Okay, so, believe it or not, I feel myself somewhat of an expert on this particular topic. Hard to believe, I know. But wait. It gets good. :)
My wife is six to seven years older than I am. For most of the years, it's six. Her birthday happens to come before mine.
When we got married, I was 22, and she was 28, but her birthday was a little more than two weeks after that. Funny thing is, for the several months that we dated and were engaged, I never once asked her how old she was. She looked young, and I, at the time, looked a little older. If anyone wondered about our ages, no one said anything.
It wasn't until years later, after both of our sons were born with the oldest probably in middle school, that her brother was talking about how old she was during a trip we made to visit with them. He's kind of a prank-pulling, joking kind of a guy, so I didn't believe him at first. It wasn't until I asked my wife later that she confirmed it.
I thought, "Hunh." And then pretty much dropped it. It's been the subject of conversations many times since, but from the standpoint of we're both growing old or we're not getting any younger. If we retire at all, she would do it several years before me.
What's strange about this is, there were other girls that I was seeing more or less at the same time (a date here and there, or just hanging out). All four of them (that I can remember now), were older than she was. At the time, I didn't even think of it as an issue for me. While girls supposedly mature faster than boys, young women can hold onto a lot of bad habits well into their mid-to-upper 20s, one of them spending money like its water, or wanting to hang out with their friends, etc., like most males still want to do.
I didn't have to worry about that. What I did have to worry about was towing the line. She had some expectations that needed to be met. At the time, they were mine, too, so I did what I could with the lack of college education, training or job experience I had, got fired a few times, until I finally landed a steady job and went from there.
Over the years, interestingly enough, the age gap has crept into our lives a little more than it did earlier. I think at this point she feels much older than me. For most of our marriage, she looked younger than I did, despite being older. Now, she looks older than I do (though she's still got more energy than I'll ever have).
I'm not sure what middle aged men are doing around 20-30 something women (guessing that's the ages we're talking about), but I can't imagine it being much of anything good. I think the age range thing you have is a little too far afield, though. There are psychological, along with physical differences that tend to kick in at certain ages. It's better to be closer in age when they do. :)
Although I have never seen a picture of your wife I had the impression before that she was younger because you always talk about how compared to you she always had youthful energy.
That is pretty interesting to know that she is six years older than you but it didn't bother you. Interestingly enough since women tend to be more emotionally mature than guys they say its hard to be around someone of their own age because they tend to have different expectations and goals so they have fun with guys their own age but go for older guys for relationships.
I had some women say that to me when they meet me because they think I am responsible and know what I want to do with my life not knowing that I am a 16 year old kid who still watches cartoons and play video games lol. My professional persona is so different from my personal one hahhaha.
I think that's how most of us are. I think I'm probably still 35 mentally. I haven't really gotten past that point. I'm still wanting to do things that I discovered back then, and I'm still hoping to work on other projects, like writing and creating comic books, that I first wanted to do when I was in my mid-teens. So, mentally, I think I'm still young. Emotionally, I'm better than I was 17 years ago, and certainly much better than when I was younger. Physically, though, it hurts just to lay down. :)
Yeah, well, that's my wife. Youthful exuberance. Men tend to die sooner, though, so having an older wife is actually better. Maybe not six years so much, but better than being six years older and having the wife continue on for another ten after he passes on.
I really think the emotionally mature thing is just a front. Women can be just as immature. They just like to make you think they're not. And since men are men, they get intimidated by that. That's my take on it, at least. It's possible that women used to mature more than men and quicker, but I think women can and do as much to keep them from maturing as men, so whatever physiological advantage there might be during the teenage years, I think with each passing generation, the gap is made up quicker.