My boyfriend of 8 years, we have a 5year old together. Suffered a miscarriage last year around Valentines Day, we live together and are have known each other almost out entire lives.

Lately all of the people we know and are close to us have been getting engaged, married or are having children. After the loss we suffered I started to desire getting engaged and married, he knows because I’ve asked him why he gets so upset of the idea of us getting married or just engaged. He always says something like “I don’t want to get married because I’ve never seen a marriage work and in my family almost everyone has gotten divorced at least once. I don’t believe in marriage, I’m not getting married because I just don’t want that to happen to me.”

I get it, his family has issues and only two of their first marriages have worked perfectly. The rest have gotten divorced 1-2 times. But I’m a firm believer that if you truly love someone you’ll try to compromise and always make things work for both. I just don’t feel that he loves me enough to spend the rest of his life with me.

Is it worth me staying in a relationship with him? Even though I do want to get engaged and married someday, have more children (he doesn’t want anymore kids at the moment). I love this man, I do. I can’t imagine not being with him, but at the same time I feel if I stay I’d be putting his feelings and desires before mine and I’d never be completely satisfied and happy with our relationship.