to think 25 year olds shouldn't be hanging around with 18 year olds?

Where does it say she's "going out of her way to spend time with a group of eighteen year olds"?

They're just a group of people who all happen to play the same online game. Why is that a less organic way of meeting someone than if they'd met at choir practise or down the pub?

25 is no where near 30! She's half a decade off that still.

Lots of people I met at uni as an 18yo were 24-26. Was I supposed to not be friends with them because they're in their mid 20s?

Yes this OP. I agree, it's a bit off.
It's getting into the entire 'friendship group', rather than just being a 25 year old friend.
I don't think she means any harm. Maybe as they met through an online game she's a bit of a loner and finds it hard to make any other friends as there aren't many female gamers online.

I'd still find it odd though.

*for the record I am a gamer girl too...

Of course, if it happens organically. There was always a spread of ages from 20 somethings to 50 somethings on my works nights out. That does not mean it isn’t a bit strange for a 25 year old to go out of their way to spend time with a group of 18 year olds.

What's the upper age limit to be friends with an 18 year old without it being weird? Is there an age you get to when it's fine to be friends with anyone of any age or is there always a limit?
I don't think it's weird for an 18 year old to have older friends.

I do think it's weird for an adult in their mid 20s to chat to one person online and then attach themselves to a friendship group of 6th formers, pick them up from college and have sleepovers.

The way I see it is there have been several 18/19 year olds in clubs I've done and workplaces I've been at since my mid 20s. Would I socialise with them? Yes. Have I been friends with them? Yes. Would we do events linked to a shared hobby? Yes. Would I do work nights out with them? Yes.

BUT

• Would I have tagged along and inserted myself into their peer group of 6th formers? Not a chance.
• Would I have driven to their college and picked them up? No.
• Would I want to have a group of teenagers come round my house and chill? No.
• Would I have had sleepovers with a handful of teenagers? Absolutely not.

Weird then that this 25 year old only seems to hang out with 18 year olds.

Away with your logic and common sense

When I was 17 I had a lot of older friends through work, both male and female. They were the first group who took me clubbing. One of the other girls there was 15 and she would come too, she looked a lot older than her age so she never got asked for ID. It was great, never felt weird although it probably would be now.

Surley mixing with more mature people is a part of how you move through life stages and mature yourself.

You keep saying it seems a bit strange but none of the girls in the friendship group seem to think so. The only person it seems strange to isn't actually a part of the group. That seems a bit strange. Why are you so invested in their business?

OP says they met through a shared hobby.

I remember a thread a few years ago from a woman who was frothing because one of her DDs hall mates was a man of about 28.

She didn’t think halls should be mixed sex, never mind mixed age, and couldn’t understand that the poor bloke would probably be begging to be moved, rather than peering through keyholes trying to perv on female students 😂

These young people have met through a common hobby, same as if it was cycling, or chess.

When I was in my early twenties I had close friends in their early thirties, who I met at work. It never seemed to be a problem.

Sometimes it's more about developmental stages than years if that makes sense

I think it's odd. I was a teacher at that age. She could've been my pupil. Unless there's a really reasonable explanation, say they met at parkrun or a boardgame cafe night and have a shared hobby, it's odd.

Mine wouldn't be.

When I was 18/19 I had plenty of friends in their mid-twenties - of both sexes. It was totally normal for us all to go out drinking and to stay round someone's house at the end of the night - normally with the people who were older and lived alone as it meant not disturbing parents or having to stick to a curfew.

I find it such a shame that so many people limit their friendship circles based on random rules they seem to have made up in their heads.

But that’s the difference. You are married and a mother. You will be in a very different life stage to someone who is 27 but still living at home and a student who has taken time out to travel in her gap year.

DS is 19 and has work friends of all ages inc his boss who is in his 40s. They get on extremely well.

They're all adults. Non issue.

I don’t think I would be overly comfortable with this

a group who are still at school why would an adult want to be friends with them

if your dd had met her through a hobby I would get this but it’s an adult hanging around the group this group it’s odd

At university one of my friends was ten years older than me, I'm 52 and we were still in touch until she died last year.

I met one of my best friends when she was 20 and I was 32, we speak several times a week and are going on holiday together next week, with another friend who's eight years older than me.

Nothing weird in any of these friendships.

I work at a University and students of all ages hang around together so to me it's not odd. 18 year olds will often be in Halls and classes with more mature students.

Come on OP you said closer to 30

I always had older friends as a teen.

If the daugher had a friend who was the same age, but was married with a child she is at a completely different life stage to the daughter

I cant imagine much worse than hanging around with people in the same " life stage" now. I'm trying to build something that resembles a life outside of mundane family stuff . I dont want to go back to hanging round with people based on our shared parental and employment statuses.sounds dull as hell.