yes, the title is correct and not bait 👍
i (22x) have a friend/acquaintance (25m) who is friends with a 13f irl, but people are calling him a weirdo.
he has no romantic relations with this girl and knows her through her dad (40s, m) but people are still calling him a creep and idk how to help besides saying he isn’t. it’s not like he went out of his way to go “hi im looking for 13 year old girls, wanna be friends?”
i feel really bad for the girl and i hope he doesn’t have any bad feelings or intentions, but i’ve heard from him he’s done nothing but mentor her and tutor her.
(i wasn’t there idk if i can truly believe it, but still)
A 25 year old can’t be friends with a 13 year old, assuming the 25 year old is of normal maturity and mental aptitude.
There’s just too much of a maturity gap.
You can be a mentor
But if you are “friends” that’s not normal.
Even Drake got allegations for being friends with Millie Bobby Brown. The truth is, there’s no reason an adult needs to be friends with a minor.
I run a pathfinder group with neurodivergent kids ages 12 to 16, I’m 37. I see the kids as kids that I might help avoid the pitfalls and solitude I felt growing up as neurodivergent. They see me as a friend, and I see them as “kid friends”. I wouldn’t “hang out” with any of them, but we play pen and paper and sometimes other games via the local library and sometimes at the local boardgame club.
One of the parents are very suspicious of me, and I have debated how to handle it. Since the kid is still in the group, I’ve decided to just let it be since any talk about it with the parent might be interpreted as “pre-defence” or something like that.
Hopefully your friend is a responsible and well adjusted human. He needs to be careful, and interactions need to be supervised.
Kids that age can develop crushes and fantasies about inappropriately older people.
However, platonic relationships with older people can be productive and helpful in the development of a child, and can provide an outlet for issues they are not comfortable discussing with parents (for whatever reason).
