My 32 year old friend just asked me how I would feel about him dating a 21 year old classmate. Keeping in mind that I’ve never met this person, I was honest with him and said that I think the age difference is too big. My opinion is that they are in two different chapters of their lives, not to mention there is a difference in maturity levels. Plus, I have a 20 year old sister and if she started dating someone 11 years old than her it would kind of weird me out. The conversation ended because he felt I wasn’t giving valid reasons for my opinion, which may be true, but I’m mostly going on a gut feeling here.

Part of me feels that if he thinks he needs to get my approval on this, then maybe he’s not really that comfortable with it in the first place. If he thinks it’s a good idea, then he would just do it and not try to get validation from others. Also, when a classmate asked him out last semester, he turned her down for the exact same reason— he felt like a 11 or 12 year age difference was too much and he would feel like a lech.

What’s your opinion on this?

Half your age* plus seven. It’s international fucking law.

He can date her in 2014.

*When doing the math, always use the person’s mental age, not their chronological age. A twenty-one year old with the mental age of a twenty-eight year old would have no problem dating a thirty-two year old. Similarly, two twenty-four year would find it tough to date each other if one of them is still mentally stuck in his or her teens.