To think a friendship with such a large age gap at this age is odd

[User700800]

My 16 year old god daughter has recently started a part time job in retail. She's become friends with a young woman who works there who's 22 and they are now spending a lot of time together. I myself have friends quite a bit younger or older than me. I just think at this age the difference is surely too great?

I do not think it odd , providing her friend is the sensible kind your DD is probable better off been friends with her rather than someone the same age or younger than her as her friend will be able to offer advice about her work / career , any intimate issues ( she may be embarrassed to talk to you about some things ) and hopefully stir her away from alcohol / drugs etc .

It's not that much of an age gap at all they are only 6 years apart! They are probably are into the same sort of things such as TV, music and clothes also honestly a lot people at 22 are still very immature, living at their parents and haven't had to enter the 'real world' yet so apart from her friend is out of education and has more freedom to go out they are probably somewhat in the same stage of life.

Nope. You sound kind of rigid.

Think nothing of it OP. When I was 19 I made friends with another woman at work who was in her mid 30's. We are still good friends 30+ years later

l'm very good friends with my ex's daughter. She's now 19 but we've been really close since l met her when she was 14. She's been on holiday with a colleague who is 30. She's very mature for her age, but l think friendships are about personalities, not numbers
l don't find it odd at all. l have a wonderful friend who is in her late 20s. We get on brilliantly and she sends me cards "to someone who is like a mother to me". l'm 60 this year. She's like the daughter l never had.

I had older friends as a mid-teen. We had the same hobby. It was absolutely above board. I'm the youngest in my family by some way so I've often had older friends. Plus, some 20-somethings are incredibly immature very young-at-heart. I've even named it "Being a bit of a twat in your 20s' syndrome ie not really properly adult. I was definitely in that category

I am 34. My youngest friend is 17, my oldest is 95. I don't see the big deal with age gap friendships tbh.

When I was 16 some of my best friends were 5,6,7 years older. One was 12 years older than me. It was great when we went out because they’d always look after me. I was quite mature for my age so the age gap wasn’t really an issue.
Now I’m 42, my best friends at work are both in their sixties, and I also have a good (pen)friend who is 30 years older. If people get on, age isn’t really an issue (though a 10 y/o and a 20 year old being friends might be a bit odd).

Ultimately your issue is probably because you still see your daughter as a child, whereas a 22 year old has been that age fairly recently and can remember what it’s like so relates to her on a peer to peer level. What is it exactly that makes you uncomfortable?

Your goddaughter won’t be the same 16 year old at work as the 16 year old child you know.

I work in the same place as the 17yo daughter of a friend - the grumpy teen that I know who moans about her younger siblings and chores is a very different person from the mature and hard working girl I see at work.

At 16 I had friends at my part time job who were 24/25. Maybe I (and your goddaughter) were/are more mature than you at that age.

-At 16 i'd never had a kiss- at 22 I was married with a flat

At 16 I was just starting sixth form and had a boyfriend. At 22 I was at uni and had the same boyfriend. Of course I matured in that time, but I wasn’t so immature at 16 that I had nothing in common with a 22 year old.

In my early 30s now and two of my closest friends in recent years (one sadly deceased) were in their 50s/60s

Age ain’t nothing but a number

Not weird at all. When I started working as a teen I met loads of colleagues older than me who I became dead friendly with. When I was 18 I was incredibly close to my boss who was aged 32. My parents used to make insinuations all the time that it was weird or somehow inappropriate and it drove me mad because they were just nice, normal people I had met through work and enjoyed hanging out with.

Obviously be alert to any issues just as you would with any friendship, but don't overly worry. It isn't a huge gap and it's normal for coworkers to become friends.

Can't see any problem

I wouldn't have been too interested in being friends with a 16 year old when I was 22. Big difference in maturity between someone at school and someone finishing uni - but that's me.

I had friends in their early twenties when I was that age.

Half my friends are 6-8yrs older than me. I made a lot of these friendships at 16 so not odd at all. Just because you didn’t have age gap friends at that age doesn’t mean that the age gap for a friendship is odd

I can't think of a single reason for this being strange. It's normal to be friends with colleagues, especially if you're roughly the same age (which they are).

Nah! When I was 16 I hung out with all the students from my weekend job. They looked after me and I got a preview of university!

I have quite a few friends who are young enough to be my daughters. I think they like sounding off to me when I don’t have an agenda, and can give sound advice (so they tell me). I love them dearly, and we make each other laugh, but really nothing odd about it! ( it it do not want to go out clubbing with them!)

I thinks it’s odd that you think it’s odd!

When I was 25 and worked in retail I was really friendly with a 16yo schoolgirl who worked there part-time. Nothing odd about it and I have always been a reliable (boring) type.

Sorry, bizarre internet issues today

It’s not weird.

Retail work in particular has a lovely way of having wide age groups working alongside each other at the same sort of level in a way that other industries simply do not. It is possibly the only bit I like about retail sometimes. You can learn a lot from spending time with people outside your own age bracket, both older and younger.

I’m 29, my oldest friend is 78,my youngest 20.