I highly recommend setting arbitrary numerical restrictions on height and weight and shoe size while you're at it. If you're gonna do it, might as well do it right....

I would also be looking for maturity and life experiences. If the lady has neither then regardless of age I would not go with the lady.

It was a joke doll...but i do fancy the younger man...well I have an older one I fancy right now... but on the norm... I go younger

I understand your point, and I agree that there are exceptions to all generalities about age. Some 30 year olds are supremely immature while some 18 year olds really have their heads on straight. But I've found that generally, those are anomalies. And it's easier to simply exclude certain groups which are predominantly out of my dating preferences than to play "guess and check" with every 18 year old. Age is a convenient way to do that. That's just me, though.

the strart with half your age then add 8 is for gentlemen,for women its start with 2 million$$ then take half

We have the formula for the youngest I should date what about the oldest.

Good advice, Looking. Where I work I have been guessed to be 20 years younger. I thought it was funny when some thought they were older than me. The reactions of friends can be interesting. It was like with some, "God, you really are that old?" A resident I was working with the other day told me that I have grey hair and she laughed about it.

i was never guessed 20 years younger...although i was once guessed to be 16 years younger. i will always have a soft spot for her too! the only really important number is desired sexual frequency though...

Just like the young women try to say to the older men.. Age doesn't matter.. I guess that holds true when you are the younger of the two...

What is the age you feel comfortable with???

I totally agree with that! Unless you're looking for someone to have children with... that might make sense... but still, that's pushing it

i say age is only a number ya feel me if you look good and you got a good personality then i say go for it...you never knw what you may be missin out on...

I guess I'm also looking for a lady to have a decent conversation with. My future lady and I will have to be friends first before anything else.

First: fortsmithman - Do not, I repeat DO NOT go by some dumb formula for determining an appropriate age. That is just dumb. The person is the important thing, not some number arrived at through some arbitrary formula.

Second: This really says something about our society: What's the first thing that pops into so many people's minds when considering a prospective partners age? Their family. If the partner is older - their parents (I wouldn't date my dad) or their children (It'd be like dating my daughter). What kind of an incestuous society are we? When considering a partner, why the hell would you think about about them in terms of your family? Sheesh.

I don't think it has anything to do with incestuous tendencies. I think that our parents are simply our best example of a typical person 20-30 years older than us. Although I agree that individual people don't conform to a template (ie not all 40 year olds are of the same maturity level), generally there are differences between age groups. We use our parents as the most relevant focal point to discern those differences.

I asked this question a few months back, because I never understood the correlation with dating someone the age of one's parent or one's child....what does that relative have to do with the person in question?

But I constantly see, "Well, I would go so young but not 22 because I have a son who's 22." Or "I wouldn't date anyone as old as my dad." Why not? Nobody is actually saying DATE your kid or your parent (we have several states set aside for that sort of thing), but how does it impact on someone who just happens to be that same age?

I never see anybody say "I wouldn't date anyone who was the same height as my mom" or "who has the same eye color as my daughter." It's like age is some sort of weird, sacred, magical thing that you better not mess with.

Maybe it's just because I never had kids. Now I'm glad I never did, since it seems to somehow limit your prospects....?

I still maintain that family members of a particular age group provide us with the best touchstone for comparing our preferences with the preferences of that other age group. Precise? No. A good starting point? I would say so.

16 is legal in most states. I like to keep my options open

You and I think alike on this one, Lex.

I have kids but their ages (all legal) have nothing to do with prospective partners. My parents are both deceased so I guess I can't date dead people either.