Hi
@Anarchy. I don't think that an adult woman seeking romance with a much older man is intrinsically wrong, nor do I think the same situation with any gender or sex is wrong. I do think that I attract older men because I have always attracted older "men" (and boys), and I think this has as much to do with my abuse as it does with R.
I think I would have figured it out about R. I did know in my young mind that he was infatuated with me. I just had no vocabulary for it. I think that's why I flipped out as a kid before he disappeared. My parents thought I knew too, as evidenced by my fight with him.
Do I think I could be with a much older man? Absolutely, but status would be involved at a different level than it is now (with a peer). I would expect a house, a comfortable income, and I would expect him to be well educated, because these are the things I expect my partner, who is my peer, to achieve by then. I don't mean it in a gold digger way. I think I could have a meaningful relationship with someone a couple decades beyond me were I established myself and in my late twenties or early thirties. I find many older men who are not hitting on me and not a predator attractive.
That said, I question the motives of older men more than I do my peers, and I would expect the very same from an older man were I courting him.
Post script: would I feel like a child? I have a bit of a daddy complex, so probably yes. I think it can be done in a healthy way, though. I've seen it done. My sister is in her thirties with a man in his fifties. They just had a baby.