She's Too Young For You Bro: Things To Consider When Dating Someone Older/Younger

By Francine Fluetsch on October 23, 2014

image via fou2013.blogfa.com

Age is just a number right? The older you get, the less age matters, but for the late high school-college crowd, age can definitely make or break a relationship.

This isn’t to discourage you from dating someone older/younger than yourself, these are just a few things to keep in mind.

High schoolers:

If your significant other is still in high school when you go off to college, you need to realize that you will be experiencing a whole new world, while they are still in the familiar.

This may cause problems since they aren’t going to understand why you can’t come home every weekend since you want to hang out with your new friends or attend some parties to make some of those said friends.

Especially if they aren’t good with change, they will want things to be as familiar as possible, while you want to experience college. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t stay with your significant other if they are still in high school, it’s just to suggest that this type of situation can be hard if you don’t have open communication.

You still want to go home and see them, but you also want the full college experience, so they will have to accept that. They will also have to realize that college work is much harder than high school, so you might have less time on your hands to call 24/7.

Even within the first year of college, a lot of people mature drastically, so you’ll want to make sure that your high schooler is also pretty mature.

Maturity:

Speaking of maturity levels, this is one of the main reasons people do date someone older than them. This isn’t to say that younger people can’t be mature, but you can be certain that you will find a more mature group of people when you start looking in the juniors and seniors in college and even up to the grad students.

They’ve had their partying days, and while they still enjoy it, they are buckling down and focusing on school so they can get their degrees and get out.

If you are younger and having a hard time finding someone on your maturity level, older is probably the way to go.

Here’s what BuzzFeed has to say about dating someone older.

Drinking age:

This is a big one for a lot of couples. If you are 21 or over and are dating someone younger, you have to ask yourself if the fact that they can’t get into the bars and clubs you want to go to is going to be a big pain or not. For people that are more social drinkers, it’s probably not a big deal.

If, on the other hand, your favorite thing to do on a Friday night is go to a bar and get wasted, you probably don’t want to date someone younger.

If you are going to date someone that can’t legally drink, make sure to not make them feel bad about it. If you’re always like “aww man I wish we could go there, but you’re too young” it will constantly make them feel bad about themselves that they are holding you back.

Sure, you can still go to the bar once in a while with your buddies, but make sure that your S.O. doesn’t feel left out and you still make plenty of time for them with things they can actually go to.

Stages in life:

There is also the matter of what age means for our age group.

Sure you wouldn’t think a 19 year old and a 24 year old are that far apart, but the 19 year old is still probably a sophomore, and therefore is still getting into the swing of college and wants to have a good time, whereas the 24 year old is done/close to being done with school and may be at that point where they are ready to move in with their S.O. and do grown-upy things like that.

This of course will vary from person to person. I mean, I know some people in the 25 age range who are way more immature than some of my friends who are 18, but you’ll have to be the judge of what the person you are dating might want.

People will talk:

You shouldn’t care what people think, but it may be important to mention since you will have to deal with it. If you are dating a freshman in college and you are a grad student, chances are you may get some crap from your friends and family, or definitely some jokes thrown your way about how you like them young or something like that.

If you really like the person, then definitely don’t let this discourage you, just know that remarks will be said. You’ll just have to find some good comebacks and not let it get to you.

As with all these points, it’s going to vary from person to person. It will get better the older the two of you get, because once you are out of the college stages and starting your life, age really will be just a number.

Until then, you will have some obstacles, but if it’s worth it, go for it!

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