Men dating women who are significantly younger has pretty much been an acceptable practice for years, however, older women dating younger men has not been as well accepted. This is because, as we are told growing up, that women mature faster than men. I personally don’t think that it is that easy to sum up the whole situation with such a sweeping generalization. I can name a number of 30 year-old women who are far less mature than some 22 year-old women that I know. Just as I can name some 30 year-old men who are a bit more mature than say a 38 year-old.

Another thing I find interesting is that the “acceptable” age range for dating varies significantly between different people. For me, at the age of 23 with my next birthday creeping up in the next few weeks, I would have to say that if I were available for dating, I could go for the 23 to 36 range. A twelve year difference would be where I’d cap it off. Anything much older than that, and the man would be old enough to be my father. I dated a guy once very briefly who was a year younger than me, and I doubt I’ll ever be trying that again. I’ve also never been very much into dating people my own age either. I’ll leave it to you psychoanalysts out there to figure out why.

But back to the acceptable age ranges. What is acceptable to me, probably isn’t to someone else. Like my aunt, for example. She thinks it is completely crazy to date any one who is more than a few years older. To me, that is a bit close-minded, but I know of plenty of other people who share a similar mentality to her. Some women might be comfortable dating a much younger man, but much of society frowns up this practice.

For the most part, I believe in the live and let live philosophy. If two people are happy with eachother, who am I to say that their relationship or age difference is not normal or appropriate? As long as both parties are consenting, legal adults, then what’s the problem? On the other hand though, I do think there are some instances when age should be a concern. One instance that comes to mind is when either of the two parties starts treating the other as if they are some kind of prize or object to be had, or if one of the two starts to assume a sort of parental role to the other. That kind of mentality is not healthy, and doesn’t bode well for the future of the relationship. Another cause for concern would be having drastically different expectations. Things like having or not having children can be an issue in some relationships with significant age differences.

So, what are you thoughts on the age issue? I find it to be very interesting people’s different perspectives and thoughts on this issue.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.