An acceptable age gap when dating depends on what works for you and a potential mate.
An appropriate age gap isn’t arbitrary.
That said, the wider the age gap, the greater the controversy.
For example, a 15- to 20-year age gap opens you up to criticism and judgment from family, friends, and people at large.
Are you capable of handling this?
A relationship in and of itself is already a lot of work; knowing whether you are capable of handling the controversy that accompanies a formidable age gap allows you to be prepared beforehand, which alleviates the pressure.
This isn’t to dissuade you from dating someone with a significant age gap.
It is simply to prepare you so that you make an informed choice.
What works for you in dating doesn’t have to be what works for others.
If you connect romantically with someone who is significantly older than you, pursuing a serious relationship should be up to what you two decide.
Since family, friends, and people at large are predisposed to be against relationships with huge age gaps, you have to block out the noise.
In the end, it is all about what makes you happy.
Everyone else’s opinion doesn’t matter.
It is all about what works for you, given that you are the one who will be in the relationship.
Since we are social creatures, we crave social acceptance.
This is where we end up doing things to please the crowd instead of ourselves.
In choosing not to date a man with a significant age gap due to outside pressure and rather choosing to date a man who is your age or much closer to it, there are no guarantees that you will be happy in that “age-appropriate” relationship.
Thinking about whether you made the right decision is likely a question that is going to plague you as you navigate through the “age-appropriate” relationship.
The question of whether you allowed the right one to get away, and this negatively affects the health and longevity of your relationship with the “age-appropriate” man.
Sadly, he isn’t necessarily doing anything wrong.
It’s just that there was someone else before he showed up that you felt a much stronger emotional connection to.
The guy with the much larger age gap.
The “age-appropriate” guy is now having to deal with the aftereffects of that, as you struggle to keep from comparing him to the much older guy.
This “age-appropriate” man can’t compete with a ghost.
Consider this before thinking that the “age-appropriate” man is the better choice.
Moreover, men who are significantly older bring with them a level of financial security that younger men don’t.
An ability to financially provide for a woman and her future offspring is a quality in men that women prioritize in a lifelong partner.
As long as you are adults and of legal age, the question of what age gap is acceptable when dating should depend on what works best for the two of you, not on what age gap family, friends, and society deem to be appropriate.