Age difference - Problems?

[Arazia 0]

I'm six years older than my husband, but we get along fine because we basically grew up on the same things. Occassionally we have some slight problems, mostly to deal with him still going to school. My family is fine with it, his family... well they just didn't like the fact that he didn't finish his schooling at home first. Oh, and they think I'm fat.

[Cheryl & Medo 3]

My husband is 20 years younger then me. And there have been no problems. It use to bother me but not any more. He likes that I’m wiser then younger girls, and he thinks that "younger girls his age are not serious about making a good life together" He says I have a young heart and I dont look my age

[GOLDEN.247 0]

I'm 9 months older. It hasn't been a problem.

[CarlaM 0]

he is 6 years older. The only problem we have sometimes is that i like going to clubs and he hates them, that is it. At the end he always goes with me

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

He's just under 2 years older than me, but with the way I act it seems more like 22 years sometimes...

[maya62 7]

In keeping with HRH Yodrak's valid point about putting the age difference in context:

I am 44 and my husband is 36. This is the half of the year when we are 8 years apart... it is really 7.5 years. It has been no problem at all since I got over the initial adjustment period, which also included the fact that he is shorter and thinner than I am .

I was concerned about an immigration problem, since in Nepal the prevailing culture is Hindu, and marriage to an older woman is more unusual in that culture. But he's not Hindu, he's Buddhist... a member of one of the indigenous groups in Nepal (who probably came over the Himalayas from Tibet). In my search to learn more about his culture after we first met, I found a book by an anthropologist from Cornell about - can you believe it? - marriage customs of his people. I read it out of that strong curiousity that comes when you are first falling in love, not knowing how useful it might be later on. Turns out, it is common in his culture for men to marry older women. Divorce is also much more common than in the prevailing Hindu culture in Nepal (this is a second marriage for both of us). So as I learned more about the immigration process and put together our petition package the following year, I decided to write a one page essay addressing our age difference, using references from that book.

I have no idea if the essay helped, but I don't think it hurt. We had very smooth sailing and the age difference was not brought up at any point. It has not been a problem since, either.

Cheers!

Maya

[Zee Bee 61]

He is 2 years and just short of 5 months older than me...no problems (even though his biological clock is ticking faster than mine )

[Jasman0717 9]

I am a lot older than Claudeth and we have had no problems what so ever!

[MHandMB 0]

He's 9 years older. No problems at all, but I've always dated older guys, so it's what I prefer.

[Ladylethal 12]

I am 3 and half years older and we only remember this fact when it's one of our b-days. Our families don't ever remember that fact either.

[bora bora 1]

I'm 19 months older than my husband - not a big difference or a big deal.

[Silke 1]

my husband is 4 years older than me...no problem at all

[~krakatoa~ 27]

3 year-gap for us, husband is older, no problems at all..

[~*Maria*~ 1]

I'm 5 years older than Dane, got more experience in the world so i tend to wear the pants in our marriage LOL but i know he likes it coz of the way he *smirks* at me No problems with his family neither coz we all get on like a house on fire..."One big happy family"

Edited July 6, 2007 by MariaDane

[one...two...tree 2,762]

TomTom,

Nicely framed poll, but I do wish that when people talk about age difference they would include the context of absolute age.

A 20 (or more) year age difference looks a lot different when the older person is 55 than if the older person is 30.

A 20 (or more) year age difference looks a lot different again when the older person is 55 than if the older person is 80.

Yodrak

Luckily, I am only 3 1/2 months older than my fiancee. But I'm curious if the age difference is a problem for other couples. I know, as long as you love your partner nobody should care about the age But we all know that's not always the case...

Well said.

...I'm 11 years older than my wife. Except for the occasional joke from her about me being an old man, there are no problems...yet.

Edited July 7, 2007 by Steven_and_Jinky