[quote=kev374]missing a lot of contextual info here… again there is a stereotype here. Why do people automatically assume that the man is stringing the woman along? Some women choose to wait despite knowing that the man is unsure about her… is that then the man’s fault?

If the man is promising marriage then it is stringing along but if the man is candidly telling the woman that he is not sure about marriage and does not know when he is going to be sure then it is the woman’s responsibility as an adult to take whatever meaning from that and make choices about her own life. If she considers waiting to be a waste of her valuable years then she should just move on instead of staying with the man and then harassing him.

The whole purpose of dating is to evaluate IF you want to marry OR NOT. It’s not some automatic thing like “oh we completed 2 years now and you’re not marrying me so you’re a JERK”.

In addition sometimes things can come up later, say after a year and a half together, that may have not been apparent in 6-9 months (like one person said here that period should be enough to know if you want to marry someone or not!!)… people date for 2-3 years and still end up divorced because they didn’t fully evaluate all the things that could cause issues long term.

Nobody forces the other to stay in a relationship against their will, it is up to them to decide whether they want to wait for a positive decision or to move on.[/quote]

I was just going from what you’ve said about her likely reaction to your news. If you’ve been fully honest with her from day one, then it’s all good.