What is and isn’t acceptable is judged on and based by the public in general. What goes on between two people behind closed doors is no one elses business but their own.

However, with that said, there are some things that are way way out of bounds. A sixteen year old girl with a forty-something male. Totally wrong, inappropriate, and against the law. This is where common sense should prevail, and the same would be true were it a sixteen year old boy and a forty-something woman. Love is love, but this is akin to lust, and a lack of simple basic morals. My grandaddy used to call it, “thinking with the brain in your pants.”

Now it would be different if a man, say 95, loved a little girl about 6, and she called him “Pappy” and he would laugh and carry on with her, telling stories, making her laugh as she is his great-great granddaughter. That kind of love is accepted.

But were I a gambling man, when it comes strictly to adults, I would say a good age gap between the sexes would be 20-25 years tops for the over fifty crowd, with the low end 5-10 years, under fifty. And I’ll add that if you are in your mid-20′s, 2-3 years would be good, high or low.

On teen dating, you really shouldn't start dating until you are around sixteen and keep the age difference to within one year at best, but my advice: you have plenty of time to fall in love, so just enjoy your teens years. They won't last forever. This song offers up some good advice. https://youtu.be/hwK_WOXjfc0

If you are under ten, just love your video games and other assorted toys. Just steer clear of Barbie and friends.

If you are over eighty, that strange noise you think is moaning, is actually you, just you, by yourself, farting

We fell fast and hard

so young and full

of dreams

of forever

together

blissfully unaware

of the trials

ahead

that would

stab

gouge

twist

beat

burn

mold

us

attempt to

crush

shatter

defeat

destroy

kill

what we

created

built

shaped

nurtured

loved;

and now,

having weathered

so many storms

survived so much

darkness

we rejoice

in our light

though fading

fast

it burns yet

this love

warming

hearts

that beat

as one

hands

entwined

still

as

we face

together

the slow drift

towards

oblivion

I have only had three true girlfriends in my life. My first girlfriend was a year younger than me, and we were together for 7 years and married for 2 years. We had a lot of issues that we never truly resolved and planned ahead for, bringing an end to our marriage (and friendship). I dated a girl after my divorce that was roughly 12 years older than me, and that relationship lasted a week. After the physical attraction between us cooled down, we didn't have much else in common, likely due to not being able to relate as far as life experiences from our age gaps. I just recently celebrated my 11th Anniversary with my wife that I am with today, whom is close to 4 years younger than me. We dated about 6 months before getting married, and I gained a daughter from my wife that was almost 2 when we started dating. We had our first son when our daughter turned 3. Our third son arrived shortly after our firstborn son turned 3.

I can't say that age itself necessarily played a part in my second marriage/third relationship being successful vs my first failed marriage and the very short story that was my second relationship. However, now that I am the age that my second girlfriend was at the time we were together, I can not imagine being with someone 12 years younger than me. I was close to my first wife's age when we were together, but I was also immature and ignored a lot of red flags, thinking love would solve everything. My wife that I am happily married to is younger than me, but at times she is more mature than me. I think our relationship works because we both have been through tough times, and we had a better idea of what we were getting into as far as being in a relationship, and what kind of work would be involved in making it work. So age did impact things for me, but that is because I have been at different maturity levels throughout my relationships. If the maturity is there for both parties, age likely won't matter. Maturity combined with the age differed in my relationships, which led to my present marriage working, and my previous relationships not working. I hope I worded all of this right, thanks for reading!

I believe I've already given you my opinion on this matter. I couldn't really care less what you do with your life. You're successful, just kinda do what you love.

Personally, I say keep it within 20 years. Other than that, as long as it makes you happy, Miss TeaRise. A good rule of thumb is x=1/2y+7. It's acceptable by me, to date somebody half your age +7. It works both ways. Other than that, as long as it makes you happy, I guess. The term "YOLO" exists for a reason.

Formula

I've met a woman

She's younger than me

A friend says,

By how much?

I tell him

It's okay, he says,

There's a formula:

X divided by 2 plus 7

She meets it

I think we're okay

At least for

today

Of all of the things to be picky about,

Like beauty or color of skin,

Like religious kicks or like lifestyles,

Or being too fat or too thin ...

But one thing that never much bothered me

(Perhaps I’m too naive to see),

Is how difference of age makes a problem

Considering personality.

Not much can be done that will change that,

So discriminate if you want to.

But you see, I resent the resentment

For something that I didn’t do.

I'm not necessarily going to say no to there isn't an age gap, but I do think that there's a certain age where you can't necessarily have certain types of love.

For instance you can love a friend or family member but you are going to have a warm and fuzzy love with family and with friends it is more of a BFF thing.

On the other hand living as a wife or husband with a person five times your age isn't, in my opinion, right. Same with if you are a 10 year old and love someone that isn't a friend or family and is like 20. It just doesn't work out.

So yeah, in some cases I think there's an age gap and in some cases I think there isn't.

In my opinion, if the man is 5-10 years older it's okay. Any age gap larger than that is just crazy to me. I think love can be blind at times, but it's always best to stay within the same age group, like Gen Z with Gen Z.

This is only an opinion, but I think a lot of people agree with me. I also think that if the man is approxamately 1 week-5 years older is also okay.

Looking back when I was sixteen, I was in the Army and on my way to war. I took on a war bride at seventeen; she was twenty-two. I shipped her home as I made my way home on military transport. My parents meet her and treated her as their own daughter.

We remained married for five years and her actions cost me my military career. But turn to a blessing for me, a daughter whom I would later raise. My daughter was two when the trouble started in the military. Her mother gave her up because of her lifestyle, and I regained my daughter when she was six years old.

The change for my daughter who did not remember me was hard on her. She could not believe I was her father till I whispered in her ear, “You have a birthmark where the angels kissed you; it’s a heart.” She grasped me around the neck and we cried together. She has been my joy all these nearly fifty years. The Story does not end there; I have two grandchildren and now a great grandson from my daughter.

Yes, I remarried at twenty-two and she was nineteen years old. We had eloped in secret, and she remained living with her mother and family to help her mother, who divorced and struggling financially.

We planned a wedding for the family on our first anniversary, which was also the bride’s twenty birthday. We remained married for twenty-eight years and five children later. She left to visit mom and did not come back. She wanted a career and could not leave her children. But I was no longer need after putting the kids through college.

She put me out to pasture, spending most of my life married and having a companion, a friend and someone to love. Life did not stop there, now in my late fifties working at the career I always desire, making a just short of six figures a year.

Met a young lady five years younger than myself, with two children; In short, we were married two years, and she got the gold mine and I got the shaft.

Sometime had passed, I moved back to my hometown and spent time with my dad. Mom had passed away seventeen years earlier, and he still mourned for her.

It was this example and my desire to spend my life with someone till death do us part; I had failed. The love my mother and father had was what I wanted. My parents were married forty years, when mom passed.

Time waits for no one, love or loss.

I met a lady seven years younger, and I have married us for twelve years. Her parents had the same love as my parents. My new bride has two daughters which are amazing young ladies both working in their careers and looking for the person they want to live with for the rest of their lives together.

Love is not only an emotion; it is a commitment to live life together always through thick and thin. My bride and I when we were married only ten months we found I had inoperable cancer. Not long after this we found my wife had a growth in her brain. We have toughed it out and we support one another with love and knowledge, wisdom and understanding. We both place our love in the creator of all things and one another.

And if a man prevail against him that is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

Sadness wouldn’t cover the loss. I tried my hardest to make that clear. She told me to forget it. I told her I loved her. Crying and angry, she slammed the door behind: ardent, fixed, focussed on her idea, an idealist, which is what I loved and loathed about her. I was relieved. And I turned my phone off to avoid any temptation to chase her with messages. Somewhere, though, she had done the same, so no difference.

I sat at home worrying, alone, sad though relieved, and I did so till this day. I’d go walking the streets wishing I’d bump into her. Yet she’d never stay close enough for that. I went in and out of other relationships. None of them were happy, all of them sensing my mind was elsewhere and one of them thinking I needed to ‘grow up’. Grow up, and past this shade I’d find happiness again, but once I found the sun here, and so I wait. So I never left the house. I took Vitamin D.

‘I lost you,’ she said at night as I drifted, in some garden and with a Christ-like tone. I’d run away from the thought eventually. The next day it had never happened, until that evening.

I hear it now every day and wish I’d gone back. ‘Bye.’ Age won’t rot this love.