When then 40-year old Demi Moore stepped out with 25-year old Ashton Kutcher as her boyfriend in 2003, she made headlines. Could an older woman date a younger man? What about remarry to one, which she did two years later in 2005?
Remarrying to someone who is much older or younger is as shocking in culture for average Americans as it is for movie stars. Sheila Goodwin, a therapist in Bellingham, Wa., said the generation gap can be a problem. "I think generally, just the fact that if there are many generations between you and your spouse, one: there's a lack of commonality and experience," she said. "You refer to things that your partner doesn't understand. That's part of the experience problem. You don't share things together."
Goodwin said things like pop culture references to historical and political events will slide by the younger person. "For example, one person might bring up The Beatles, and the other person might not understand, because they didn't live through that," she said.
"What happens is when you have people who are at different developmental states in their lives. They have different needs," said Michael Semon, a therapist in Birmingham, Ala.
Another problem is children. A younger wife might want to have children, while someone getting remarried might not like the idea. "You have to decide if you're going to introduce your children or have children together. One person might have already gone through that," said Goodwin.
"If he's older, his level of parental adequacy can be limited, because he's maybe raised his own children, or he is invested in other areas of his life, because he's with friends, or his rigidness to participate in raising children who are much younger," Semon said.
People might also fight problems sexually. "People might have different sexual appetites and power struggles. That's problems with age experience, again," Goodwin said.
"Finances is another area," said Semon. "Men who are older may have established themselves financially, so that's going to present some challenges to working out differences between who takes responsibility of the checkbook, who pays the bills. Those are always issues of power in a relationship."
AOL.com's personal section paneled six Baby Boomers to hear their thoughts about dating younger men or women. Dr. Judsen Colbreth, a member of the panel, said there is a biological reason why someone would prefer to date a younger man or women instead of an older person.
