How should I respond to a papa who keeps making self-deprecating comments like, “I’m such an old guy” or “I guess this is a generational gap”?\n\nThe restaurant was playing music by a band called the Carpenters, but I didn’t know them, so he said, “What!? You don’t know the Carpenters!? No wonder I’m getting old…”\n\nI don’t know Shoken either, so when I asked why Kenichi Hagiwara was called Shoken, he seemed almost stunned and said, “You don’t know Shoken? That’s crazy.”\n\nI love the warm, distinctive scent of his back and often hug him to smell it, but then he gets depressed and says, “Isn’t that old-person smell? I don’t like feeling as if you’re treating me like some old man.”\n\nI also didn’t know much about the late Hiroyuki Watanabe, who died by suicide, and he was shocked, saying, “What!? You don’t know Hiroyuki Watanabe!?”\n\nWhen I told him I was upset because I knew the comedy group Dachou Club well, he said, “So people your age are at the point where they know Dachou Club, huh?”\n\nWhen I muttered, “That’s so emo,” he was surprised and asked, “What does ‘emo’ mean? Is that really a word?”\n\nOn top of that, this papa can’t use swipe typing on his smartphone, so he taps out his LINE messages one character at a time. His messages are always short, and he sometimes makes strange typos.\n\nWhen I tell him that I wish we could message more because I feel lonely, he says, “Sorryyy. I wonder if this is another generational difference.”\n\nEven though I call him an old guy, he’s only 46, and I’m only in my early or mid-twenties, even if I can still call myself young. I may be young and pretty now, but aging comes equally to everyone. I like and respect him as a person, so I don’t think things like, “What a disgusting old geezer,” “Die, old man,” or “You’re gross and smelly.”\n\nI want to convey that I care about him as a person, but I also find it endearing to watch him realize that he’s “an old guy” (even though I don’t personally think of him that way).\n\nIn reality, does it generally feel unpleasant to be treated like an old man by a younger girl, or to have that kind of generation gap pointed out? Do people want to be seen as young and attractive forever?\n\nWhy is it that the people who make comments like that often aren’t attractive, don’t have a clean or polished appearance, and look unkempt, while humble and kind people like this papa tend to be liked by younger women?