From Grey

[The People]

I am one of the front-runners of The People. I am 17. A guy we met has been asking us out. Elders are being careful and have already told him we don't date. But I am 17. Elders say they are old enough to be his mother. They are. I am not. I don't want to get us into trouble. But it is nice to be admired. Honestly, we are not attracted to him. We just like the fact that somebody likes us. Confusing. T warns us to be careful. I am nervous.

[mosaic]

it's hard when your age and the body age are not the same. it is also nice to be admired. and it is important to be careful too. we don't have any good suggestions except to be careful.

[The People]

Elders canceled. They don't trust me. Or him. Ah well. He was kinda boring anyway.

[Collectively US]

Trust always seems to be an issue for us...it is hard to be of different ages and the body is older or younger. There is always a piece of us that wpuld love to be thought of in a kind way, it is that since of beloging, that sense of connection that we long for. When ever we meet new people we hope that they will like us and want to get to know us, it feels great when we feel like we make a connection, as teens we want to to have friends and so on...it just hard sometimes because we are uniquely different then most. Caution is always key. I am sorry that ypur Elders dont trust you maybe you could have a meeting of the minds and talk things through, and maybe time is what is needed. I hope your well.

[The People]

Thanks Collectively Us. There is a history behind our decision. Grey has lead us down a dark alley more than once. And he is young enough to be our son. We just aren't interested in having him as a friend. And there is a strong indication that he wants to be more than friends.

[nats]

sounds like the sensible choice was made, even if not necessarily the fun one! hope you can find someone better.

[The People]

Nats we have always just wanted friends. Sure, in our twenties when everybody was hooking up and getting engaged we dated a loser but that was the same year one of us (long before T let alone DID awareness) that we would never get married. It just came out.

[Collectively US]

Yup I have to agree on that it is better to just walk away from it or make it very clear that it could never happen. I think I may have misread a bit of it.

[nats]

makes sense

[Cammy]

I too have a disparity between my physical age (62) and my host age (19 to 25 years). This leaves me vulnerable when younger males approach us online to become penpals or more. I have developed a personal protocol to handle these types of situations and simply adhere to it. My personal protocol is extreme caution with a polite but firm "no thank you". Yes, some young men are attracted to older women, but the reasons can be either psychopathological or the motivation of possible monetary gain or identity theft. There are so many predators out there that are ready to pounce on what they perceive as longely desperate women. However, this is not 100% the case. Caution is always a good attitude to adopt in order to avoid being hurt, disappointed, or traumatized. I've found that developing a personal protocol and adhering to it eliminates my emotional reaction from the equation. The internal age disparity has made it necessary for me to deal with the world in this fashion. For me, it definitely works - I'm certainly not saying that it would work for others. There is also certainly nothing wrong with having younger friends - my younger friends are aware of my DID and thoroughly enjoy spending time with my younger alters. The true bottomline is trusting my instincts, which are pretty well honed. But, when in doubt, my protocol prevails.

[The People]

He stopped texting thank goodness.