Does the Husband need to be Older than the Wife?

i have a friend in Ahmedabad who is ten years junior to his wife, they have two kids and are very happy together. She is a JD, MBA and he is high school drop out. They have been together ten years or more now. The families are ok with it.

In my (American) family I have several aunts who were about nine years older than their husbands. Interestingly all had the husband die first even with the age difference.

There is a school of thought that physically a woman is better matched to younger guy in the sexual dept as women peak sexually in their forties and if they have a 60 or 70 year old husband he is incapable of satisfying her. I have seen several cases where this happened and the wife had lovers and sometimes a divorce.

 

The scientific reason behind this is, women mature faster than men , when men are @ 30 and women @ 27 have same level of maturity, it is advisable that there is at least 2-3 (not more than 5)years of difference.

Say for example man is 25 and lady is 27, he is still acting like 23 year old going for party, outing n with his his friends, not mature enough to handle a relationship, where as wife expecting him to head of family feels dejected all these can happen.

However this is a generic case there ae exceptions, and this completely depends on individual, if both are compatible and find happiness in each other no qualms about it.

 

Age doesn't matter. Maturity level matters.

I second Shilpa. I guess the scientific reason must be 'women age faster than men'. My cousin brother got married last month. They waited for 10years since the love started in the school days. Now when I saw them in the wedding I was shocked - the girl looks like a grown up lady whereas my brother looks like a school boy. Here I feel looks also matter. In such marriages, girls should be very careful in maintaining the looks.

 

I second Mithy that age doesnt matter its mental level or maturity that does matter.

this is an age old tradition in Indian culture that husband is always senior in age than wife. sometimes the difference is as much as 20 years. there is a scientific reason for this. this started in ancient times.at that time the man kind was evolving and to increase the population people were producing more children which would result in more working hands for the family to survive.
Females have a very short productive period than males. So if a man marries a woman much younger than him then they can be productive for many years which means more children. So from there this custom started.
But now a days with so much of advancements and cultural changes it really doesnt matter who is the older husband or wife. They should be mature enough to sail through the marriage smoothly.

My 2 cents...

 

Mithy - Quick Qn. So what if she looks like a grown up women? Shouldn't the love which lasted for 10 yrs through stress and opposition be appreciated than the fact that the girl looks grown up and the boy looks younger - For me it wouldn't be a big deal and the girl need not be insecure and try to look younger just to stand by the man she loves.

 

No hard and fast rule. Maturity and compatibility will determine success of a marriage. Not whether it is Love Mg/Arranged Mg, DH older/DW older, looks etc.

 

Vidhkarthik,

When I said looks, I didn't mean looking like Aishwarya Rai. Being fit and healthy is important. Why use "Love" as an excuse?! I agree looks are not so important for being in love. But I feel it becomes an important criteria for same age couples. When the girl looks like a sister to the guy, won't the girl herself feel bad??