Senior relationships differ greatly from relationships kept by younger generations in a variety of ways. Senior citizens are more likely to enter relationships with emotional baggage or with children, both young or adult, and the levels of intimacy vary greatly among single seniors. Levels of sexual comfort occupy a wide scale and some senior relationships are based more on socialization and fun, while others are based strongly on closeness and quality time.

An important factor to remember in look for in seniors dating is whether or not your potential partner carries emotional baggage, and for that matter, whether you do, too. If the answer is yes, this doesn’t mean that a relationship won’t work, but rather that you single seniors need to be open to the idea of relationship advice in its various formats. In order to overcome emotional baggage, you must keep a very honest and communicative relationship and you must actively acknowledge the extent to which your emotions are caused by your new partner or by old scars left by a former relationship. Some senior citizens prefer not to date partners who have any emotional baggage at all, but that’s fine, because there are also many single seniors who would love to share an emotional journey through healing with a partner.

Many single seniors have children, often grown ones, from previous relationships. If your relationship could develop into something serious, it’s important that you be able to forge a decent relationship with your partner’s kids. Remember that they, too, may carry emotional baggage and may be adverse to their parents seeking out senior relationships. The process for dealing with difficult family members during seniors dating  is not unlike the process of shedding emotional baggage. It takes time, honest communication and a willingness to accept others.

More than any other demographic, seniors vary to wide extremes in the sense of what they’re looking for in other single seniors. Among the many people involved in seniors dating, some are completely comfortable with their sexuality and can’t imagine senior relationships without an active sex life, and others are more reserved in their sexuality and may just be looking for minimal physical contact. A lot of senior relationships are also build on socialization; it’s a way to make friends. In this case, you’ll have to ask yourself whether you’d rather accompany your partner to a cocktail party or stay home and watch a movie while cuddling on the couch. Most senior relationships fall somewhere in between those two extreme examples, but they’re important factors to be decided nonetheless. In approaching the possibility of senior relationships, remember that there are a number of factors involved in reaching a harmonious, successful relationship and that it’s not necessarily fair to compare senior relationships to relationships of younger generations.