Prefer to make friends with people your own age?

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SilverProteus
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10 Aug 2014, 7:48 pm

I personally, for as long as I can remember, tended to gravitate towards older people and prefer their friendship over people my own age or younger. If you could choose whichever friends you wanted, which would you naturally prefer? Is this a common trait?


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Suncatcher
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10 Aug 2014, 7:51 pm

I've always felt like a owl at highschool and my principles and mentality was beyond my age. People in their 40's are pretty much minding their own business and dont really care anymore about their own reputation so i could talk pretty well to them.



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10 Aug 2014, 7:53 pm

I have rarely if ever had friends but age wouldn't be a factor for me. To me, if I liked somebody it wouldn't matter if they were younger or older because it's what's in the heart that matters. I think I have read somewhere that people with autism find older people easier to befriend because they might be more mature than the ones their age.



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10 Aug 2014, 7:54 pm

I've never liked people my own age and have always attempted to make friends with people who are older. This applied at school and applies now. At school (~13) I would often only speak with people in the sixth form (~18) and at college I would generally just keep to myself.

Now I only have one friend who I speak with once or twice a month, and he's eight years older than I am. So yes, it may not be the same for all but I have found I do the same as you.



BirdInFlight
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10 Aug 2014, 7:56 pm

This has switched around for me. When I was a child, teenager and younger adult, I got on better with people older than myself. Then as I got toward my 30's, 40's and now 50's, I seem to get along better with younger people. When I was 40 I was dating a 26 year old, for example. I've always been younger-at-heart as an older adult, and related more to younger people and their tastes in music, etc.

But when I was a child -- hung out with grownups and felt MUCH more comfortable with adults than with other children my age.

.



B19
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10 Aug 2014, 8:22 pm

Younger. I am currently in a relationship with someone much younger too.



SilverProteus
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10 Aug 2014, 8:53 pm

Workster wrote:
...find older people easier to befriend because they might be more mature than the ones their age.


I think this is the case, at least with me.


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IncredibleFrog
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10 Aug 2014, 11:14 pm

I've always had friends of different ages than me, some older some younger. Some people find that weird, but I think it's weird to ignore the vast majority of the population just because of how long they have lived in relation to you.



skibum
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11 Aug 2014, 12:23 am

I always find that I gravitate towards people who are either much older like parent figures or much younger than I am chronologically. It is very rare that I have been able to relate to someone my own age.


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11 Aug 2014, 12:40 am

I had friends my own age and then in fourth grade I started to go for younger peers because we had things in common and they accepted me and played with me. By 6th grade, I didn't have friends of my own age but I did befriend a girl with Down's syndrome who was my age and then we lost our friendship. I moved and then we grew apart.

I don't have a preferred age group, it just depends on the person.


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EzraS
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11 Aug 2014, 1:10 am

On the teen forums I feel closest to either kids around my age with special needs. Like right now a really smart and funny kid my age with CP. and then also 17, 18, 19 year olds. And here feel comfortable with adults. In real life I shy away from most everyone. But have made a good friend with a boy a year older than me at a special needs day camp.



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11 Aug 2014, 1:16 am

i don't personally know any other people with ASD.
most of my friends are wither my age, or up to 3 years older than me. it has always been that way.


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little_blue_jay
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11 Aug 2014, 1:52 am

The few friends I do have are all much older than I am (as in minimum 15 years older) and male. Not sure why - just worked out that way I guess. Of course most NT women my age (37) are married with a family of their own, at least around my town, so they wouldn't be bothered to befriend a single Aspie woman. And I've always found guys easier to talk to.

Funny story - a few days ago I was walking home from the mall, and I was coming down my block when up ahead of me 3 or 4 of the neighbourhood little girls were playing & the eldest one spies me coming, turns around to whisper to her companions, and the whole bunch of them take one look at me & take off running in the opposite direction. Ok, I know I'm not exactly Catherine Zeta-Jones in the looks department, but am I that scary??! !


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progaspie
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11 Aug 2014, 1:53 am

skibum wrote:
I always find that I gravitate towards people who are either much older like parent figures or much younger than I am chronologically. It is very rare that I have been able to relate to someone my own age.

That's my situation as well.



JoelFan
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11 Aug 2014, 2:28 am

Older, I can recall many times teachers telling me you need to talk with your peers for some reason I felt more comfortable talking with people whom were older then me maybe it's because I feel they won't talk down towards me or because they wont mock me or will have more patients with me. I've tried communicating with NT kids my own age they saw me as different and the class I was put in when I was 12 or so was more severe that most of the students had some underlying MR issues and/or came from sheltered homes so there was nothing for me to talk about such as the then new Mortal Kombat game or what Al Bundy was doing on Married with children the night before likewise with them there was nothing they could relate to with me. So a long answer to a short question


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11 Aug 2014, 2:42 am

Can't say I have to many friends of any age anymore, the few I had I knew from school so they were my age.