Age is just a number...

Today in psychology we had a cover teacher and as with every time your normal teacher is away, you do anything but the work you're supposed to do. The discussion this lesson led to talking about age gaps in a relationship and I thought I had a bit of experience on this topic so well here goes :P

When you're a teenager age gaps in a relationship are seen as such a big deal but as you get older and older the gap seems much smaller. Age gaps are actually more common than people think. I know a lot of my friends have been or are currently with someone who is more than a couple of years older than them. 

Now I met Rob when I was 16 and he was 22. As soon we went public I was questioned about it by a lot of people I know. A 5 and a bit year gap when I was just  16 was seen as a big deal and wrong in many people's eyes. But I honestly never thought anything of it and I'm pretty sure that Rob didn't either. I don't see Rob as someone who is much older than me, I see us as equal and he's the guy I love regardless of his age. Age isn't even a factor anymore. The only time I have ever really seen the age gap is when I was under 18 and couldn't get alcohol, go clubbing and watch '18' rated films at the cinema and he could, but now I'm over 18 I forget about the age gap as it is totally irrelevant. Yet although it doesn't bother me or Rob, I used to constantly find myself justifying our relationship to others and reassuring people, my parents especially. 

Age gaps are totally fine in the media and celebrity couples, so why not in 'real life'? Just look at these couples with major age gaps:

• Beyonce and Jay Z = 12 years
• Bradley Cooper and Suki Waterhouse = 17 years
• Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo = 10 years gap
• Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas = 25 years
• Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds = 11 years

I was wondering whether it was just me with this idea as there are a fair few people who think age gaps shouldn't happen so I got a couple of other people's suggestions on the topic:

"I think that age gaps should never be an issue. Each individual falls in love with someone for a reason. Just like people shouldn't be judged on gender preferences, they shouldn't be judged on age gaps" - Jess

"When you really love someone, age, distance, height and weight are just god damn numbers. Who cares if one is older than the other? God was like 100,000 years older than Mary when he got her knocked up" - Harriet (always known for her highly sensible thoughts :P

And of course I asked Rob on his thoughts on our age gap - "Age isn't really something that has concerned me about our relationship at all throughout the entire time that we have been going out. Our gap is about 5.5 years(?) but I wouldn't say that the difference makes me any maturer (is that even a word!!?), in fact half the time you are still maturerer than me (ok that one definitely isn't a word). I have been around people older than myself all my life, from a young age, so I suppose for me it has alwasy been the norm to ignore it as an issue. And of course, I fell in love with you and for that reason nothing else matters" - aww he's cute

So it looks as if I am not alone with my thoughts on age gaps, would love to hear everyone else's views on this or if you yourself have a relatively big age gap and if it's even given you problems.

xx