Age gap in a relationship

[Graham-W]

I met and "courted" my wife in 1972. I am 7 years older than her.
If I were 17 and she 10, that would be totally unacceptable in our society.
If I were 27 and she 20, that would probably be acceptable.
At what age, then, would it become acceptable to have this 7 year age difference?

[baza]

I was DIRTY old man when I married MrsB when she was 18 and I was 30.

[ummmm]

Depends on the people involved.

[sherrardk]

Think it depends on the people involved. I was 19 when I started going out with himself who was nearly 30, went down like a bucket of cold sick with my mother.

[Barmaid]

I met a chap when I was 17 who was 12 years older. At 17 I suppose it was OK. By 30 it blinking well wasn't.

[ummmm]

I had my daughter at 18. Her dad was 28.

[woofgang]

16 and 23? hmmmm
18 and 25 getting to maybe

[baza]

the age gap is about the same as between me and fil, he has divorced 2 since then, Mrs B and I are still together after 34 years, so, yes it depends on the people concerned.

[Graham-W]

I guess some people will find this shocking, as they did at the time.
Mrs -W was a 15 year old schoolgirl and I was a 22 year old.
We married in '73 when she was 16 and in March next year will celebrate our Ruby Wedding.

[2sp_]

I was 26 when I started seeing Mr P. He was 17.

The scandal
The shock
The shame
The excitement!

Still together 12 years later.

[vodkancoke]

My Mum is 9 years older than my Dad. He was 18 when they met and married at 19 (he lied about his age to be fair to my poor Mum!) and 37 years later they are still happily married.

[Graham-W]

My in-laws said the marriage wouldn't last a year. They divorced two years later.

[rockyracoon]

I've never been out with anyone more than 2 years older than me, let alone 7, mostly the fellas were younger. Mr RR is 3 and a half years younger than me, never really fancied anyone too much older, except George Clooney, I'd make an exception for him.

[askyourgran]

My SiL married age 20 her husband was 35. No-one noticed the age difference between them, he died of cancer when he was 65. She was fifty and hasn't wanted to meet anyone else, she has three handsome grownup children and six grandchildren.I was shocked before I met him thinking how could she go out with an old man15 years age difference it seemed a lot to me. I guess your seven year difference would be 18/19 year old to 25 year old would be OK.

[2sp_]

I think as long as both parties are over 16, "society" should keep their opinions to themselves.

[sherrardk]

Because my (step) dad was 7 or 8 years younger than my mother there is only 4 years age difference between him and my husband but their out looks on life, etc are poles apart (also, my dad looks his age whereas himself doesn't).

[erin-x]

I think it's down to the individuals involved as has been said already. I was recently involved with someone quite a bit older but it didn't matter to us. Who cares what anyone else thinks, really?! :-)

[Old_Geezer]

I think the "unacceptable bit" hinges on her being 10 more than anything. If she were, say, 18 and you 25 then I suspect it would be the minority that objected as she would be old enough to make her own decisions, even if probably not yet as wise as she would hopefully be one day.

[Old_Geezer]

That your relationship seemed to get away with it is more down to beating the odds than it being a wise situation to be involved in. Congrats for making it work and all that, but personally I think you could have waited since you were both that committed. There need have been no rush; it need not have worked out as it did.

[boxtops]

It's all down to outlook, and the older you get, the less it matters. I was at secondary school before my OH was even born :-)

[magsmay]

This reminds me of a cute story of when one of my boys was five years old - he had a crush on an older girl -she was 11. I told him that perhaps the age difference was a bit much her being 11 -oh no mummy he replied -when I'm 80 she'll be 87 and that's ok isn't it? He'd worked it out bless him