Decent age gap for dating and marriage

Gettyimages.com/Diverse friends enjoy a party

I recently had a realization: all of my good friends are in relationships with men that are five to seven years older than they are. All of them. And I’m not talking about couples who are just casually dating or only a year in. All of my good friends are either married, or have been with their partners for at least three years—many of them seven years. They live together. They have pets together. They are basically members of one another’s families. Things are going well. I’ve also seen these friends through their previous relationships—they tended to choose partners that were only one or two years older than them before, and the occasional adventurous friend would date a man 12 to 15 years older than her. None of those relationships stuck. Could it have been the age gap? Here’s my theory: why five to seven years is the ideal age gap for couples.

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Men can take on a caretaker role

Men like to feel like protectors of their female partners—it’s just how they’re biologically built. When they’re five to seven years older than us, they can feel that way. It’s the perfect age range that lets them feel a little more experienced in life and capable of taking care of us.