If It's Just A Number, What's the Big Deal?

"Age is just a number;" well that's what all the young men keep telling me when they approach me wanting to spend time and get to know me. My first reaction is always appreciation for the compliment, but my second is rejection; what can a younger man offer me that an older man cannot. Being only 26, someone one 4 years or more younger than me in my opinion has not truly had a chance to live and experience life that someone my age or older has. What can they offer me that would set them apart and have me risking the feeling of being a pedophile or babysitter. And please don't tell me it's sexual because early 20's is still discovery time for a man so he is still learning his body, what he wants to try and what he does or doesn't like. So we take sexual prowess off the table; can they offer mental stability or emotional commitment? Are they genuinely ready to settle down and have children, are they capable of stepping up to the plate and handling marriage, a mortgage and living expenses of a family? Does someone that young know how to truly cater to a woman and stimulate her mentally as well as sexually? Will they be willing to trade in their forces and ball caps for loafers and a sexy blazer? Will they appreciate attending a play on a date rather than going to see the new movie? Is he willing to wine and dine me and no I am not talking Applebees or Red Lobster. No I'm discrediting anyone younger because I have always dated a year or two younger, but at the same time I dealt with issues that could have been solely contributed to lack of maturity. Now I will not discredit anyone young or who is in a relationship with a considerably younger man because there is always the one story that defies the odds. But personally I want to meet and date a MAN who is willing to treat me like his WOMAN, not his boo, g/f or old lady. Maybe I'm being selfish and neglecting to think that maybe this young man is attempting to be in my life because they are meant to learn a lesson from me, but honestly, I'm still developing and fine tuning myself; I don't have the time to babysit or train up a boy and make him a man. Personally, that's his mama's job and if she isn't able, that's a lesson that life just has to teach, and that will only come with time and growing up. Call me wrong, but as appealing as a younger man might be, I just can't see myself attempting to settle down and get to know a boy who's barely legal and still growing his facial hair...