To be shocked that my good friend, 37, is seeing a 66 year old lady?

[darksideofthetoon]

Had a few beers with a good friend recently and got a bit tipsy and we got into his dating life. He told me that he’s been seeing a 66 year old grandmother. He is only 37 for reference. They met via online dating.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with this but I’m just a bit shocked to be honest. He says that they enjoy each other’s company and there is no intention of it developing into anything more.

My friend has always dated younger women and not short of female attention at all.

It’s all good right?

even if you were brought up in different eras, you can still connect via hobbies etc, even same age gap relationships does not auto mean compatibility etc

Sounds very old fashioned, extremely conservative, and anti-woman.

There is nothing unmasculine about a woman helping a man. Thinking otherwise sounds like manosphere Andrew Tate nonsense to me.

I'm 57 and seeing a 38 year old man. No one's business but ours.

Who cares? They are both consenting adults and life is short.

I think it's questionable if there's any kind of power imbalance and that can sometimes be subtle. Madonna's relationships for example might venture into power imbalance because of who she is. She embarrasses me generally though.
But if they're both just enjoying themselves, they should crack on.

I bet he did, she might find men her age can’t keep up and he might find women his age are planning for families- I imagine they are having as much unprotected sex as possible with no worries about unplanned pregnancies

Of course it's fine.

I knew, with it being MN, there'd be some people stating there was a power imbalance. That's such a go-to phrase on any kind of age gap chat. But he's 37. He's a fully formed, almost middle aged adult (some would say already middle aged). Some people are unable to look at any kind of relationship as a fun temporary thing, as though people should always be striving for long-term. It's always 'but what about when she's 85 and he's 55'. Well it's highly unlikely they'll still be together, isn't it? But it's okay to have short lived sexual relationships. They can be fun and fulfilling and enriching.

As I said, you do you.

I divorced my xh for such nonsense when I was as 24 and he was older than me.

No regrets.

Of course it's all good. He's a nearly middle aged, he knows what he's doing and so does she. All consenting.

Emma's only 7 years older than her husband isn't she?

I think they're referencing the film where Emma T plays a middle aged widow who engages the services of a hot young male sex worker.

How about relationships where the couple are equal. Both contribute equally or sometimes he contributes more, sometimes she contributes more. I'm guessing a lot of relationships are like that.

Ahhh thanks.

In which way do you see the power balancing? Interesting.

Not every relationship is about a power balance... The balance of power.

I've never actually had a relationship where that occurred to me.

And by the time you are 33 you'll have a wealth of life experience, divorce being one, that you didn't have in your early 20s or teens.