Do you think it's weird and/or predatory for a 13 year-old and a 30 year-old to be best friends if they're not family members or related by blood? Assuming everything is innocent and platonic. Nothing romantic or sexual.
Yes, it's weird and predatory
It's weird. But not predatory
It's predatory. But not weird
No, it's not weird or predatory
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unpopular opinion but I don't think there's anything weird or predatory about an innocent friendship
The question is why the fuck is a thirty year old hanging out with a 13 year old if not in their family?? The only other relation that could have them interact is through teacher/student and bring friends like that would be weird as fuck
found family? the kid not feeling safe in their house? the adult wanting to help? family / teacher / school isn't always a guaranteed safe place. should the kid and adult each have friends that are their own age too? sure. but if their friendship is genuinely innocent then I think the problem isn't them but people who project their weird and predatory thoughts onto them
Don't forget shared hobbies?
A 13 year old and a 30 year old could reasonably meet at a tabletop gaming store, a fiber arts group, a book club....
They could literally just be neighbors. This whole isolationist thing of never even talking to the people you live closest to is new and weird.
It is important to human social development to have extra-parental adults as advisors and role models!
Something I really think needs noting is that this is very much a white people thing. I am always hearing people of color talk about aunties and uncles and mentors and elders who are not their blood relatives. These intergenerational bonds are absolutely critical to people's survival, particularly when you belong to a group that is treated violently simply for being who you are.
Systems of power have always relied on isolating people and turning them against each other. The current system we live under absolutely does not look out for or protect children, so it's absolutely critical that there be adults in reach that a child can trust outside their immediate family or authority structures. And it's just as critical that kids know how to find and connect with these people.
Elders are survivors. We have managed to live and even sometimes thrive in a world that has time and again made it clear that it doesn't want us to. We are proof of both a history and a future that young people desperately need right now. More than that, we can teach you how to survive and thrive, because we're living in that same world that still doesn't want you to.
I think I'd worry ONLY if it was the adult describing the child as their best friend. And frankly I'd be more worried about the adult than the child anyway.
Deeply meaningful platonic relationships between kids/teens and non-related adults are incredibly important...especially for the younger half. But if you get someone in their 30s describing a child as their best friend, that may be a sign that something isn't right in that adult's life. They may be in trouble and it's something that may need to be looked into. But carefully, because the relationship itself probably doesn't need to be disturbed.































