“yes AZ, every one of us has heard of the age gap”
Awesome! That was step one of the solution!
As for solutions to the Macro issue re: the communal Age Gap problem serious work is being done and progress is being made
here is a very very serios game plan
We know that we need to accomplish 3 things
1. Encourage boys to date girls their own age
2. Encourage boys to start dating slightly earlier
3. Encourage girls to start dating slightly later
Here’s the plan
Part A). A Staggered Lakewood freezer- tu b’shvat/ pesach or even better tu’bshvat/shavuos. meaning at tu’bshvat they can only date girls above 21 (or 20 whatever) to date younger girls they must wait till pesach or shavous.
This will automatically yield the following:
1. 800+ boys a year with a selfish incentive to date close in age
2. If these boys want close in age, inevitably far fewer 19 yrs olds will be dating and the shaddchanim will be focusing on the slightly older girls in order to cater to these boys.
Part B) Slowly lower the entrance age to post EY yeshivos. If in 2 yrs from now the top entering age is 22.5 as opposed to that being the average age, we will have boys dating slightly younger. If boys are coming in around 22 and dating girls 20/21 we have basically solved the lions share of the problem.
Part C). Shortening/cutting out time in EY. Same result as B)
Until these extremely effective ideas are implemented
Part D) restart the shadchan incentive project to keep close in age on the forefront of shaddchanims minds.
Any and all help on all these idea would be greatly apreciated.
I will now present four things that parents individual girls can do (the micro) that will give them the best shot to get married.
1. Encourage your sons/brothers to date girls their own age
2. Let shadchanim know that anytime ur daughter gets to a 3rd date u will pay $200 in recognition for the time effort and work that the shadchan invested.
3. Every date after the 3rd date the shadchan should get an additional $50
4. Girls 23 and older should date like they are 4 yrs older then they are. Anything u would go for at 27 go for at 23. That will make sure u don’t hit 27.