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?

I dated a 26 yo when I was 19. (Not the man I eventually married) I mentioned it to dd at 19 and she was horrified and couldn't understand what my parents were thinking!

My DS has very boyish looks at nearly 23. He could pass for 17 so I'm not sure on the relevance

Hmm at 19 I had my own place a full time job etc. can't see what my love life would have to do with my parents. My partner was 11 months older and he turned out to be a right idiot. Might've been better off with someone more grown up

I don't think it's weird because I had a fling with a 26 year old when I was 19 and he was particularly gorgeous, so...

However he did dump me for a 23 year old because I was too young!

We were all students so at the same life stage.

I also had a fling with a 28 year old when I was 22 and my now DH is similarly older than me!

But mores have changed and I understand from MN (and my son) that people tend to stay within 2 years these days, at least as youngsters.

I don't think my parents knew but there was a big age gap between them so they couldn't really have said anything.

Not at all weird. It's 7 years. Some couples have 20 years between them. Why do you want to keep the sexes anonymous? Is it relevant if they're same sex?

Do you think it would be disgusting if they were 20 and 27? Is it because one is a teen that you see it this way, or simple the 7 year age gap.

My daughter has this age gap with her boyfriend (he's older). I don't even think about it - they're very happy.

I don’t understand the relevance. Dd briefly went out with a 19 yo, who does boxing. Visually he could easily pass for 25. That doesn’t make him 25, nor does that make your ds 17.

Not weird in the slightest!

If that's the fellow attempting the moustache - someone should tell the poor lad it doesn't make him look older...

I had this exact gap with my husband. Met when I was 19, first year at uni. He worked in a student bar and was 26.
I’m now 43 and he’s 50. We have together ever since, been married for 19 of those years and have 3 children together. I was probably very mature at 19 as I think lots of women are in comparison to men of the same age. I can’t imagine a relationship with a 19 year old guy I met at the same time would have been as ‘successful’; or indeed if I had met my now husband when he were 19 (imagining we were the same age for a moment) that he would have been ready for the same long term commitment that we embarked on. In short I think it depends on the people, personalities and circumstances; you can’t judge on the numbers alone.

FFS is that all you had to come up with in reply?

That's not what I said. I know paths can cross at that age but if a 25 year old at our rugby club or cricket club or at my son's work started dating him while he's 18 I'd think there's something off with it. When my stepdaughter was the same age I'd also have thought the same. The initial question of "is a 26 year old dating a 19 year old weird?" had a gut reaction of yes, that feels gross and odd to me. When I was 19, if my friends of the same age had a 26 year old boyfriend I'd have been suspicious of him and wonder why he didn't go for someone his own age. In my 40s it's completely different as that gap gets smaller in terms of life experience, maturity, intelligence, all sorts but when one is a teenager it does feel weird to me yes.