been 36 in the first season instead of 32. Or else the Chris incident happened when he was just old enough to talk, some four years earlier, which would also make her 36 in the first season and about 20 when Keith was born. People did get married and had children earlier in the "old days", sometimes right out of high school, which would make Shirley's situation not unusual.

Good observation, I never really thought about it. It is possible for a woman to have children at age 16, but based on the context it is more likely that she is not being honest about her age. She could have easily been 36 in the first season instead of 32. Or else the Chris incident happened when he was just old enough to talk, some four years earlier, which would also make her 36 in the first season and about 20 when Keith was born. People did get married and had children earlier in the "old days", sometimes right out of high school, which would make Shirley's situation not unusual.

Normally, a child is old enough to talk ( at least using very simple sentences) by the age of 2 years. It is not likely that the particular scene was referring to Chris as a 2 year old. And if, as you say, the incident was 4 years back, then Chris is currently 6 years old in the particular episode. He looks like he is 8 at the youngest but probably 9.

Good observation, I never really thought about it. It is possible for a woman to have children at age 16, but based on the context it is more likely that she is not being honest about her age. She could have easily been 36 in the first season instead of 32. Or else the Chris incident happened when he was just old enough to talk, some four years earlier, which would also make her 36 in the first season and about 20 when Keith was born. People did get married and had children earlier in the "old days", sometimes right out of high school, which would make Shirley's situation not unusual.

That makes sense, she probably married after HS. She and her late hubby could have been HS sweethearts. If the show had ran longer, I bet eventually either Keith or Laurie would have gotten married. Although it was the 70's, I doubt the writers would have had them living with their significant other. Getting back to Shirley, remember when she enrolled for college courses? I think she she put off co!lege for marriage.

Even in the 70's, people got married young. Remember when Keith was living in the neighbor's garage because he craved freedom. He was dating a college cheerleader, when he had to hide her as Danny alerted him , that their mom was bringing him dinner. His date thought at first he was hiding her from his wife. It was a cute scene.

I somehow can't believe that Shirley Jones was still relatively young when The Partridge Family first went on the air. I believe that she was only 36 years old (https://web.archive.org/web/20140406114619/http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/topic/3122271-the-partridge-family-why-vh1-why/page-10#entry14195359) at the time. She came across as decidedly matronly on the show (https://web.archive.org/web/20140406114619/http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/topic/3122271-the-partridge-family-why-vh1-why/page-10#entry14195136). I don't know if it's because of the way that she carried herself, or she had that short, pixie hairstyle that gave off the impression to me, that she was older. David Cassidy, who played her son and was her stepson in real life, was I think, only about 16 years younger than her.

I think too that the very short haircut made Shirley appear somewhat older. Here she is in her 1975 film Winner Take All with longer hair. Absolutely beautiful face and looking youthful:

302002

I somehow can't believe that Shirley Jones was still relatively young when The Partridge Family first went on the air. I believe that she was only 36 years old (https://web.archive.org/web/20140406114619/http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/topic/3122271-the-partridge-family-why-vh1-why/page-10#entry14195359) at the time. She came across as decidedly matronly on the show (https://web.archive.org/web/20140406114619/http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/topic/3122271-the-partridge-family-why-vh1-why/page-10#entry14195136). I don't know if it's because of the way that she carried herself, or she had that short, pixie hairstyle that gave off the impression to me, that she was older. David Cassidy, who played her son and was her stepson in real life, was I think, only about 16 years younger than her.

Oh wow! 36 is pretty young. How old was Michael Learned when the Waltons started? She was like what, 6 years older than Richard Thomas?