16 year old darts player and his 21 year old girlfriend.

[Witchcraftandhokum]

I'm no darts fan but I've seen loads about this new player Luke Littler who is 16 and is doing very well. His girlfriend is 21, am I the only one who rinks this is inappropriate? (Despite the fact that he looks about 38).

Ah yes, the good old days of two generations ago where the average life expectancy of a man was in his 50s and people were forced to work early as their was fuck all welfare state and compulsory education only extended to the age of 14. There is a reason why 16 year olds can't vote, drink, take out financial products, smoke or hold a driving license is that they are not deemed mature enough to make informed decisions. Read the forums here where parents are in a twist and asking advice because their teen daughter or son has made a series of epically stupid decisions against their best interests. Being surrounded by adults at a young age does not actually make you at adult. I do not believe that 25 year olds should be infantalised either but I strongly disagree that a 16 year old is in a good place to embark on a relationship with someone five years older then them and I would be extremely suspicious of said 21 year olds motivations if they try to start a relationship with a recently famous and just come in to money teen.

Just putting it out there that Princess Diana left with no qualifications whatsoever....

As did Richard Branson and Simon Cowell.

I was 16 when I met my now husband (he was 21). We’ve been married for 32 years and have two grown up sons. I don’t feel as though it was weird at all.

@TheCadoganArms and yet he has been deemed mature enough to compete against people considerably older than him at championship level. Do you have any idea the level of maturity it takes to put that much time and effort into something? Considerably more than a great many 21 year olds have. So why are you only questioning the age of the girl he is dating, and not why someone of his age is expected to have the maturity to compete at this level?
I repeat, this particular individual will have far more in common with a 21 year old than he will have with any of his peers. Why aren't you a lot more concerned as to how that situation has arisen in the first place in a sport which has very little history of people his age competing, and there is absolutely no urgency for him to be competing at this level before, according to you, he is mature enough to make much in the way of decisions about his own life at all?
Interestingly enough, he is very nearly old enough to be trained to serve in the army and, indeed, drive a car. With his money, he could be in charge of several tonnes of metal that travels at high speed in a matter of months, but he still isn't mature enough for a relationship with someone who, in terms of actual lived experience really isn't likely to be much older than him, unless she, too has been competing in a high pressure environment from a very young age.

You are just looking at two numbers, not the individuals involved.

I think it’s fine but then again when I met my DH I was 17 and he was 24

I do think it’s on the cusp of being odd though .. if she was any older or he wasn’t turning 17 soon I might question it

@Utterbunkum Great post

‘Just putting it out there that Princess Diana left with no qualifications whatsoever....’

thick as mince, born rich, married richer, divorced from a miserable marriage. I’m not sure she’s the inspirational role model you think she is.

He's 16 - and they've been going out for 6 weeks.
He is now going to be worth a lot of money.

That's going to make for some interesting changes in the relationship - 6 weeks is not a long time in any relationship.

21 sounds crazy but 21 year olds are incredibly childish IMO.

She had a very good vocabulary for someone “Thick as mince”

Interesting now about the snobbery re qualifications.

Lots of people dont have qualifications, or dont want to take them. It doesnt mean they're thick, they might go on later and get those qualifications at a different stage in their life

It also doesnt mean they cant work, some people will never achieve a particular level of GCSE

I think the ever increasing forcing of young people to study for longer and the emphasis on university (and college in some cases) has not done the population any favours. I feel that some young people are badly educated despite having all the qualifications against their names that they can get.

The world of work is a huge education in itself and like others I despair of this trend for the infantilisation of teenagers and young adults.

You do know that virtually every word she spoke publicly was written for her, don't you?

Ridiculous you make her sound like a programmed robot

What a horrible comment. She was most definitely not, "as thick as mince". She was educated. She was very emotionally intelligent and treated like absolute rubbish ny Charles.

No. Just pointing out that all of her public speeches would have been written by someone considerably more educated than she was.

Just because she never had a certificate of qualifications in her hand doesn’t mean she had no intelligence or that she never learned valuable things in her school years. Some people are awful at exams because their nerves take over.

I know some book-smart people with qualifications but it only takes a few conversations to realise they’re not really that smart.

Also different types of intelligence exist.

There is so much more to learning than school or university, we are literally learning new things about the world and life everyday of our lives. Knowledge no school ever teaches us because it’s not on the curriculum.

Such a snobby take on education on here sometimes.

I'll say one thing about Diana, regardless of being a 'Lady' and having no qualifications, she still went out to work and earned her own money before she married Charles.

‘She had a very good vocabulary for someone “Thick as mince”

Did she? I mean she had speech writers, personal secretaries, Pr people, personal dressers, personal designers, official photographers but sure, great vocab I’m sure.

My point is,
perhaps someone born with a silver spoon in her mouth - in a stately home - and with a title with no qualifications of any kind - unless you count horse riding and ski-ing- isn’t the one to point to as being ‘successful’ despite managing to flunk out of some of the best private schools without passing exams.
It’s hardly a plucky striver story, is it?
still she looked good in a hat. And that seemed to be enough for a lot of people.

I get the joke.

Still, I stand by it, just thinking of the burned out, abused, or dead child stars who also had a great career, tons of money, and seemingly great relationships.

I can't help feeling protective of people his age, it's a vulnerable time when so much can go wrong.

@RobertaFirmino Earned her own pocket money don’t you mean? Her old Flat on Old Brompton Road sold recently for £2.5m. She helped out at a private nursery where you didn’t need child care qualifications and connections paved the way. She just wanted a nice life with friends in London. Her big mistake was saying “yes” to Charles. She didn’t need intelligence in terms of exams because if really didn’t matter for girls like her.

Will you both please go start another thread about Princess Diana and stop detailing this one?