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The title of this article may be terrifying to young girls who are blissfully in love with men who are carefree 20-somethings—you swear the breath will be pulled from your lungs if he leaves you. But 1) you’d survive without him and B) sorry, but you’re probably in for a roller coaster ride if you try to get serious with a guy younger than thirty-something. Here’s why.

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They were in a relationship all throughout college

They went to college so excited to nab a cool, edgy, intellectual girlfriend (maybe that’s even you!) that they got locked down with said girl and became her (for lack of a better word) b***h for four years. Their friends convinced them to break it off at the end of college, and now they feel like bustin’ loose for a few years.

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Or they were never in a relationship because they wanted to have fun in college

Then, of course, you also have the guys who went to college wanting to sleep with anything and everything. And they did. They conquered that world. They were the guys everyone wanted on campus. They felt like celebrities.

 

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And now real world women are “too serious”

They’re having a hard time adjusting to the fact that women at the bar don’t care what their nickname was at the frat house. Real women freak them out so, of course, they just deem them “too serious” or “crazy.”

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But women their age are dating older, wealthier guys

When they think they have enough to start asking women out, they realize that women their age are dating guys in their mid to late thirties rolling in dough, and they can’t possibly compete with such high-income brackets just yet.

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They need to figure out what they want to do

Maybe they come back out of their shell to date, but then they realize one very important thing: they have no idea what they actually want to do in life. It turns out their sterile 9-to-5 job won’t make them happy forever. And that’s terrifying.

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They progress a little

So they get a starter job at their dream company, but they feel insecure about being a paid intern or assistant. They don’t want a girlfriend to see them in this state. They’d rather be higher up in their career before seriously dating.

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Then there’s the whole rebellion thing

So they start seriously dating and JUST when they really start to like someone, their 28-year-old friend gets married. Now they’re annoyed and feel like any woman they date will want to get married. So they emphasize, with everyone they meet, that they’re “not ready to be serious,” which sounds douchey and pushes women away.

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They don’t care that their parents pressure them

They get especially annoyed by the fact that their parents are saying, “Your friends are married, so why aren’t you?” So to rebel even more, they start dating 19-year-olds or 50-year-old divorcees. They basically date anyone who is not marriage material just to piss off their parents and escape reality.

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Eventually, they realize that they’re not that important

Reality check: many men go through this crisis. Their life is not a sitcom or a Judd Apatow film. All eyes are not really on them as they thought. So they can start making decisions based on what makes them happy and not based on living up to (or not living up to) other people’s ideas.