There's nothing wrong with 8yrs age difference, however the OP's mum would've been a minor when they started dating, therefore if they were doing anything sexual it would've been illegal. There's a big if on this FML, and that was it. In your scenario you'd have always been an adult (I don't know anywhere with an older than 18 age of consent, but correct me if I'm wrong).

Just looking at the Wiki article on it, the highest age of consent law is 20, and the lowest is 9. Some places have no law, and some require that the people are married. The most sensible ones I think are where there's an age proximity clause, so experimenting kids don't wind up on a child sex offender's register like they can in some places, but they still protect kids from an abusive, coercive relationship.

I stand corrected. I think I heard that in Japan there is no age of consent... Or was it thirteen there and no age somewhere else... I'm not sure. But I hadn't heard of one over eighteen. *tootles off to read Wiki* I do kind of agree with the age proximity ones, however I do think there is an age that kids shouldn't be experimenting under... Though I guess it depends what they're counting as 'experimenting'.

I think generally the proximity ones come close to overlapping with the age of criminal responsibility ones, so below a point you can't be held responsible anyway. Oh, and by "experimenting" I was just being euphemistic. As with all of these laws, the acts are quite specifically defined. Coming from a country where the age of consent is 16, and being in one where it's 14, the idea of a couple of 17.9999 year-olds going on a sex offenders' register for life for having sex freaks me out.

271 - Whoa, calm down there!

LOL i accidentally replied to the wrong post so i deleted my comment.

omg, my mom is on here moderating my comments. FML.

That's certainly an unusual position to take on the issue, but you've obviously thought it through, so I have to respect that, even though I don't agree with most of it. As it's not the most common point of view, I'm curious as to what your background is i.e., is this something where you've come to your own conclusions independently, or is it based on a specific moral or religious philosophy?

well first off, what part don't you agree with? true love? do you not think people should be free to love someone regardless if they may appear to be visually or physically undesirable, or are in a different age group? or do you think people who can't support themselves financially, legally, and emotionally/intellectually should get married? what about having your parent's blessing? how can that possibly be bad?(i meant to put blessing instead of permission). or do you believe people should just go ahead and have premarital sex, thus ensuring any marriage they may be involved in will fail, leaving themselves, their partner, and their children with broken hearts? i am a Bible believing Christian, but even if i weren't it would still be my philosophy. this is all just common sense. if people would think with their heads(their big heads, not their little ones) many of society's problems would be almost non-existent. crime would be much lower because children would grow up with both parents and thus be much less prone to juvenile delinquency. dating is practice for divorce; date, get bored/heart broken, break up. date, get bored/heart broken, break up. date, get bored/heart broken, break up. date, fall in love, get married, get bored/heart broken, divorce. but now you have children, in-laws, and lawyers in the mix, and i don't care who tells you otherwise, this is a bad combination. you find out it's not so easy as dating and breaking up. but you find you've already learned the pattern, and it's not easy to break, so you date, fall in love, get married, get bored/heart broken, divorce...

I disagree with the point about age of consent laws being bullshit. I think they're too high in a lot of places, and that 18 is unrealistic, but I think there needs to be a fundamental level of protection from exploitation. The rest of your young/old/ugly etc, I have no problem with. While I think that the idea of 'true love' in the context you're talking about is sweet, and something that should be admired, I think it somewhat removes free will from the equation in that it implies a decision made by the person at one point would hold true forever. It's not at all impossible, but if it was the standard to which everybody was held to, they would almost all fall short. In my experience, it is the exception, not the norm. Parent's blessing I have a lot less of an issue with than permission. Fair enough with the clarification. The stance on pre-marital sex I disagree with profoundly - I don't think it's a bad thing at all. I agree that multiple relationships could possibly start bad habits, but again - in my experience - that's not the case. Thanks for the clarifications. I wasn't having a go at you or your beliefs, I was just genuinely curious about the framework for them. Also note that I'm not at all trying to change your mind on them, but rather learn something myself about a different point of view.