Age gaps in relationships aren’t uncommon and the trend usually leans towards an older man with a younger woman. In the US in 2013 in over 53% of relationships the man was 2 years or more older than the woman.
My first serious relationship was with someone who was 12 years older than me, it’s funny how with even a large age gap like that he was as mature as my then 16 year old brother.
A friend of mine dated a man 15 years her senior, she said she got a lot of funny glances they would get at the shopping centre when seen to be holding hands. However she brushed it off us their problem not hers, she was happy, he was happy, whose else business was it about their age gap. Luckily for me, my then boyfriend didn’t look his age so we were never subject to the weird looks.
Then there’s the reverse, an older woman dating a younger man. While there are certain benefits such as sexual peak scientifically matches more with a younger man and older women, there is the other side of the stigma and ‘how it looks’.
While seeing an older man and younger woman isn’t totally out of the norm and these days telling someones age gap on face value isn’t always easy, an older woman and a younger man tends to be more noticeable and more subject to gossip or assumptions.
To be honest I have no one in my friendship circle where the woman is older than the man, in fact every single couple the guy is older, in some cases almost 10 years older.
A friend from high school started seeing her now husband in year 11 and hid his age from her parents for years, him being 5 years older. Of course now they’re 27 and 32, but back then she was 17 and he was 22 – much more controversial!
I was 22 when seeing my ex who was 34 and even telling my parents then I felt like I had to dumb down his age by saying, ‘Oh but he doesn’t look it’, because THAT’s what matter, whether he looks it. I seemed terrified to be the girl dating the older guy, where as now I get older age gaps seems much more irrelevant.
Are there women out there with younger husbands and boyfriends? Did you hide the age gap from people are did you happily tell people? Did you cop any flack or was everyone pretty ok with it?
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