OK , just to play devil ' s advocate a bit with you to me having kids is a great featWhy ? Procreating isn ' t exactly some fabulously unique and important feat it ' s something lots of people do every day , many unintentionally . Sure , having kids is important and meaningful to some people , but it ' s not this huge earthshatteringly important accomplishment , just one lifestyle choice that people make . I ' ve always thought that kids were the next step . I grew up LDS always envisioned myself with a large family . So , think about this . Do you actually genuinely want to have kids for your own reasons , or just because you assume it is the next step and what you ' ve always envisioned because of the cultural and religious context you were brought up in and because it ' s the expected default option in our society , especially among religious people . I ' m not trying to convince you out of having kids or dismiss the idea that you want to have them . If you do genuinely and definitely want to be a parent that ' s totally legitimate and since he doesn ' t that ' s obviously going to be a dealbreaker in your relationship . I ' m just getting the sense from what you wrote that you may have always assumed you ' d have kids as he apparently did too till recently but never deeply examined if this is really something you want and for what reasons . I know many people that have assumed they wanted or would have kids when they were younger because it was just what you do and then woke up one day and realised actually having kids was not compulsory and they preferred their lives without kids . That seems to be the experience that your husband is having . If you can naturally change your own mind to get to the same position , you two can live a happy childfree life together , but if you think about this deeply and decide you really do want kids , you need to split up and find someone who wants them too , because otherwise you two will be setting yourselves up for a relationship full of bitterness and resentment , either because you will not have kids and will feel be deprived of the ability to have kids , or because you guys will have kids and he ' ll be forced into parenthood when he doesn ' t want it . Neither situation is healthy .