Am I wasting my time?

Background: I (f33) have been dating my partner (m38) for 2 years. He has 1 child and is divorced but still ironing out his custody.

He has been moving very slow because he is new to dating after his divorce. I’ve worried about being his first girlfriend after his divorce but for the most part we have good and open conversations. Because we’ve been moving slow, I haven’t shared with him that I have fallen in love with him. Truthfully a large part of me suspects he won’t say it back as he’s very reserved. I have yet to meet his friends or family . I don’t always feel I’m in a serious relationship, it feels a bit like a holding pattern if that makes sense? He has tabled any chance of me meeting his son as he’s not ready to claim our relationship with his child and so my time with him is very limited even though we live in the same city.

Even as I am typing this out I am starting to realize we might have serious differences in what we are looking for. He tells me he wants our relationship but I can’t help feeling I’m sacrificing the carefree hang out time with a partner and instead spending time waiting to see when he will next be available. It doesn’t feel very equal.

Question: those of you who have, or are currently dating a single parent, how did you navigate understandably being a lower priority over the children? I would love to meet his son and integrate in into our daily activities but am being respectful and leaving it to him to decide when he thinks is best. I just feel after 2 years that I might just be a bit of an idiot and that this might be leading to nowhere.