A 17-year age gap doesn't seem promising...
This fall I've been enjoying casually playing the field. A 40-year old (41 in February); two 28-year olds (one 29 in January); a 27-year old; two 25-year old; a 24-year old (25 in January); a 22-year old; an 18-year old...
I only slept with two of these women, this is just the women I've had a date or few with since the summer...
Just strictly talking about what's too young, the age gap with the 18-year old was certainly too much (I'm 34). And I didn't think she was 18, I assumed 21. I'm not approaching any woman I know younger than 21...
I've always likened myself to Hov, he's 13 years older than Beyonce. So 21 is my cut off age right now...
But I'll be honest, the 22 and 24 year olds were pushing the limits of reason with me. The 22-year old is only about 65% fluent in English, and works at the kitchen of the fire hotel I stay at when I'm in Reno. And in my defense, she looks older than 22, she looks 26-27, because if I knew she was 22 I pretty sure I pass on her. When you talk to her you can tell she's young...
The 24-year old is on the borderline for sure. But weighing the entirety of our conversation, and we went out a lot, I'd probably lean by saying 24 is too young for me...
The 25-year olds are borderline too but probably too young if I had to go one way or the other...
So I would say for me, the recent few months have shown the line of demarcation to be around 26-27 if we're strictly talking mature enough for me...
So that's a 7-8 year gap and I can be comfortable with that. But dating in your 30s is different, I went out with four women 27+ in recent months and they all have red flags, there's obviously way more to consider than age. The 27-year old is just weird, she's likeable but maybe a little too awkward and she's white; one of the 28-year olds is married, and she's white; the other 28-year old is Latina, I'm more open to a relationship with them than a white woman, but she is a raging alcoholic and she's very, very free, multiple guys and girlfriends...
The 40-year old is black and I think we hit it off well----->then I get a text Thursday morning saying "please quit texting my wife", then like 10 calls over the next 3 or 4 hours until I answered...
So long story short, I think 17 years is too much, but you never know with older women either...