Does age really matter in relationships?
Does age really matter in a relationship, or is age more of a factor when it comes to love and compatibility? The history of relationships reveals that age matters little in establishing male and female liaisons. Older men have long been romantically linked to younger women, and in some cultures, that tradition holds true to this day. But the topic of age has become more prominent over the past few years, with the biggest twist being that older women are now openly dating younger men, and younger men are becoming more attracted to the wiser and more established older woman.
Dirty Old Men and Gold diggers have existed since the accumulation of wealth created the perception of power for men, and a life potentially free from financial need for women. Now, many of those same women, after years of involvement with men who could not or did not satisfy them emotionally, have taken matters into their own hands. Armed with an equal level of power and social status, either attained or self made, older women now establish relationships on their terms with little regard for age.
Based on these current trends, age does not matter when it comes to two consenting adults making a conscious decision to be together, regardless of the reasons why. Even in relationships where both individuals have motives other than love, their presence in each other's lives serves whatever purposes that they've attached to them.
But age does matter in a relationship to some degree. Not the physical age which is counted in years and has little relevance to whether two people can be happy, but the emotional age, which either widens or lessens the gap in long term compatibility. Emotional age is a much better determinate of whether two individuals separated by years, have enough in common to enjoy each other, explore each other, and grow with each other.
Everyone has an idea of what they want in the person with whom they share a relationship, but the reality is that people often settle for far less than what they had in mind. Relationship decisions are now made as much for convenience and security, as they are for love and a fairy tale ending. With more than 50% of marriages in the United States ending in divorce anyway, are people so wrong in making the decision to enter into relationships based on satisfying personal wants and needs?
The bottom line is that if two people like each other enough to enter into a relationship, regardless of any age differences, then few outside interferences will deter their decision. And the reality is that they have every right to do so, despite their reasons.
Who knows, they may just fall in love and live happily ever after.
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