In my experience, dating someone much younger is like deciding to live in your past. You might think that life experience would make going back to high school easier until you come face to face with fast moving technology and the new math, and that young genius you think is so sexy freaks out over something that stopped bothering you years ago. The reality is, that for it to work, you will either have to give up your maturity, or the younger person will have to give up growing in their own independent way and just trust you when you say no.
That can come across as you being controlling to the younger person and if they resist, they end up looking hardheaded when both are actually right. Who really wants somebody telling them what to do all the time, but also, who wants to go through the drama of young mistakes when you already know what is going to happen yet they are too inexperienced to see. And meeting in the middle is made complicated by two different places in life that both deserve to be lived.
A lot of young people go for older because they are not yet ready to take full responsibility for their lives. And a lot of older go for younger because they don’t want an equal who can hold them accountable as an adult. There is risk in both those ways of thinking. But then there are those times that love just happens regardless of age or experience. Those are the couples where you can just see the patience and willingness for both to learn from each other which is very rare to find even in a relationship where people are closer in age. If you are living and taking the opportunity to let life really teach you, you fully realize that age is so very much more than just a number. Whenever I hear that said by anyone, older or younger, it tells me they have a lot more growing to do. It doesn’t stop me from enjoying their friendship, but I know it’s best to not consider going beyond that level. -Neo Blaqness