Other Age gap

[NiklausMikaelson]

Hello everyone!

Today topic is a little sensitive! Do you care about age? Do you consider 10-12 age gap is too big when it comes to friendships? What's your opinion? To me age is just a number that comes every few months! Without an actual change on us.

 

[Lioness075]

Age has never been a big deal to me when it comes to friends. I could care less about physical age, but definitely prefer to be around more mature people. I love goofing off, don’t get me wrong. But I want to be able to hold a competent and serious conversation, too. So, mental age matters more to me.

But when it comes to romance, I’d rather keep it within 5 years and that’s only because I don’t like the idea of being a lonely widow at old age if they were to peacefully pass away first.

 

[Cosmo]

Friendships can be with anyone, when I had just gotten out of highschool, I worked part time at Sam's Club as a cart pusher and my team lead was a man in his late 60s and we became super close friends. I was closer to him then I was to any of the guys my own age, we both enjoyed cooking so we'd actually bring each other food when we made something we were proud of, he'd come over to my house to watch the game with me and my roommate, I met his kids and his girlfriend, etc. It was great because it was always like, 'Hell yea, I'm working with Ray tomorrow,' kinda thing. Sadly, he moved to Nevada to be closer to his daughter [sad in that he had to move, not sad in that he got to spend more time with his kid who was like.. ten years older then I]. Awesome guy and there were some things that we couldn't really connect on, like video games, but other things like movies, hobbies, music? Yea, hands down. That guy is still one of the coolest guys I've ever met, so 100% I do not believe age should stop friendships.

 

[Redfork2000]

I don't think age should be a barrier to stop friendships. In fact, I'd argue that our lives are enrichened when we make friends with people that are a different age than us. People who are older than us tend to have more experience, more knowledge, and a different view on life that we can really learn from. And people who are younger than us tend to have a different view on life as well. I think you can learn something from everyone, specially those who aren't the same age as you.

And of course, you can always have things to talk about with people of different ages. There's always something to talk about, something to be interested in. Some people say they have nothing in common with older people, but that's mostly because they don't look closely enough, or haven't met the right person yet. I'd say that befriending people of different ages helps improve your social skills, you learn different perspectives, and besides, I love listening to older people tell me stories about things they did in the past. I remember in highschool I was friends with a few of my teachers, and sometimes I'd talk with them more than I talked with my own classmates.

After school I've barely ever interacted with people of my own age anymore, except maybe online, but in real life I really only have the chance to interact with people that are at significantly older than me, or with people who are significantly younger than me, and I've had a great time with both groups of people. In fact, I'd say that besides my family, the people I interact the most with are a married couple that are both about ten years older than me, and some even older people that are about my parents' age, or children who are about my siblings' ages. However, at no point have I ever felt like I'm missing out for not interacting with people of my own age. Oddly enough, I don't feel like I have much in common with most people my age to begin with. In fact, I'd say I actually prefer spending time with people of other ages than with people my same age.

 

[FathersDislikeMe]

I'm going to echo everyone else and say that it's not a matter of should, but a matter of does. Should age matter? No. Does it matter? Only when it comes to maturity.

I hang at the local VFW with a lot of old Vietnam vets and have more in common with them than I do with people my age. I also typically date much younger than my age (8-12 years, normally - thanks mom and dad for the hair and the looks), but only women of intelligence, substance, and emotional maturity. I've met women my age who act like teenagers, and teenagers who are far more mature than myself.

So I don't think age matters. Love who you want to love, be friendly with who you want to be friends with. Categorizing people by age leads to ageism. Those older than us have made the mistakes we've yet to make, and we can get a lot of wisdom from them. Conversely, those younger than us open us up to new ideas that can enrich our lives.

 

[Luckster]

In terms of friendships, I do not believe it matters. I became friends with one of my teachers and it was very beneficial for us both to talk freely after class, and almost all of my frequent RP partners and friends online and are older than me. That wasn't necessarily by choice of me purposely choosing people older than me, but I tend to find myself gravitating toward people who are mature or have experience in RPing, and that tends to come with age. In real life, my friends (with exceptions like my teacher) are around my age, but that hasn't come from me intentionally avoiding anyone older than me. Anyone can be friends.

In terms of romance, as long as someone isn't dating an underaged person and both parties are emotionally mature enough for it, then it's the same principle.