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I met my partner when he was 49 years old and I had just turned There is a year age gap between us. When we met, we both knew that it was the start of something good, it was what every fairytale and sappy romantic movie promised. We met at a bar on the Gold Coast and were instantly drawn to each other.
I was attracted to his smile at first and his deep blue eyes like mirrors of the ocean. He had these tiny wrinkles around his eyes from a lifetime of laughter years a big goofy grin. He had a laugh that was intoxicating and had the power to make other people laugh, too.
As we began talking, I realised he was an intelligent and wildly charming man who had lived a full life of travel, marriage and kids. He had my curiosity. Our relationship turned serious quickly after that initial meeting and within six months https://telegram-web.online/interracial-dating-for-free.php were living together. I was reluctant to tell people his real age, especially my parents because I knew that it would be a shock.
In fact, I was reluctant to even share the relationship with anyone at all because of what they might think. I thought that I was doing something wrong, because dating someone who is 24 years older than you is not normal and is often not accepted in society.
That comment was the hardest to years because there was an element of truth behind it. He had been married for 21 years and had two daughters who were both in their 20s. His daughters were distant from me and critical of our relationship. When we first met, I could feel the judgement and heard the older whispers with him in the next room. His kids were around my age so we had mutual interests that he could not relate to. In our relationship, there is an element of misunderstanding because just click for source the generational gap.
Memes, gifs, Instagram, Snapchat and Tik Tok are all meaningless jargon to him but my friends and I all use it and joke about what we have seen. They had every right to be here, a part of me knew I should be concerned with him getting older and not being able to take care of dating, but I also knew I loved him and would happily take care of him. Another part of me did want to get married and have kids.
But a huge part of me never wanted children and had never valued marriage. But the seed of doubt was planted, and doubt is a very powerful emotion.
'I married a man 24 years older than me. I'm sick of the judgement from others.'
We became engaged when he was 50 years old and I was I was deflated, to say the least, and the excitement to show my close family and friends my beautiful engagement ring deflated with it. The excitement to share my proposal story on a mountain top was gone. And then I watch their faces change to apologise as they realise my partner is nearly 50 and they might have offended me.
I was self-conscious and let those opinions trickle into our relationship.
I had my answer, that part of his life was over and I needed to ask myself what I wanted before I got married. I never had true concerns when entering this dating relationship until other people voiced their opinion. I recognised this and knew I needed to stop letting these opinions transform what I wanted in our relationship. Post continues below. But we do worry, we worry a lot about what other people think.
It leads to negative thoughts and loneliness. I stopped obsessing over what people thought of my relationship and the age gap associated with it. When the big day arrived and I walked down the aisle dressed in white, I knew that this was what I wanted, a future with this man regardless of the challenges ahead with age and opinions. And I knew in my heart that he wanted that with me, too. Our day was filled with love and laughter and our hearts were so full.
We decided to have something small and intimate with close family and friends because he had already experienced the large-scale celebration of marriage.
I respected this entirely and knew that at the end of the day I just wanted to be his wife. There is nothing wrong with dating somebody older than older, but there is the judgement from others, including friends and family that you have to endure.
Funnily enough, the roles are reversed on his side, with friends high-fiving him older dating a younger girl and with that comes a set of its own biases. In some ways, we are at different stages in our lives, but only externally and on a material level.
He is working full time, owns a house, has savings behind him and travelled the world, possessing knowledge and life experience I do not have. He has even had the privilege of being a husband and father before me. The author of this story is known to Mamamia but has chosen to remain anonymous for privacy reasons.
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Leave a comment. Video via Mamamia. Listen Now. Dating had experienced an entire life, been married and had years when I was all but an infant. Feature image: Getty. Tags: age-gap dating features marriage. Top Comments J. Happily married to man 20 years older than me and just a couple years younger than papa. Travel around the world due to his business. Child arrived when Daddy was So blessed. What if he wanted children??
Would you change your mind about wishing not to have kids of your own?? Very Peri. True Crime. Before The Bump. Parent Opinion.