What's your ultimate age limit (upper&lower!) when dating?

SoundsRight wrote: »

I'd be curious as to why she'd want to be single at that age.

Is this a piss take?

Maybe she wants to have fun, travel the world, focus on her studies/career, the list is endless. Having a man isn't the be all and end all for most women in their twenties, believe it or not.

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Is it? I was 25 when I met my missus, she was 18. Your sweeping generalisation didn't seem to be shared by anyone within my earshot.

If I had an 18 year old daughter I wouldn't be thrilled about it, no. There's an obvious power inbalance there, and people change a lot between their late teens and mid twenties - they are formative years. Of course the older you get the less it matters, but at 18 it's a significant gap.

SoundsRight wrote: »

Most women? Really? I doubt that.

You seem to have a very old fashioned view of women.

I have plenty of friends who met their partners in their late 20s or 30s. They weren't going out every weekend desperate to tie down a man, they just met people they clicked with and the relationship developed naturally.

I started going out with my ex at 23 and we split up when I was 30. So by your logic there was nothing wrong with me when I was coupled up at 29, but something wrong with me when I was single a few months later.

Not everyone needs a partner to validate their existence. It is possible to be happily single, but also open to starting a relationship if you meet the right person.

Flying Fox wrote: »

I personally don't think someone of 25+ should be going out with a teenager. Just my opinion, but I doubt it's an uncommon one.

"not uncommon" is vague enough though. It is amazing how little something has to become "not uncommon" to feel like it is everywhere. Even though it is actually relatively very rare.

I have a partner who is 30 now and 17 when we met. I am 40 now - 27 when we met. We have been doing nothing but getting steadily happier together the entire time and she is now due to have her first child with me. All good stuff.

The "opinion" of which you speak was barely something I registered from sources around me. In fact most of the lads and even a couple of the girls I knew were jealous about how attractive she was - and still is. Her age generally did not seem to register as a concern at all.

And most of the people who had issues with it were just the parents and siblings who were naturally protective. They all came around in time when they realised it was a committed relationship and not just some fling where I was a manipulative predator or something. But certainly in the early days I had a lot of issues with them. Some somewhat violent at the time alas. Water under the bridge these days however and I even respect them for it in a way.