I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about dating and how high or low in age we would go. I previously reported that I seem to be a reverse ageist and that my dating window seems to have become very small. When I was younger I would've dated someone in their 40's without giving it a second thought but now that seems like too big of a difference for me. I don't want anymore kids but I guess part of me thinks it would be nice to still have the option in case I change my mind. Even 38 seems like a bit of a stretch for me but I'm keeping an open mind on how old I would actually date. My mom is barely into her 50's and for some reason that's what I think of when I think about dating someone in their 40's and that never bothered me before. (There's less than a ten year age difference between my mom and the mother of my child.) I wonder if that has something to do with a kid being involved now?
On the low end of the spectrum is, well, ageist me. I've dated two people in my entire life who were younger than me, both only by about two years, and it did not go well. In one of those I was definitely the bad guy but some of the issues were about inexperience. But I have to say that dating someone younger does not really appeal to me at all. And I'm not sure why since, in theory, it is just a number. I guess I would go as young as 27 but interestingly I seem to attract women who are college age (think 20 to 24) but I absolutely could not date anyone that young. I mean, that's about the same age as my teenager (whom I'm still gonna call my teenager even though she's 20) and that seems so...wrong now. It's like I look at girls that age and see my charge and it's an instant turn-off (although it would be kinda funny to bring home a 21-year-old girlfriend one day just to see the fit my teenager would have). Something I also hadn't thought of until recently was that people in that 20-24 age bracket don't tend to really have a grasp on who they are as people yet. That could be a problem in the long run, there's that whole thing of what you want in your 20's isn't necessarily what you want in your 30's and so on. In the end though you can't control who you fall in love with so all my rambling may not matter.
