okay everyone i know I haven’t been on in a while but I"ve been loaded down with work. However my question at the moment now is… drumroll How much of an age difference in a relationship is too much? cybal crash I really want to know everyone’s opinion on this…
I think once you’re 21, the three years up/three years down rule works pretty well.
Anytime before that gets a little bit more fuzzy. Love knows no age tho’.
Just MHO.
I’ve always felt that it was somewhat relative to your age. For example, a relationship between a 16 year old and a 21 year old would be frowned upon (and the 21 year old could be arrested for it), even though it’s only a 5 year difference. However, a 25 year old dating a 30 year old is not a big deal. Some may say that the 30 year old is dating young, but it isn’t a big deal. No one would even look twice at a 30 year old in a relationship with a 35 year old.
As a real world example, my mom is 58 and her husband is 71. Sure it’s a little bit odd, but nothing out of line.
Real world example, number two, when I was 25, I was dating a 30 year old woman. She wasn’t nearly as mature as I thought a 30 year old should be. So, maturity has a lot to do with it as well.
Can you give us more info? I think that may help.
Regardless, good luck.
Counting seconds before it gets sent to IMHO…
How much age? Hmmmmm. Im not age prejudiced so I don’t have any limit.
I think age prejudice is one of the dumbest prejudices cause someday if we are lucky we all be their age if they are older than us.
My brain hurts… No offense handy, but did this make sense to anyone else? No matter how I say it, I can’t make it make sense.
Total “If it weren’t for my horse…” moment.
Again, no offense handy.
When I was 16 I went out with a 21 year old guy and it was sheer misery. Total, f-ing misery. I don’t know anything about you, but if you’re a teenager, stick with teenagers.
As I get older, I find much older men attractive…well, not much, but like 10 to 12 years older than me. And I honestly don’t see the big difference between a 28 year old woman and a 38 year old guy.
Although my husband would probably mind.
I think if you’re over 21, keep it within a decade (older, not younger of course)
jarbaby
okay well although everyone has the assumtion that this is about me it is not. It concerns a friend of mine who is about to marry a 35 year old and she is 21… I don 't really know where I stand on it… just getting opinions
As long as the two people are in love, all other rules fly out the window (well, aside from statutory rape laws). I think that your friend and her husband (to be) will get some odd looks, but it can work.
The best you can do is just be there for your friend and be supportive.
There’s the 1/2 + 7 rule. That the youngest person you can date is 1/2 your age, plus 7 years. It seems to work well as a guideline, but there will always be outliers.
The rule among my friends is divide your age by 2, then add 7.
It works out pretty well, most of the time. For example, when we started dating, my boyfriend was 22. His minimum age would have been 11+7 = 18. I was 17 1/2. Shh…
But as a rule of thumb, it works pretty well.
FWIW, my sweetie and I are 15 years apart.
She is 15 years older than I am. (She lives in another country too, but that’s another story 
)
I am 25 and she is 40 and we get on really well. We both care for each other very much and it is great. I think the most important thing about this is that we both care for each other and that makes it work.
I think a lot of it depends on the individuals, people mature at different ages. Having said that, I think as you get older, the age difference becomes less of an issue. As people have said, if one partner is 16 and the other is 21, that is a big differenct relatively speaking, but a 10 year age gap, say between a 30 y/o and a 40 y/o, is not as bad IMHO.
I think if they are happy, go for it 
Just my 2 penneth.
Rick
As RickQ (hi, sweetie!) said, we have a 15 year age gap between us, with me being older. Before meeting him, I was wont to say, “I could never be interested in someone younger than I am.” (Sound of me eating my words)
When we first started chatting (oh, hell, flirting is what it was), I was very worried about the age difference. Talking to Rick and meeting him dispelled the worry. As he said, it depends on the individual.
It is interesting being in such an atypical relationship. A 15 year gap is pretty big and for the woman to be older is very unusual. I have found that I don’t tell most people his age–I don’t need the grief. I have also found that while sometimes I worry about what others might think if they knew, most of the time I am just happy that we have found each other. [sub]and we don’t need to mention the times I am proud of myself for snagging a young stud, do we?[/sub]
Hmm… ::scribbling furiously::
Hey! Sweet! Any 26 year olds out there looking for an older woman? 
The youngest I’ve dated has been 9 years younger than me and the oldest was 16 years older. My parents gave me lots of good natured ribbing about that one since he was only 2 years younger than they were.
Currently, I’m living in sin with a man 7 years my junior. I just loves younger men. They don’t need a nap as often. 
That said, I won’t let my 14 year old daughter even entertain the notion of dating a 16 year old boy, much less one 7 years older. I remember what boys were like when I was 16, or at least the ones I knew, and there’s no way she’s ready to deal with that. We only give her a year older to choose from. Now, when she’s 18, she can date the 21 year old, but not now.
Simetra, sure I can give you a little clarification on my comment.
Situation: You want to date someone who is younger than you & they said you are too old for them. This would be sort of dumb because that younger person would someday be your age (if they are lucky. Are they going to be prejudiced about themselves? It’s not the same with being prejudiced by height, for example.