Is Age Important in a Relationship

In our days it's so difficult to meet the right life partner. We all lead such busy lives, there seems to be little or no time for socialising, other than on the internet, and we have such high expectations. Because more people are moving away from home to find employment, hardly anybody marries the boy or girl next door any more.

Many people are making relationships through internet dating, or meeting active retired people who have more leisure time and the money to enjoy it. If you get on well with someone from a different generation, can you really be happy together? Perhaps my experience can help you decide.

My first husband was almost the same age as me. Although the marriage lasted twenty years, it was mostly unhappy. My husband was obsessively jealous, not good with money and lied all the time. I had to work at two jobs as well as looking after the children to try to make ends meet, although he had an excellent job. The marriage only lasted so long because I feared divorce would upset the children, but in the end it was inevitable.

My second husband I met as a friend when his marriage was breaking up after more than 30 years. We helped each other through our breakups and gradually fell in love. He is 18 years older than me, so has a lot more life experience. He is also financially secure, and has never, to my knowledge, told me or anyone else a lie. He is a complete gentleman who says all he wants to do is make me happy. He also says loving me has made him years younger, and I think this is true, because he is 75 now, but people who meet him for the first time don't believe it.

He likes to spend money as well, but there is a fundamental difference between the two men. If my first husband had 100 in his pocket and a bill for 50, he'd spend the 100 then tell me I had to ask for overtime as we had a bill to pay. If Tony was in the same situation, he'd pay the bill then take me out for a meal or a trip with the rest. Before I married, I had a boyfriend who was 15 years older than me, and I asked my mother if it could go anywhere given the age difference. my mother, who was 10 years younger than my father, offered this advice: 'Better to be an older man's darling than a young man's slave.' I have been both, and I know which I prefer.

We've been together 20 years now, and we are still very happy. Age doesn't matter if you're happy and your partner respects you, and as you grow older together, the age difference seems even less important. The only downside is that, in the normal run of things, I could end up spending a lonely old age as my husband is so much older. Then again, my first husband died of a heart attack on his 57th birthday, probably brought on by the stress of his lifestyle. Don't pass up on a potential life partner just because of the date on their birth certificate.