Dating Disasters·
THE AGE GAP MISSTEP
An 18-year-old tries to date a 44-year-old neighbor; after both rejections, the mother is informed, sparking uneasy power dynamics, snitching, and a tense next-door fallout.
Should she have told his mom or stayed out of it?
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An 18-year-old neighbor had just asked a 44-year-old woman out twice, and both times she said no, then she told his mother.
The first ask came the Wednesday after the son turned 18 the Sunday before last. The second came that Friday. Both times, the answer was blunt: "NO." The woman later said she was firm because she has a 23-year-old son of her own and would want to know if he were asking out a neighborhood mom.
So she told the boy's mother.
The neighbor, 41, reportedly took it well. "She appreciated me for telling her," the poster said. For a moment, that seemed to be the end of it.
It wasn't.
The next time she saw the son, he looked enraged after noticing her. That reaction came before the fuller picture spilled out in an edit: she'd lived next to the family for four years, his parents are married, he had graduated high school, and he was not in college. She also shared that she has a 16-year-old daughter and shares custody of her with her ex-husband, who is 51.
Then came the update, after she asked the mom how the talk with her son went.
The mother had confronted him about asking the neighbor out twice. According to the poster, he admitted he knew "he made a huge mistake when I said no the 2nd time." He said he only asked again because she was smiling and playing with her hair the first time.
The mom asked if an older woman had done anything horribly to him. He said no.
When she pressed him about what was wrong with him, "he's asking out a woman his mom's age", he shot back that he was just "a normal guy." Then came the complaint that he no longer liked the neighbor because she had "snitched" on him to his mom.
He also said he was going to move out and get an apartment because "everyone is treating him like a child" since he still lives with his parents.
The father, the mother said, thought the whole thing was hilarious.
The neighbor told the story without criticizing the mom's handling. She had expected the conversation to be gentler, but it wasn't. Even so, the two women still seem friendly. The mom still wants to stay friends, and the poster hasn't shut that down.
What happens long term is unclear. For now, the awkward part is sitting right there next door, and, as the poster put it, things may get less strange if the son actually moves out.