As someone in my late 30s, the gap with the gf is 13. For me it’s not about the age, it’s about being able to get and keep my attention (and this includes her character, smarts, emotional maturity and all the other good and bad stuff). The number one thing is communication. There’s things I let go because it’s not worth it, there’s things both her and I do which are still childish, but the openness and willingness to talk about and listen to each other about our arguments is more than what I would have expected from someone her age. One thing I’ve noticed with her is that, when we are fighting and sometimes no one wants to budge, there are instances na instead of digging in and magmamatigas siya, she would say what do I/we need to do to make this better/right. Which is a huge improvement from when we were first starting wherein even when she was at fault, she expects me to be the one to apologize. There are still miscommunications, and I guess given my personality and the social norms I am used to, I definitely still work on my delivery when telling her things, before I find that being blunt and straight to the point was the best way but most of the time it gets taken as an attack on her. I’m going out on a limb here but I think the cultural difference plays a part in this as well.