History Main / TheJailbaitWait

The reason could be based on local laws, or because the elder of the two wants to stick to a [[ChivalrousPervert personal moral code]]. Because even if the ''legal'' age of consent is lower than the age of adulthood, it is such a moral gray area that most people in this position (at least in America) prefer to wait until their crush is 100% considered an adult before pursuing them, to eliminate any possible ethical concerns.

* In ''LightNovel/TheCircumstancesLeadingToWaltrautesMarriage'', the Valkyrie Waltraute and the human Jack Elvan are married when he completes her EngagementChallenge. As Jack is a little boy who doesn't even know about sex, Waltraute tells the others she will wait until he comes of age to consummate their marriage. Freyja snarks that such a wait is boring.

* Deconstructed in the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' spitefic ''[[https://twispitefic.livejournal.com/20352.html Resisting Devotion]]''. Quil had imprinted on Claire when she was just a toddler and was willing to wait until she was of legal age to make his move, [[WifeHusbandry spending those years making himself into the perfect man for her]]. Claire, however, is absolutely {{squick}}ed out by this, and at the end, she viciously tells Quil that their friendship is over and she'll be getting a restraining order out on him. On top of all that, she's also [[spoiler:[[IncompatibleOrientation a lesbian]]]], and thus they never would've worked out anyway.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''. The teenage wolves who imprint on a 2-year-old and a newborn. But Renesmee (said newborn) will be physically 18 in 7 years, so Jacob doesn't have as big of a problem.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

* In ''LightNovel/{{Maoyu}}'', [[SheIsTheKing Demon King]] knew about Yuusha since the day he was born. She loved him since that day and waited until he grew up to ask him to be hers.

* Interestingly {{invoked|Trope}} in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'', where Issei instates this for Koneko. While Koneko's exact age isn't known and it's quite possible she's many times Issei's age, she still has an underdeveloped, immature body, meaning a pregnancy would be disastrous for her and the child at her current size, and [[ChivalrousPervert Issei]] doesn't want to risk it any more than she does.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': The slumlord Sebia is stated to have been keeping Sheryl [[RoyalFavorite as his favorite]] while he waited for her charms to grow with age before making her his mistress. Akira kills Sebia in self-defense before that could happen, but Sheryl's close ties to Sebia result in nobody being willing to associate with her in case it'd make them a target of Akira’s revenge, causing Sheryl to turn to Akira himself for safety.

** Little Doe gets a PrecociousCrush and essentially engages herself with the titular hero in the very first book when she's 12, and Wolfhound is [[YoungerThanTheyLook 23]]. Through the course of the series, Wolfhound considers himself duly engaged and having also taken a shining to the girl, patiently waits for the circumstances to let them be together. Little Doe on her part has to hold against the pressure of [[ApronMatron her domineering mother to marry into their neighbor clan]], until she runs away with [[LikeBrotherAndSister her male friend in a similar predicament]] and his girlfriend. It's implied that Wolfhound and Little Doe finally get together after the last book when they are 19 and 30, respectively.

** Upon meeting her for the first time, Mineta claims that he looks forward to meeting Eri in 10 years. Needless to say, many fans were ''not'' happy with him, as 1) Eri (while adorable) is an abused and traumatized six-year-old, and 2) even in 10 years, Mineta would be 25-26 while Eri would be 16.

* In Creator/TeresaEdgerton's second Literature/{{Celydonn}} trilogy, Gwenlliant is married to her cousin when she is twelve; he is more than a decade older and would have preferred to wait at least four years before courting her, but her father forced the issue by setting up an ArrangedMarriage for her with a {{Domestic Abuse}}r. A long period of InnocentCohabitation follows. At one point Gwenlliant spends about a year longer in the Inner Celydonn than has passed in the real Celydonn, which has two unintended side effects: reducing the wait, and of separating them for so long that a WeddingDeadline is introduced.

Examples often overlap with AgeGapRomance (two characters in different stages of life, such as adolescence and adulthood), OldManMarryingAChild (marriage between an elderly man and a very young girl) and WifeHusbandry (an older character is a guardian or parental figure who explicitly grooms the younger character for a later romantic relationship). Contrast {{Ephebophile}} (someone who doesn't necessarily wait for legal age) and PrecociousCrush (a younger character is sexually/romantically attracted to an older character -- usually a one-sided attraction). May relate to BittersweetSeventeen.

* Used as a BrikeJoke by ''Anime/DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5''. When trying to brush off a job to protect the young Patty Lowell, Dante sarcastically mentions he might be interested in her in 10 years time, though this is simply him trying to get her to go away and when he takes her in he acts as her ParentalSubstitute. Unfortunately for Dante, Patty remembers this comment and upon turning 18 tries to get Dante to come to her party, noting that she's "not a little kid" to which Dante slams his phone down, unplugs it when she tries to call again, and agrees to take a new job on the singular condition that his information broker can get him out of going to her party.

* This seems to be the case in ''Film/TheSandlot'', as the narrator(Older Scott Smalls) states that his friend Squints eventually married Wendy Peffercorn, the teenage lifeguard.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'':

* In ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'', when Becky marries Mark, Dan is furious and thinks about calling the cops and getting the marriage annulled because Becky was only 17 and Mark was over 18, but Roseanne talks him out of it because she'll just run off and do it again in a few months when she turns 18. The age of consent in Illinois is 17.

* Played for drama in ''Series/{{Broadchurch}}.'' One of the characters had previously been arrested for underage sex with one of his students, aged 15 years and 11 months. He laments that if they'd just waited four weeks everything would have been fine.

An older character holds back from romantically/sexually pursuing someone younger until the latter reaches a specific age at which point they're considered an adult. 18 is the most common, but it can be older or younger depending on [[FictionalAgeOfMajority the jurisdiction and time period]].

The reason could be based on local laws, or because the elder of the two wants to stick to a [[ChivalrousPervert personal moral code]]. Because even if the ''legal'' age of consent is lower than the age of adulthood, it is such a moral gray area that most people in this position prefer to wait until their crush is 100% considered an adult before pursuing them, to eliminate most ethical concerns. We say "most" because some might still question the inequality of such a pairing, but at least the older partner won't go to jail for it.

** In the Japanese version Brock said this towards Casey, the baseball-obsessed girl from Johto. Brock said she'd be 'fun' in eight years.

** In an early episode, a DirtyOldMan told Misty that she'd be fun in eight years. In the English dub, he says that she reminds him of his granddaughter, which unfortunately just makes it sound [[IncestIsRelative worse]].

-->'''Joker:''' I've done my research, Bats! I've done all sorts of research, and I know [the age of consent] in EVERY state!\\

* Parodied in one Creator/JoelHaver video, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7M24KrqhBw "Joker's Most Devious Plan Yet"]], where the Joker reveals to Batman that he's effectively groomed a teenage girl on Kik and is waiting for the exact moment where she turns 18 -- not to do anything, but seemingly just for the satisfaction of knowing that now she'll be "sexy". Batman is so deeply disgusted at the "legal, technically" crime that he not only beats up and arrests Joker on principle, but wishes he'd go back to murdering people.
-->'''Joker:''' I've done my research, Bats! I've done all sorts of research, and I know [the age of consent] in EVERY state!\\
'''Batman:''' I -- I've never killed anyone, before, but I will kill. This will be the exception, I will break my own rule, and I will... I'm gonna fuckin' kill you.

** One sketch parodied an Olsen Twins movie featured their male costars counting down until the twins' birthday, taking numbers to determine the order they'd take their turn... "befriending" them.

-->'''Britney''': (adlibbing) You're watching porn right now, do you understand?

* A declared example from ''Manga/SuperGals'' are Yamato Kotobuki and Miyu Yamazaki: they have been together since Miyu was 14, but, with Yamato already being a cop at the time, they decided to wait until marriage, and are still of this opinion when they get officially engaged (Miyu is 16, by then). [[spoiler: The manga ends with Yamato's family springing a surprise marriage on them.]]