Should You Date Older or Younger?

Single women know what their dating preferences are, especially when it comes to age. For each woman, it's different. Some prefer older men who seem more well-established and mature, while others prefer the energy and ambition of a younger man.

So, who's right when it comes to finding love? Should we all become cougars, searching for men who can help us hold on to our spontenaeity and youth? Or should we go for older guys, who have more experience and know how to better communicate (maybe because they've been through a divorce)?

The answer is, there's no right answer. First of all, the stereotypes don't ring true. A person's maturity level, willingness to commit, and ability to communicate are dependent on more than age. Someone who is thirty might be ready for a long-term relationship and unafraid to start a family with an older woman. Or he could be more set in his ways than someone twenty years older. On the other hand, a man in his fifties could have a youthful spirit and degree of spontaneity not found in someone half his age. He could also be unwilling to commit, preferring his bachelor status.

The point is, there's no way to tell what kind of person you will meet purely based on his age. Often, once you get to know him, his age is not as relevant as you might think. So if you are filtering out your online searches or telling your friends, "please don't set me up with anyone younger than 35 - or older than 40," you might want to rethink your strategy. There could be a lot of quality men you don't get to meet because you're filtering them out based on an arbitrary idea of who you think they are.

When I was online dating, I was scared to date any men much older or younger than me. I thought that they wouldn't be serious, or that they'd have too much baggage. As it turns out, I filtered out a man who would later become my husband - because of his age. (He was on the same online dating site that I was at that time.) The only reason we are together now is because I met him one night at a mutual friend's party, quite by accident.

We laughed about our online dating disconnect, but I realized a valuable lesson: I got a second chance to find him, but others in my situation might not be so lucky. So I encourage everyone who is dating: let go of the filters and see who you meet. They could surprise you.