How did you meet your older/younger partner?

I had broken up with a really crappy guy a few months earlier, and another guy was after me (and three other women). I happened to run into a friend and we were discussing how ugly relationships can be. Suddenly, I said “I like a guy (fill in the blanks)” and he said “Oh! Kinda like me!” And I realized, yeah, kinda like him. So, one thing, another, and my sister pointed out how young he was. I hadn’t reall thought of that particular. So what? You care about people for the things they CAN help about themselves, and he could not help how old he was.

My first younger partner (10yrs) and I met at a dance club. He spent two months trying to convince me to go out with him. We lived together near 4 years.

My second younger partner (12yrs) and I met at a dance club. We hit it off immediately, moved in together within a few months and lived together near 4 years.

My third younger partner is 9 years my junior and we met at work, been together a year and a half and hope to spend the rest of our lives together.

You often don’t know people’s ages when you meet on websites that are devoted to something other than dating or sex.

I met a guy that I dated that was 13 years younger while helping a co-worker move. He was a friend of the co-worker and was helping with the move also. Unknown to me, the co-worker had wanted us to meet and thought this was a good way to bring us together without being obvious. We dated about 6 months and we are still friends.

My husband and I have a 9.5 year age difference. We met through common friends (who, incidentally, are younger than either of us).

The biggest age difference I’ve had in a romantic relationship was about 18 years (he was older than me, and born the year after my mother). We met at a Pagan festival – he just came up and introduced himself, apparently liking the sight of me somehow. I wouldn’t have kept him as a permanent, exclusive relationship, it was more of a “in the right place at the right time” sort of thing. We met annually at this festival for a few years after that.

I’m outside your request by a year, but we met at a meeting of a social club we both belong to. He was 24 when we met, and I was 32 with a 12 year old son. We have been married 36 years and have a second son together, and 6 grandchildren.

She was in the high school class I taught after my retirement.

Work

Thanks for your responses. I’m asking this question because I’m a childless male and I’m over 40. If I date women my age, I’ll have to give up on having kids of my own, and I’m not yet ready to do that.

@submariner: Lots of women over 40 birth healthy children, you shouldn’t let that be a deal breaker if you meet a fantastic women near your age.

@Neizvestnaya in principle, maybe, but in practice, it’s problematic. Among other things, most unattached women over 40 who can bear children already have kids and don’t want more.

You said you met your current partner at work. Were the initial overtures made there also? Did he make them or did you? @Leanne1986 same questions. That seems like it could be tricky. I wouldn’t want to be accused of sexual harassment.

@wundayatta good point. I probably shouldn’t have revealed my age here.

Whenever I talk about being unable to have kids, people tell me to adopt. While it’s not feasible for me, maybe it would be for you.

I was with a guy nine years younger than me for over five years. I was out dancing when we met. He was in a strange new country and inappropriately asked me to dance—he didn’t know better. It was funny and a definite conversation starter. We were brother/sister type friends for a long time before we realized we had fallen in love.

Incidentally, how do you “inappropriately” ask someone to dance? Were you already dancing with your partner?

@submariner My partner and I started off as really good friends and then I realised that my feelings went deeper than that. Eventually I plucked up the courage to tell him and he said the feeling was mutual. The rest, as they say, is history.

@laureth He was a foreigner. He asked if I would dance, I said no thank you. That should have been that. But he said “why not.” I responded that I didn’t slow dance with strangers. He said “Yes then we wait for fast.” Today it seems a bit cute, but at the time I just wanted him to go away. He didn’t and eventually I was glad for that. :)