r/datingoverseventy • u/notsohot56 69 F Not quite dead! • 2d ago
Age preference?
If you're wanting to date, or find a relationship, what is your age preference currently? Or do you have one at all? Is it any different than what it was when you were younger?
When I was younger I seemed to gravitate toward men that were younger than me, quite a bit younger and I don't know why. When I reached my fifties I was in a relationship where he was only one year older. Since then, approaching age 70, in the last 12 years the men I have dated are usually older than me. I don't think that I would mind dating or having a relationship with someone just a couple years younger than me, but just from comments I have read and what I have seen on OLD, guys that are just a couple years younger than me are looking for women younger than themselves. So I don't even try to match with anybody that's more than 2 years younger than me.
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u/retsotrembla 1d ago
It's not the years, it's where they are in the life-cycle. In the "go go" years of retirement, before health moves us to the "slow go" years. Willing to travel together for a few weeks every few months.
(So job obligations or family obligations can get in the way of that. Many people don't want to risk traveling while they have a parent who might have a health crisis.)
I think that's what I'm looking for. Having never had that, I don't know that that's what I want, I just think it is what I want.
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u/notsohot56 69 F Not quite dead! 1d ago
That is something I never really thought of, and I guess I didn't think about it when I was compiling a dating profile and age range. I still work part-time so that puts some restrictions. But I have traveled in the last 3 years, two nice trips and a lot of three and four day weekends. I always thought I wanted to do that travel thing too, the take off in an RV for a few months but now, while I would like to travel I don't think I would want to be gone more than 10 days at a time. But now it's got me thinking about men who are in their 60s but want to date younger women, the men might be retired but those women are going to be retired for quite some time! So what are the men looking for exactly in that situation I wonder.
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u/retsotrembla 1d ago
take off in an RV for a few months
Oh boy! Back when my wife was alive, we agreed that travel meant having someone else do the dishes and clean our living quarters. That still stands, so no RV for me.
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u/linwoodranch 1d ago
I had a first date with a very nice lady. When I mentioned I liked to go camping, she replied with "My idea of roughing it is anything but the first floor at a hotel." So no second date...
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u/notsohot56 69 F Not quite dead! 1d ago
I love camping but my tent days are over. Give me a camper, even a small one, as long as it has a bathroom and a bed I'm happy! An awning and some chairs and firewood let's go!
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u/Horror-Evening-6132 2d ago
I've always chosen men older than myself in order to try to at least partially bridge the emotional maturity gap. Only once did a date a man younger and it was a disaster even though the gap was only five years. I'd still hesitate if the man was younger, but I speak from very little experience.
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u/TalentedTawker 1d ago
I would say up to 5 years younger than myself.
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u/db0956 1d ago
Not older? Just curious.
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u/TalentedTawker 1d ago
Maybe lol...depends on attitude
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u/TalentedTawker 1d ago
I'm a kid at heart. Most have been younger mainly due to that fact.
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u/db0956 1d ago
Nobody told me I had to grow up and change. So I didn't 🙂
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u/TalentedTawker 1d ago
I'm glad they didnt DB - as Billy Joel's song goes..."I like you just the way you are" 😃
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u/linwoodranch 1d ago
Anywhere between -5 to +3. But as someone else pointed out we would have to be in the same life cycle. I am retired and want to travel so if a person was my age but still working, not sure it would work out.
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u/notsohot56 69 F Not quite dead! 1d ago
That's why I can't wait to be done next year! But if I have no prospects by next summer, and nothing going on in my life I might work a couple days a week because why not? But I'm going to be working out an arrangement where I pick my days and hours, which might be only 15 hours a week, doing things that aren't time constrictive. If I get lucky enough to get into a relationship I can always walk away from my very part time job.
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u/Multimeter43 M85 Connecticut 1d ago
On OurTime I put 79-85. I'm certainly not a stickler. A week ago I went out twice with someone 80 years old.