PS: You mentioned feeling guilty for not letting him go. Well, he's got free will and, if he wanted to leave, he could. So ........... Why feel guilty?

It's funny, I never really felt guilty before, or "not worthy".

I always heard that the formula for figuring out where the low end of the age dating threshhold is

1/2 your age + 7 years = lowest age of someone you should date

if you are 40 years old than the youngest you sould theoreticly go is 27 so wicked you are within the safe target age

as for you memory acording to this theory all that is left to figure out is wether he is robbing the cradle or if you are robbing the grave ;)

Don't feel guilty, he doesn't have to be with you if he doesn't want to.

My parents have an age gap, what's more my step dad chose an older woman with three children!

Age is irrelevant if youre in love. And if youre both in love there is no reason to feel guilt. My ex b/f is 16 years older than me. A new man I'm seeing it 14 years older. I've always loved older men. I like some young guys too. Just depends on the person. When I go out to dinner at a nice restaurant I can tell some people wonder about the dynamic. Especially if we are doing alot of looking in each others eyes and thinking "I can't wait to get you home and devour you!!!" Now days it doesnt bother me at all. If someone actually has the balls to say something I have no problem telling them to go fuck themselves. When I was younger I had a few sugar daddies and sometimes it was awkward. Or when I used to be a male prostitute. It didnt bother me too much. Gotta keep your eye on the money. lol But it was awkward. Especially if an older guy wanted to take me out to the Castro for dinner. Being a ho on Polk Street was easy. But the Castro was like taking them home. I knew alot of people and often people would ask who the person was. Sometimes the guy would get uncomfortable because I knew so many people. I always felt totally comfortable ( okay not all the time ) telling friends if someone was a "John." lol The Johns sometimes didnt care. Other times they couldnt deal. And same with older women that would take me out to a public place. Usually they planned on being seen either by their husband or people that knew their husband. That was really scarey sometimes.

ANYWAY!!! What am I writing a book about my hustlin' daze? Don't worry about age. Just talk to him about how you feel and most likely he'll tell you he loves you even more now. I bet you will be telling us soon that you are engaged. It's what it sounds like to me. : ) Congratulations. Very cool.

my last boyfriend was 12 yrs younger than me (i met him when i was 40 he was 28) and i had similar feelings that you are having, wicked. it was some small things, like him not knowing a cultural reference that i was using (like something from a tv show i used to watch, or song or whatever it was). also some of the people he would hang out with from work were younger than him, so to hang out with his friends meant hanging with 23 - 26 yr olds. we had absolutely nothing in common, and to be honest the guys were pretty immature. so........it depends.
social situations can be tricky with big age gaps. if you can find common interests, friends, stuff like that then no problem. i have always dated younger guys, but for me, i've decided that 12 yrs is just too much younger. but thats me...you may find different for you.