Online dating has a new and prevalent phenomenon: men dating older women. Why not?  No one notices when a women dates an older man, and so it seems another veil has been lifted from the proverbial ambiguity of aging in relationships.

A lot of men find women intriguing, so why not women that are older than them? These women are also becoming less intimidated to publicly admit that they find younger men fascinating. What a relief.

There are, however, some men that feel threatened by this new trend of dating older women. In fact this new momentum has birthed a somewhat derogatory term for these women, namely a "cougar."  Typically that's the vernacular term attributed to women who date younger men because there is some association with the woman being a predator. On the other hand, older men who date younger women are called sugar daddies.

It's interesting to note that the "younger man" has a less complimentary moniker when it comes to the older women they date.  They are called boy toys. 

Younger men describe their experience of older women as being: they are less flighty, more sophisticated and they understand men better than a younger woman. Typically these men feel that their conversations with older women are more substantive.  Clearly they are looking for something different in a relationship than someone to cook, clean and bare their children.

Men also say that older women have enough time and wisdom to shed annoying bad habits such as nagging, or being nosy, they are not as overtly jealous and are generally more in touch with what pleases men in a relationship (read more sex).

On the minus side, men feel older women do tend to carry more baggage in the form of previous relationships, children and family ties. For some men, dating older women precludes starting a family and the older woman has already been there and done that. 

Some of these older women may just be looking for a fling, resulting in the hapless man feeling that he's been used. Other men may complain that their older women are going through menopause and they both have to deal with the respective symptoms such as mood swings and hot flashes. Not feeling healthy can throw a wrench in any relationship.

Women also find that dating younger men is a two-sided coin. While younger men are often more exciting and adventurous, women say this too can get old. A good example of this situation might be the celebrity couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. She may be old enough to be his mother and he's young enough to be a sibling to her kids. How long is being married to another kid going to remain fun? It points out one of the clear dilemmas in this new dating phenomenon.

Women also point out that too many of these younger men seem to be looking for a free lunch, or a mother figure, and mostly that is a turn-off. Women with high-paying careers often find that younger men have financial expectations that have nothing to do with romance. They also say that one of the down sides of dating younger men is that they lack maturity which often shows up in the dichotomy between what she and he find humorous. Younger men, dating older women, are also more prone to barely disguised whining as well as childish behavior.

The trend so far appears to be that both men and women eventually conclude that there are certain advantages and definitely disadvantages to the disparity in age. It's the same for any relationship. Couples of the same age have problems of their own ... the dynamics are just different.