We have this exact situation in our own family and let me tell you, it is creepy as hell. Niece-in-law dating a dude as old as her dad. Nobody likes it, but after them dating for 2+ years, we all finally met him when he came over for dinner. Very hard for me to even talk to the dude...just does not seem right.
Someone I went to school with, who is 36 yrs old, just married our friend's father. He's almost 70. His 4 kids are older than she is. Now that is downright disgusting.
Back to the topic.......I met my husband on eharmony 6 years ago. Neither one of us had ever done the online dating thing and both of us were on the site for less than a month when we were matched up. We knew quickly that we'd get married and things are absolutely great. We've been married 4 years and our little man is almost 2. I never would've met him if we hadn't given online dating a try. I was living in DC and he was in process of moving to Baltimore from York, PA. Our paths never would have crossed. So it can work. I know I got lucky that it worked so quickly for us and that we didn't have to weed through too many losers in the process. I think that around here though, people would have to be open minded to meet people who live in DC, nova, etc. Not sure how many people in somd are on the sites?