Wow. Really. Well I can tell you right now, I have 3 daughters, and there is no way on God’s green earth i would have let them date a man in his mid 30’s when they were 16. I don’t care who he is, or how mature they supposedly are.
Well, it’s an unfair question to ask of me, since I might harbor a different opinion were I in your shoes. I’m unmarried and have no children and am older than 35. I wouldn’t hesitate to date between 18-25 so long as they possessed a maturity and intelligence and shared similar interests/values, et al (not 16, though, since that is illegal in my state, and I’d prefer at minimum college aged). Over that age and generally speaking, the stronger the likelihood they’ve been with many men (”defiled.”) I’d prefer someone who hasn’t.
You have to admit, though, that the culture has changed in the past 40-50 years. What was mature in the 1960s/70s isn’t generally so today. 16-18 then was ready to go out into the world. In the decades since, we’ve infantilized teens and young adults even as everything has become more sexualized. Some people at 26 or even 36 may lack the maturity a 16 year old had 4 decades ago.