To think 26 year old dating 19 year old is weird?

[ChicJoker]

I’ll leave sexes anonymous. I know both parties well, they have been dating for around 2 months. One is my sibling. I feel really really irked by it. It’s weird right?

Sounds like the main issue is you don’t like either of them 🤷‍♀️

Many 19 year olds will have left school three years ago its only on mumsnrt there is an assumption a 19 year must have gone to a sixth form in a school.

I don’t really know if times have changed other than we no longer seem to think 18/19/20 year olds are actual adults. Parents still treating them like children.

It falls outside the half your age plus 7 rule but at least it is only just outside. Once the 19 year old has turned 20 it will be ok.

Well if TikTok says so it must be true 🙄

Yes it’s weird. A 26 year old is an adult. A 19 year old is an adult in name only. What on earth could they possibly have in common? I would wonder what is wrong with the 26 year old tbh that they can’t find someone their own age. Are they very insecure?

I had a friend like this - dated an 18 year old when he was 26. Went to a bunch of 6th form parties and freshers events. Didn’t end well, unsurprisingly and it did rather make me think he was kind of a perv

There is no such fucking rule, it's completely made up.

It’s because they don’t live like adults. Usually still studying so being supported financially, generally live at home in their childhood bedroom. They aren’t children, but it’s a transitional age.

i feel it’s quite a big gap. Dh and I met when I was 22 and he was almost 26, but I’d finished uni and was starting work. 19 could be just out of school and 26 isn’t a ‘young adult’ any more.

Nothing illegal about it but there could be a maturity aspect about it. So I’d say it depends on the individuals concerned.

The what rule?

I had a 26 year old boyfriend when I was 18 and just finished A levels. I dumped him a few months after I left home to go to university.

Looking back, I do wonder a bit tbh.

26 year old me would not have been interested in a 19 year old guy.

19 year old me would've dated a 26 year old. Plus loads of my friends went for older guys. At 19 I was definitely not a child or treated as a child.

The girls of my era (yes I am pretty old!) loved an older boyfriend who usually came with a better car, loads of cash, bit of experience and generally treated you better. I was also driving and had cash of my own so very independent, but I met lots of guys in the office that bit older who are making me smile now thinking back at the memories!

Today you are treated as a child at 19.

YANBU, 26 and 19 is just vile. The 19 year old might legally be an adult, but realistically what life experience do most 19 year olds have? Barely any at 19. I cannot think of any good reason why any 26 year old would want to be in a relationship with a literal teenager.

One of my school mums I know is around 28 and went out with a 21 year old a while back. She drives, rents, has a child, works. She went out with a 21 year old man who still lived at home, didn't work, didn't drive....... and enjoyed being older than him and teaching him about life experiences ect 🤢....... they didn't last long.

I will always judge her for it and it's made me look again her a completely different way

Met mine when I was 19 and he was 26. We’ve been together 13 years and had our first child in 2024

ETA for the poster above me, I was at uni, had a job, drove and didn’t rely on him for anything. We have been each other’s biggest cheerleader through two degrees, ill health, bereavement and everything else life could throw at someone, just like any other normal couple would be.

If Tiktok said black was white and white waa black would you be telling people on chat forums that this is so?
Stop with the infantilisation of young people, they need to work out for themselves what they want/dont want.
No bloody wonder so many of them have mental health problems with the "grown ups" policing their every move!!
Just butt out FFS

If you've raised a man child then that's on you.

Maybe less time spent on tiktok would help.

At that age yes does seem strange I would agree. I would not have considered it myself.

but I’m the older one in my relationship by 8 years. Doesn’t seem strange at all this way around. Been together over 20 years.

Is that a rule you've just made up?

My daughter met her now husband on a dating site when she was 19 and he was 25. They have now been married 11 years, together for 12. Two children and are very happy.

Very judgmental. She’s 19, not 9!

I had a 24 year old boyfriend when I was 17… I look back now and think WTF. He was an adult, with an office job and I was in 6th form.

It’s a bit of an age gap but also not ikky, in fact one of my best friends is 7 years younger than her DH and they got together when she was 19/20 and have been married over 20 years now.
I wouldn’t get too worked up about it as long as the relationship is healthy

Tik Tok says................

There we are.

All rules are made up.

Any age gap over 3 years is predatory? That's absolutely mad. As if Tik Tok is the benchmark for any kind of morality.