How I Met Your Father — 13 Years Age Difference Works For Us

How I Met Your Father — 13 Years Age Difference Works For Us is a part of a series celebrating love and marriage by telling the stories of some of our Nashville Moms Blog contributors and how they met their partners. Enjoy more of these sweet stories here!

When I was 13 years old, if you’d told me that I would end up marrying someone who was twice my age, I would have looked at you like you were crazy. However, 9 years later, that’s exactly what I did. (Well, he was twice my age when I was thirteen!) My husband is 13 years older than I am, and our age difference is (usually) pretty perfect.

Some would say that I have an old soul. Growing up, I never understood the ridiculous things the kids my own age thought were funny, and I would always choose to hang out with adults rather than my peers. I’ve always just felt more comfortable with people who were older than I am, so I honestly wasn’t all that surprised when I realized my husband was the one I was going to marry.

My sweet husband spent a few years married to his career and looking for his future missus before I came along. Fresh out of high school and obsessed with MySpace, Facebook, and texting, I was the last person with whom he would have considered having a relationship. Then we were put on the same planning board for the church camp we both grew up attending, and that’s how it all began…

I don’t know what I thought a grown up relationship would be like, but it certainly wasn’t the way ours was. We were best friends—with me convincing him to get a smartphone, Facebook, and giving him date ideas for other girls, and him listening to me complain about college, guys, and parents. Then we started having serious conversations—about our hopes, dreams, and what we wanted out of life.

I couldn’t believe it. He took me seriously. I wasn’t some teenage girl full of silly ideas to him. He respected me, and our relationship wasn’t one-sided. It was wonderful. Eventually, he stopped dating other girls. I stopped talking to other guys. (That’s what my generation does. We “talk” and “hang out” with people. Dating is so out now. Ha!) And then one night, I said, “You know, if you asked me out, I’d probably say yes.” So we started dating, and I was amazed. Dating him was just as easy as being his friend was. There was no drama. No fights. Nothing bad. We eventually got engaged, then married, and now we have our precious son.

We don’t have a perfect relationship—I don’t know anyone who does. And, honestly? I don’t know who would want one. We’re very opposite when it comes to a lot of things—particularly our personalities. He’s very extroverted, and I’m super intorverted. He likes numbers and logistics, and I like reading and craft projects. 99% of the time, we don’t even notice the 13 year gap between us. That other 1% when we do is most often when we’re talking about movies and television shows. Those conversations usually go like this:

Him: “Oh, that’s a great movie!”
Me: “Never heard of it.”
Him: “You’re kidding!”
Me: “No… When did it come out?”
Him: “Umm… (insert pretty much any year between 1980 and 2000).”
Me: “Well, I was about 4 then, so—no, I’ve never seen it.”

Then we laugh, and I usually end up watching some lame 80’s movie that isn’t nearly as cool as it was when it came out. And that’s that.

Sometimes it goes the other way around—I share my experiences with the The Magic School Bus and the (totally awesome) 90’s shows, like Boy Meets World and The Nanny.

We may have 13 years between us, but the age difference works for us. I couldn’t imagine my life with anyone else, and I’m so glad we both gave each other a chance.