I have this rule: if I could absolutely never bring this person home to my dad, I can 't date them. My question is, is there such a thing as “too old”? Does it differ.
Table of contents
- The real rules about old and young you can date
- Commentary
- Dating and the age gap: When is older too old?
- Dating Question: How Old is Too Old? | The Purple Fig
The late Tony Randall was 75 when he married his year-old wife. Playboy founder Hugh Heffner has several girlfriends, most of them half a century his junior. Age is what it is.
The real rules about old and young you can date
For one thing, most people do not want their relationship to be the equivalent of gossip tabloid fodder among their own social circles. A date I recently went on showed the woman to be intelligent, sweet, accomplished, and attractive. We both suspected the age difference might be significant, but avoided the topic for as long as possible. Yet denying reality serves no purpose.
Commentary
She thought I was I was hoping she was in her late twenties. Five years is one thing. Even ten years one can start rationalizing. Yet 18 years is a tough one to justify. Having said that, a guy at 41 squiring a woman of 23 is far more controversial than a year-old man dating a year-old woman. There is an unofficial rule that exists, even though nobody seems to know where it originated. To get the best possible experience using our website we recommend downloading one of the browsers below. Internet Explorer 10 , Firefox , Chrome , or Safari. I personally am attracted to older men, but would never dream of dating someone more than, say, 15 years older than me.
Which a lot of my friends would say is still quite a stretch, as I am only in my late twenties.
Dating and the age gap: When is older too old?
I have this rule: Does it differ depending on which gender is older, or for same sex couples? If I, at 28 would date a 40 year old without a second thought, am I hypocritical for unconsciously judging that attractive 25 year old out for brunch with her 50 year old mate? There is just no denying it: Men grow more distinguished with age, while apparently women just grow old.
A younger woman dating an older man is either looking for a father figure or a sugar daddy, while the reverse barely turns heads. I say to hell with it all, society does not have to live our life and is certainly not in charge of it. It may be a trite saying but it rings true to me: There are a countless number of more interesting and important things that we should care about when it comes to the men we date. So I decided to find the answers myself. I tackled this paradigm-shifting research the only way I knew how: I created a survey.
Although I could have hit the streets of New York and surveyed people in-person Buunk style, I decided to mTurk my survey.
I try to avoid as much social interaction in my daily life as possible. This can vary from transcribing a movie, to identifying an item on a receipt, to taking a survey about hypothetical romantic relationships.
Dating Question: How Old is Too Old? | The Purple Fig
Within a few days I got responses: As John and Lauren got older, however, the creepiness rule differed from how people actually responded. Yet according to the survey, 37 was well outside the age range of what is socially acceptable. The results also showed that the creepiness rule is too restrictive about how old you can date when you are young, but becomes too lenient as you get older.
Yet, people surveyed were fine with John and Lauren seeing someone in their early 30's.
When John and Lauren are 60, the creepiness rule allows them to date anyone older than themselves the official cap is However, society places more restrictive age limits of 71 and 75 respectively. Overall, the creepiness rule does not accurately represent what people find socially acceptable; people are more judgmental than what the creepiness rule implies.