We’ve seen it all before. The twenty-one year old boy strolling along with a sixteen year attached to his hip. The fourteen year old boy pining over the eighteen year old girl.  Let’s press the fast forward button, and it’s the thirty-five year old executive eating lunch with her thirty-year old boyfriend, or the twenty-six year old girl drooling over the same thirty-year old.  The age differences are the same, so why do the first two situations sound so unethical?

My friend was blabbering off to me about her ex boyfriend [let’s call him Jim], who had recently started dating a girl that was 3 years younger than him. She’s currently thirteen, and he’s sixteen.  My friend had some bitter feelings about Jim, so obviously she had some words to say that aren’t exactly going to squeeze past the Bobba filter any time soon.  She was mostly going off about the age difference, which included the words “cradle robber” and “pedophile” multiple times. It got me thinking a lot, and being the romantic guru of my time [not] I decided to go on a quest to see why age gaps are so focused upon.

I’m hardly the person that should be commenting on other peoples’ relationships…  So I won’t.  My question is: When does the age gap for ‘accepted’ couples get bigger?  It’s not as if we step into some magical portal of maturity when we get older.  I’m sure you all have asked this question before.  When is it acceptable for us to date people at all, really? I’ve seen 8 year olds on Facebook changing their relationship status day in and day out. I can’t even change it once in a year, let alone a day. [I personally think that’s because I’m more of a romantically challenged loser, but whatever.]  People skip the whole ‘Eww cooties!’ phase of their lives and jump right into the complicated and skeptical world of relationships.  Online dating even seems to speed up the process more than it used to.  You don’t have to go out on a date with someone anymore, all you have to do is pull up a webcam feed.

I can’t even think of a reason why age should matter in relationships. It’s not mine, so honestly I don’t care.  I just want to know what other people are thinking about this. I know I’m not the only one in this sea of confusion… Or at least I hope I’m not.  Anyway, if you have any opinion on this subject at all [And I know you do, otherwise why on Earth are you reading this?] leave a comment and tell me. I’m sure you all have some riveting and juicy stories to share.

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