During our first year of dating, Henry often joked about wanting a football team of children. I laughed it off, thinking it was just a joke. Everything changed after he proposed. Suddenly, the idea of having seven children wasn’t a joke anymore; it was his plan.

When I told him I was comfortable with two kids at most, he pushed back. He called five a “compromise” three boys and two girls. That’s when I realized we weren’t on the same page at all. It didn’t feel like love anymore; it felt like I was being recruited for a role I never signed up for.

I walked away not because I didn’t love him, but because I couldn’t ignore the feeling that he saw me more as a baby machine than a partner.