1 tip/advice that you would personally give!

hey there,

i'd like to request this from the experienced people out there. and by experienced, i mean those that are in a long term/successful older woman/younger man relationship.

what advice would you give to a guy who is just starting out in an OWYM relationship? what pitfalls to look out for? how should you treat your partner? what should you do? what should you not do?

things that matters to a relationship.

The most important thing.

any advice that you could take straight right out from your personal experience would be great.

thanks

Easy. The one piece of advice I would give to ALL couples in a new - and healthy - age gap relationship is this:

Love and accept each other right where you're at. No exceptions

Older women: don't expect your younger man to be more mature or to learn life's lessons any faster than you did when you were his age. That's just not a fair expectation. There are going to be times when you really do need to just bite your tongue and let him figure things out even though you already know the answer. And don't forget that he won't always get it right the first (or second or third or... ) time.

Younger men: accept the fact that there are going to be times when your older woman is going to run circles around you with regard to certain topics. We don't think we're better or smarter... we've just been around longer - sometimes significantly longer! - and it's only natural that we're going to know quite a bit more about some things than you are.

Yeah, what she said, and respect. Because sometimes the answer the YM arrives at, will be totally different than you'd have done, and works as well, or even better. And you have to not say "humph, my way would've worked too"

And you should treat your partner, the way you'd treat anyone you loved and were in a relationship with. Age doesn't make a difference in how people want to be treated. Ask yourself sometimes, if he/she was my age, how would I respond to this.

And try to never, never, pull the age card. Just because you're older, and presumably more experienced, doesn't mean you know absolutely everything about everything, and just because you're younger, doesn't give you special privileges to act badly.