I have married friends who met when she was 16 and he was 31. Yeah, seems creepy, but his intentions were indeed honorable, and they’re still married 30 years later. She was always the more mature one in the relationship. She’s a cute feisty redhead, has a good job, encourages his hobbies (collecting instruments and playing blues harp) and he was lucky to find her! Some maintenance required, but he’s a mechanic. 
Fine, to satisfy you, the OP will go with Stephenie and… E.L. 
As Sophie Tucker points out, it’s simple arithmetic. 18 goes into 36 a lot more than 36 goes into 18.
Regards,
Shodan
The half-your-age-plus-seven is bullshit.
I’m 35. By that “rule”, a 56-yo granny (ewwwww) could date me, whereas me dating a 23-yo chick would be labeled creepy.
I would tend to agree with the idea that age is just a number. That’s not to say it doesn’t correlate things that can affect compatibility, but if everything else is there, and she’s legal, why does it matter?
To explain this point, I’m 31 as well, and I too would generally avoid dating someone below 25, but that’s simply because of where I am in my life. I’m well educated, with graduate degrees, I have a stable career, I’ve had a few serious relationships including an ex-fiancee, I’m not into the whole partying thing. Someone who is, say, 23 is unlikely to have had experiences similar enough to relate to on those sorts of things which have nothing to do with how smart or ambitious she is, but just a matter that she just hasn’t had the time to do that. Still, that said, I have met women that are under 25 that I can relate well with and, despite not having those life experiences, we can “feel” eachother. Hell, many of the women I’ve dated have been at least a few years older, particularly in that age range, so I may very well relate quite well to someone who is in the same boat.
Beyond all of that, there’s a lot more about compatibility that has nothing to do with age. I’m passionate about music, philosophy, exercise, learning, gaming, film, etc. People of all ages can share those things and chances are, if a woman meets most or all of those passions, she’s intelligent, compassionate, funny, etc. then those aspects of compatibility that do correlate strongly with age will be of little or no importance.
From what you describe, it sounds like you two are hitting a lot of key points, even if some of those age related ones aren’t hit. Still, even of the ones that aren’t, that you are both in education, even if she’s teaching, that she’s in school for it probably makes that a closer match than someone else closer to your age who has finished school but isn’t in the same field. Hell, it may actually make for an interesting dynamic, where your experience can help her in her early career, and her fresh approach can help rejuvinate your passion in the field. If she’s also kind, intelligent, attractive, mature, and drama free, it sounds like the only thing that doesn’t make her an ideal match is the age, and almost none of the correlations.
I also know several longstanding couples that have huge age differences. I have an aunt who is married to a man 18 years older than her, they’ve had rocky times, but they’re still married. I’m also good friends with a couple where she is somewhere around 12-15 years older than him, and they have a storybook marriage.
So, seriously, don’t fret about it, and just enjoy your time with her, even if it were a problem, she’s still only a little younger than the arbitrary number you set. Good luck, she sounds like a great gal. If you change your mind though, pass her number along. 
Heh. Precisely the ages I (35) and my husband (56) were when we hooked up 
And, yes, we did the math and found out I just squeaked in there! I won’t berate you for finding a 56 year old ewwww. I did, too, at first, until I realized I was being an ageist twit about it. So I gave him the chance, went on a date, and closed my eyes when he sent in for the first kiss. And you know what? Best kiss ever. The rest of the sex was the best sex I’ve ever had, too. As my grandmother (young enough to have been his mother! ) was fond of saying, “all cats are grey in the dark.” And all hearts in love are 16 years old.
I’m 31 and my rule is she must be old enough to drink. Not that I’ve ever dated anyone ten years younger than me (or even close – 3 years younger than me has been my youngest so far), but hey, a guy can hope. 
But seriously, if she’s legal, and there’s a connection there, give it a shot. Just don’t be afraid to break it off if she can’t stop talking about Justin Beiber, or how parent’s just don’t understand, or Pokemon, or whatever the kids are on about these days. My biggest fear with dating a significantly younger or older person is that we won’t have anything in common. But there’s a lot more to life than pop culture so try to diversify your conversation topics.
I would say the age depends on how comfortable and or desperate you are.
This is what is important; not worrying about a relatively superficial issue like your age difference. Go with what makes you happy.
I retract my above statement. :eek:
If the relationship involves one male and one female, it does seem to work better if you do the calculation starting with the guy’s age. Otherwise, yeah, you’re on a drive into squick town pretty fast.
If the chemistry is there and she’s cool with it, it’s only as big an issue as you let it be. I’m 36 and my wife is 26 – we were 31 and 20 respectively when we first started dating. We still joke about it sometimes, but it doesn’t in any way stop us from being happy with each other.
Please tell me I’m not old enough to be a cougar!
This guy though, within the first few minutes of meeting asked me if I drink, smoke weed, and have a car. Those are such 24-year-old questions. I used to get asked stuff like that all the time when I was that age or younger. It’s kind of unattractive now. Drinking and smoking weed is fine but it shouldn’t be such a cornerstone of your life that it’s among the first things you ask, and you should be able to assume I have a car (I don’t live in NYC or anything, normal adults have cars here). It’s like that Cam’ron song “Hey Ma”. Which he probably isn’t old enough to remember it when it first came out!
But maybe he can be a drinking buddy or something.
My partner is exactly 20 years younger than I am (same birthday), and the age difference has been much more of a positive thing than a negative. When we met it was definitely “lust at first sight,” and we both had kissed a whole lot of frogs before finding our prince. So we both were very motivated to make it work . . . and it has, for over 26 years.
Um … well … yikes. So, you’re saying, only the guy can be older? If you do the math, that’s the literal interpretation. But let’s assume you didn’t do the math. You’re still saying it’s fine for a 50-yo man to date a 32-yr-old woman, but not the other way around (which you’d call squicky). I worry about what your mental image of a 50-yr-old woman must be.
You’re not old enough to be a cougar! By many people’s definition, anyway.
Wikipedia says the woman is “typically 30-40”, but since you pass for 28, you get a pass. ( 
) I think that’s a silly definition. I prefer one that’s not age-specific, and would even apply to a college woman dating a high-school boy, or a 70-yr old dating a 50-yr old. But, that’s just me.
I think it’s a fun word, because many people use it as a pejorative, when they’d have no problem if the roles were reversed. So I like to use it (with the “you go girl!” annex) to poke fun at conventional sensibilities, where older men can date younger women but not the other way around.
My parents are 63 and still not grandparents. I realize that breeding young and often is common for some people, but 56 = granny does not compute in my head.
But then it was hard to stifle my :eek: yesterday when I heard a cashier casually mention to her coworkers that she was in kindergarten in 2000. Get off my lawn!
Back to Quasi, when I was 32 I dated a woman 22 for a while. Biggest age difference in that direction I ever experienced. We had a great time, although the problem was that we were in two completely different places as far as maturity, social life, career, etc., primarily because of the age difference. Ultimately it didn’t work out; I wanted more of a commitment than she did. (Same story, only flip-flopped, when I dated a woman 10 years older when I was 27.)
Nothing wrong or strange about your situation. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
When I met my hubby I had a strict rule, no more boys, I would only date men over forty. He was 38.
He also had a strict rule, no more women over 26, they were to hard to smooze. I was 28.
That was thirty years ago. They are just numbers. And silly made up ‘rules of thumb’ are just stupid.
Life is a ride. Ride the ride, and don’t sweat the small stuff, that’s my advice.
Update:
Amazing, Amazing, Amazing…we are just completely hitting it off. We spent almost the whole weekend together. So much fun…and as I compare it to my last relationship…all I can think of is how much better this is and how lucky I am. We connect on religion, career, most activities, physicality, and it just feels so easy. We even talked about the age difference and she has no problem with it. I’m happy with dating someone young, as I don’t really feel any desire to get married anytime soon…I just want to be with someone awesome. So thank you all for the encouragement, if I had missed this I would have really missed something special.
Verily.
I don’t see why not.