Am I wasting my time, or just overthinking my relationship?

I (30F) have been dating my boyfriend (27M) for almost 4 years. We live in Canada. My parents are back home, while he was born here in Canada. We don’t live together, but we see each other on weekends and sometimes during the week because he still lives with his parents, and we are both doing well in our careers.

Overall, we’ve been happy together. Our vibes match, and it’s been a good relationship. Of course, we have our ups and downs, but we communicate well, work through our fights, and that has helped us stay strong.

Now the problem: I’ve asked him that it’s time to move forward, tell our parents about the relationship, and take the next step toward marriage. He said yes and started hinting to his parents about me. His parents do know about me, and they ask him about me all the time, but they still haven’t met me.

The issue is that he comes from a very non-functional household where his parents don’t seem to care much. For example, his older brother is 32 and still not married, and his parents are completely fine with it and never pressure him.

On the other hand, I told my parents, and they took it really well. They said to let them know once he tells his parents so they can talk about future plans. Now my parents keep asking me if he has spoken to them, if I’ve met them yet, and what is happening next.

Whenever I bring this up to him, he says his parents don’t say anything and that he basically has to force them to meet me, which isn’t happening. This makes me really stressed and sad because I feel stuck.

Recently, he also told me that he may not want kids in the future. This shocked me because he loves kids. He said he doesn’t want to bring children into this world with everything happening right now, and he doesn’t feel ready. He also said he doesn’t want kids just for the sake of having kids…. he wants them only when the time feels right and when we are both comfortable.

I understood that and told him I fully support that. But then he said he’s not even sure if he ever wants kids at all, even if we are doing well in our careers. That made me really anxious because I’ve always imagined having a family of my own someday.

Now I feel confused. Should I break up and move on because our long-term goals may not align? I’ve tried talking about it, but it feels like the conversation never really goes anywhere.

I really love him, but I’m scared of wasting more time if we want different things in life. Has anyone been through something similar? Any advice would really help.