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Ultimatum or boundary? Need advice ... sorry for long explanation.

137 replies

UmberBird0602yipee · 18/08/2026 13:12

Hi all. I've been with my boyfriend now 4 months after getting together in the April. It has been ok until the past few weeks. I had a conversation with him the other day that made me feel unheard and was unsure if he had issued an ultimatum or just boundaries.

Abit of context ...
I had a pregnacy scare when my period was late for a week, so I went to a sexual health clinic to talk about options to stop pregnancy. I'm not ready to have kids yet and since we have been together that short time I just want to be safe and feel safe when we did things. During the pregnacy scare I did bring up what he thought about people on the pill and abortions and he was set against them for multiple reasons. After this conversation, I was worried about bringing up the options.
We also had a conversation over text about when I would be ready for marriage and kids. I know not a good call to do over text. I said I wasn't sure when I would be ready and if he would wait for me. His responses where I need a time frame of when you will be ready.

the conversation ...
I approached it with him about the clinic and the options, and he didn't know what to say. The look on his face was disheartening and he took it far worse then i was expecting. He took it as a personal attack that I didn't trust him to keep me safe and to raise our hypothetical child. Then he just listed off reason for why I would do this e.g you think I would just walk out on you and the baby, is it because I'm black or my religion, my family can voucher that I'm a good person, stuff like this. I was crying as he didn't believe that I was just not ready to have kids yet and took it as a personal attack. Saying things like I wish I would have know this before. I wasn't trying to argue with him just wanted to be honest with were I was at.
i have told him in the past i dont want to be rushed into something like this and this feels like he is pressuring me. Once he calmed down once said all the reasonings possible reasons why not, he was abit better and realised how upset I was. I Approached the what if I can't have kids conversation as he was so detemined to have a kids with me and he just was adiment that no matter what that I would be able to have kids. He never once said during the conversation of what if I can't that he would be happy with just me. It was alot to get his head around and I understand that but just felt that he reacted so much worse then what I was expecting him to.

But anyway the Ultimatum...
He was asking when will I be ready. My responce I don't know.
His responce ... Well after a year in the together we need to start planning for the future. Be ready for marriage and having kids with me by January otherwise I will be heart broken. We can have a relationship until then and I'll wait for you till then to be ready. We can meet eachothers family, move in together do whatever u need to do to be ready. But I want you ready in January. You can do your prevention for the pregnancy until that but after then it will need to be taken out or stopped. Is that a decision you agree with?
At this point I just agreed so that we could change the conversation so that I could think about how it went down and the conversation later when i was not around him. He then had a conversation with me about what he wanted our wedding to look like and he wants our little girl in the wedding when we have kids. I was quiet the rest of the time which he noticed abit but didn't push then I went home.

Is this an ultimatum or a boundary? It feels like an unlitmatum and I don't know how to handle this.

He is a really good guy and romantic but handled that conversation so much worse then expected then said the above. I'm 25 and he's 30 and he wants to get on and get married and live his life with kids. I understand where he's coming from. I just don't know if I'm ready,.or if I would be by January with that pressure.

I just need a second opinion from people I don't know so they are more objective. If that makes sence.

Thanks for reading, sorry for the long winded explination. Hope you can send me some wise words of wisdom. Thank you in advance for reading and your comments below. Means alot.

OP posts:
Marroon · 20/08/2026 14:56

Cheese55 · 20/08/2026 14:51

Is he religious and is not that comfortable with sex outside of marriage?

If he’s not that comfortable he could just abstain from premarital sex though, couldn’t he?

Cheese55 · 20/08/2026 15:08

Marroon · 20/08/2026 14:56

If he’s not that comfortable he could just abstain from premarital sex though, couldn’t he?

Yes but I have known people who don't abstain but just want to get married quickly and then brush it under the carpet

UmberBird0602yipee · 20/08/2026 18:55

UPDATE: Hi all you will be glad to know, I broke up with him. he wasnt listerning to my emotions when I said I was upset, he just kept taking offence to it or move on from it. He's not ready emotionally in a relationship, besides all the other stuff that went on above. Thanks all for the advice. Now is time to move on, hard as it scemes

OP posts:
Comtesse · 20/08/2026 19:34

Phew - excellent update, you’ve made the right decision.

ChimpanzeeThatMonkeyNews · 20/08/2026 19:35

Good for you, @UmberBird0602yipee

Mix56 · 20/08/2026 19:56

You've known him for 16 weeks.
This actually scary

SalmonOnFinnCrisp · 20/08/2026 22:02

Comtesse · 20/08/2026 19:34

Phew - excellent update, you’ve made the right decision.

+1

TallagallaPenguin · 20/08/2026 23:40

I’m really sorry he turned out to be a bad un OP, and sorry he put you through that - but relieved you’ve broken up with him. Definitely the right thing but always hard at the time. Good for you.

cordeliavorkosigan · 21/08/2026 02:56

Great update, op! Onwards and upwards!

Mulledjuice · 21/08/2026 03:26

UmberBird0602yipee · 18/08/2026 14:11

Relationship experience he is my first one ever. So that doesn't help. In my head I know he is a good gut but the way he reacted shows that he won't be there for me when it counts and will take what i say as a negitive thing not a conversation. Its just hard to see him that way and to come to terms with it. I'm just struggling.

I dont think he is a good guy.

But you are right that it's not a double standard - a woman who spoke to a man the way he is speaking to you would be told she was bonkers. He is bonkers.

Valeriekat · 21/08/2026 16:55

Jellybunny98 · 18/08/2026 13:24

I think it’s a hard one, and that the responses you get here would be different if the genders were reversed. Women are told on here every single day that “after X time a man knows so if they won’t commit to a family or babies they are stringing you along”.

Personally, I don’t really agree and I don’t appreciate the stance that everything has to be done according to one person’s timeline. Clearly these things are important to him, but it seems, like many women who post similar on here, that it is the wedding and the child that are a priority rather than who he ends up having them with and I don’t think thats a great way to start a family.

You're a man aren't you?

ScotiaLass · 22/08/2026 10:27

You are two young and this is too short a relationship to be having that discussion. Even if you were both in your forties and running out of time to have babies then the tone of his demands is totally wrong. I got together with my partner when I was about the same age as you and it took four years before we decided to move in together and get married. That's a normal sort of timescale in your 20s because you've got plenty of time. This man is in so much of a rush that I'm scared that he wants to trap you. If I were you I'd be planning your escape.

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