Maturity, Age & Relationships

I have only had three true girlfriends in my life. My first girlfriend was a year younger than me, and we were together for 7 years and married for 2 years. We had a lot of issues that we never truly resolved and planned ahead for, bringing an end to our marriage (and friendship). I dated a girl after my divorce that was roughly 12 years older than me, and that relationship lasted a week. After the physical attraction between us cooled down, we didn't have much else in common, likely due to not being able to relate as far as life experiences from our age gaps. I just recently celebrated my 11th Anniversary with my wife that I am with today, whom is close to 4 years younger than me. We dated about 6 months before getting married, and I gained a daughter from my wife that was almost 2 when we started dating. We had our first son when our daughter turned 3. Our third son arrived shortly after our firstborn son turned 3.

I can't say that age itself necessarily played a part in my second marriage/third relationship being successful vs my first failed marriage and the very short story that was my second relationship. However, now that I am the age that my second girlfriend was at the time we were together, I can not imagine being with someone 12 years younger than me. I was close to my first wife's age when we were together, but I was also immature and ignored a lot of red flags, thinking love would solve everything. My wife that I am happily married to is younger than me, but at times she is more mature than me. I think our relationship works because we both have been through tough times, and we had a better idea of what we were getting into as far as being in a relationship, and what kind of work would be involved in making it work. So age did impact things for me, but that is because I have been at different maturity levels throughout my relationships. If the maturity is there for both parties, age likely won't matter. Maturity combined with the age differed in my relationships, which led to my present marriage working, and my previous relationships not working. I hope I worded all of this right, thanks for reading!