Oh Look, Another Regrettable Quip About Age On The Bachelor

Bachelor fans know that the ages of the contestants and the leads has trended down in recent years. Who can forget when some of the 30-year-old women on Colton Underwood's season were called cougars by 23-year-old Demi Burnett? Apparently, this is just something we have to get used to. We're back on it in Peter Weber's season: Victoria Fuller complained that her age — 26, for the record — is "depressing." Stop it right now. 

During a chat with Peter, Victoria said her birthday had been a couple of days ago and that she'd turned 26. "It's depressing," she said, in seeming all seriousness. Peter responded that he was 28, which basically made him "a grandpa." Is this really happening? Sure, Peter was likely joking and maybe Victoria was too, but we're rolling our eyes anyway. Bachelor fandom is pain, apparently.

And there may be more where that came from. Peter is younger than the average age of most of the show's Bachelors, which is 31, but he's one of the oldest people on the show. The only person older than him is 31-year-old Natasha, who doesn't seem like she's far from ditching the petty drama. the average age of Bachelor contestants is 26, with several contestants aged 22 or 23 — which could account for Victoria reacting to her age the way most people approach actual middle age. She's living in a bubble where only one woman and Chris Harrison know what it's like to be older than 28. Age is not an indicator of being ready for The Bachelor (nothing prepares a person for that), but bemoaning the ripe old ages of 26 and 28 is an indicator that maybe you're not that self aware. And the second Victoria and Peter uttered those regrettable quips, Twitter was all over it.

People older than 28 watch this show, okay? Have some respect. And, hey, ABC, maybe cast several more people older than 28 so that it stops feeling like 30 is some ancient age. Did 13 Going On 30 teach us nothing?