Hi,

I’ve been in a relationship with my boyfriend for about a year and a half. I’m 21 and he’s 26. Before we were together I knew he didn’t want kids or a marriage but I didn’t think too much about it because we were just friends. We were basically dating for six months, non exclusively but then made it exclusive. When we started dating, it changed he said he did want kids and a marriage. We even had serious conversations about it and what age we would have kids. I wanted to have my first kid at 27. Since we have a 5 year age gap, he wanted it a little sooner. So we agreed on 25. 6 months into our relationship, the topic gets brought up at a party and he casually mentions he doesn’t want kids. I am shocked. We ended up having multiple conversations about this. I felt hurt, that he changed his feelings, didn’t tell me about it, and brought it up like no big deal. He tells me that it makes sense because all his life he didn’t want marriage/kids, briefly did, but went back to how he normally felt. So this became a big problem that I pushed away because it’s not urgent. I’m still years away from wanting a baby. I fear that I’m wasting my time getting attached to a person that doesn’t want the same things I do. Other than those big things, we get along so well, we’re so happy, but it’s been a big dark cloud on us. I do know we have to break up sooner than later but Im not ready to let him go just yet. He isn’t either. We kinda broke up last night but decided we weren’t ready to end things yet. He’s transferring colleges in January, and we decided we’ll break up when he goes. My mom agreed with us breaking up and said it was a hard thing but I was strong but staying with him isn’t strong. I get that but I don’t want to have any regrets about things we haven’t done yet. I want to leave on the best possible note. Do you think it’s a bad idea to stay together for a few months? Should I just end it now or is it not a deal breaker?