Question

Carol has 3 children. The youngest child is 4 years younger than the middle child. The oldest child is 6 years older than the middle child. The youngest child is 8. The sum of their ages is 12 years less than Carol's age. How old is Carol?

Answer 1

Carol is 50 years old

Answer 2

The youngest child is 8 years old.
The middle child is the youngest child+4 or, 8+4 which makes that child 12 years old.
The oldest child is the middle child+8 or, 12+8, making the oldest 18 years old.
Carol is all of the childrens ages combined plus 12 or, 8+12+18+12=50.
Carol is 50 years old.

Hope this helped :)