You’re forgetting this is a historical which means the average age gap was 20+ years. Romeo was over 20 and Juliet was like 14 when they first met. A girl was eligible to be a bride from her first period which could come as young as 8/9 years old. Men were eligible to become husbands from the age of the end of puberty/ the end of heir transfer so 16+. Most men were fully grown adult men when they became the Lord of their own homes and took a bride. That’s historical fact. A few year age gap while they are both children is fine. My ex and I had a 2 year age gap and for the two years he was an adult before I became one, I called him a nonce every single day affectionately as a joke. It wasn’t a big deal to us because we had been together for 3 years prior. So if you’ve been together for 10+ years in a historical setting where she could have been sold to the duke himself to be his bride, I don’t see an issue at all.
Romeo and Juliet is fictional. It's also about how marrying girls off young destroys their bodies and is a detriment to everyone involved. Your historical facts about (noble) marriage also have nothing to do with romance, which my comment is explicitly about.
Your anecdote about you and your boyfriend also isn't relevant to the point I was making. A 18 and a 16 yo dating is not a big deal at all, and I never said it was.
And to reiterate, it's not normal for a 14 year old to have a crush on a 9 year old.
Please reread my original comment if you're confused
My dude, children have crushes on anyone. I had a crush on my teachers assistant who is 9 years older than me because he’s pretty and could lift me really really high when I was a kid. My baby sister is 4 and has a crush on a 3 year old in her class. My ex was interested in me despite me being younger than him. My best friend was interested me in for 7 years starting from when he was 16 and I was 13. Age gaps are normal in any relationship you have whether romantic or sexual or platonic. As long as it didn’t START when one was a young minor and the other was an adult, it’s fine and normal. If both are young minors, it’s okay. If both are older minors, it’s okay. 9 and 14 are young minors since both of them cannot make any judgement calls and are both under the age of consent in the vast majority of countries across the globe and once again, THIS ROMANCE STORY IS BASED OFF A HISTORICAL POINT OF VIEW AND THEREFORE YOU CANT APPLY MODERN PHILOSOPHIES TO IT.
And despite romeo and Juliet being fictional, that age gap was very very common. Common enough to be romanticised over and over again from plays to poems to novels to music and Shakespeare had to have gotten inspiration from somewhere.
She's obviously not romantically interested in a child, so I'm not concerned about that. But it does bother me how many of these stories insist on having the ML falling in love/having a crush on a MC who's significantly younger (in body).
Like sorry, I dont think it's normal for a 14 year old to crush on a 9 year old, or whatever combination.
3 years is a tiny age gap that doesn't matter when you're an adult, but it's a significant difference when you're under 18, and an enormous chasm when you're under 14.
But these romance authors can never wait to slowly develop a romance, we always have to be reassured RIGHT AWAY that the ML is in love already...