Dear Abby: Concern or Stalking

[cereta]

DEAR ABBY: I'm a retired man who took a community college class. My lab partner was a young woman who was having difficulties attending the class. She wasn't there for the final exam, and I wondered if she had dropped the course. I did not have her phone number or her email address, but she had mentioned she worked at a nearby bank, so I went to visit her there. We talked for a few minutes and she told me she had actually done quite well in the class.

When I told my wife and daughter about it, they were shocked. They said what I did was inappropriate because of the age difference and she could have gotten into trouble at her job. Abby, they almost accused me of stalking her.

I don't understand why they considered this inappropriate. Is there a social rule that makes my behavior incorrect? I find it hard to believe someone would get into trouble for talking to a person in the bank at any age. Gender should not be a concern. I would have done the same thing had she been a man my own age. -- AM I MISSING SOMETHING?

DEAR AM I: You appear to be a very nice person. What you are "missing" is the fact that your wife is insecure, and your daughter backed her mother up. You did nothing wrong.

Comments

[likeaduck]

I think Lucy already pretty clear about not speaking for every woman what with not even claiming to speak for this one. ("Maybe she didn't mind, but another woman might have minded very, very much...")

[recessional]

Possibly; I tend to read "a woman's pov" as similar to "from a woman's perspective" or similar construction, which is mean to speak For Women In General, and have mostly experienced "maybe x didn't mind" as "well maybe this weird outlier feels that way but NORMAL women...."

So that is the context I brought.