I wonder if it's a male / female thing. I see a lot of posts on here from women who are noticing that they're becoming "invisible" as they age, and they're not just talking about getting the attention they're used to from their looks. They talk about being ignored in work for instance.
That doesn't happen to men, instead we generally become more respected, our opinions are given more weight as we age. An example, my and a colleague have both been doing the same job for around the same time. He's in his late 20s, I'm early 40s. We actually have pretty much exactly the same amount of relevant experience though due to me retraining from a completely different career. Top management are far more likely for my input though, simply because I'm older, I give off more of an aura of experience, even thought it's not true.
That sort of thing happens all the time. My words have weight that they didn't have 20 years ago, people respect me more. And that continues up until mid-70s, after which it starts going downhill again.
And that's before we get to all the ways in which I'm going to have more power in a relationship that are actually tangible. I'm likely to be richer than any younger partner, my career will be more stable, I'll likely own my home, I'll have a larger, more established group of friends. It all contributes to the younger partner being on the backfoot right from the very start of the relationship.
It's ickky, and thats before you get to the fact that at 42, I'm starting to struggle to tell the difference between an 18 year old and a 24 year old. By the time I'm in my 60's, I'd imagine anyone below their 30s is going to look like a kid to me. Why would I want to date that?