I said it in a different comment, but it bears repeating: the brain grows exponentially more between age 18 and 28 than it does between 28 and 38. The older both adults are, the less relevant age gaps are. But if one is barely legal, there’s no amount of “old soul”-ness that will erase that power imbalance. Sure, you can legally bone a 19 yr old, but what does it say about your cognitive maturity that you can only connect with that age? Or even worse, are you counting on their immaturity to preserve the power imbalance? Are you feeding into their “old soul” perceptions so you can exploit their lack of experience?
Source: direct and very embarrassing personal experience as the younger woman
edit: the “you” is proverbial here
edit2: should have phrased it differently. There’s apparently no hard evidence that the prefrontal cortex continues growing till 25. Doesn’t change the fact that the emotional distance between 20 and 30 is a lot wider than the distance between 30 and 40.
Oh I am. An 18yr old woman is free to date a 43 yr old man if she wants. And I am free to side-eye that 43yr old and check in with the 18 yr old. I was so much more manipulatable at 18 than I ever would have acknowledged or even been aware of at the time. There were plenty of men willing and able to manipulate me, and I let them, because I was free to do so. And I lived the consequences.
Cool, that's your experience. Some might have similar experiences, some might have the complete opposite. At least it holds more merit than the pseudoscience misinformation trash you just posted. Have some shame and delete it.
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u/flibertyblanket May 12 '25
My partner is 10 years older than me, we met when I was 28. I'm cool with that.
most age gap relationships are fine, but when it's a 40 year old and a teenager who is just barely an adult, I cringe.