Me and my girlfriend have been together since March 2026. I would say without a doubt that I love this girl. Genuinely I do, and I think for the most part she loves me. And that might sound weird, but that's a genuine answer from me. While we have love for each other, problems began when I broke her trust by making stupid mistakes regarding my ex. No, I did not cheat on her, but my ex, who had been long distance before I met my girlfriend, had left stuff at my apartment that I had forgotten were still there. My girlfriend found some lingerie tucked into my bottom drawer. I apologized and said, I'm sorry, I didn't even know it was there. Genuinely I did not. And I promised it wouldn't happen again. While I was cleaning up my apartment and looking for stuff to throw away, I had forgotten to throw away some letters my ex had written me. They were love letters. Do I care about them, or do I even love my ex anymore? Definitely not. Not at all. But my girlfriend, again while digging through my stuff, and she admits this is her own fault, opened my letters, read them, and again was very, very hurt by the fact I couldn't keep my promise. And then for the third time, on my social media, I apparently had forgotten to untag my ex on old posts in my highlights. My girlfriend found these and also blew up at me again about that. I admit those are things I could have taken care of if I had been more attentive, but at the time they genuinely hadn't been on my mind. My ex 100% holds no love in my heart. My girlfriend has a tendency to lash out at me. She has insecurity issues and she has an unstable family situation. These things definitely contribute to each other, but sometimes she takes it out on me. For example, she doesn't want me hanging out with girls one on one. That in and of itself is fine. I understand that's a pretty common boundary to have, but for example, a friend I've had for five or six years at this point, she was upset that I went to go pick her up from the airport. That to me feels excessive and controlling, but to her she just calls it a boundary. There are other things too, such as my girlfriend wanted me to denounce my ex and call her ugly and terrible because she had gotten into a fight with them online, and was feeling lesser than her. For the record, aside from the mistakes I had made previously that I mentioned, I have never once compared her to my ex, and I've done the most I could to reassure her she's actually so much more beautiful and amazing. And I'm not even saying that as a lie. I genuinely mean those things, hence why my ex is my ex and my girlfriend is my girlfriend. But she doesn't really seem to fully understand that. Anyways, fast forward to today while keeping those underlying relationship issues we've had in mind that are still ongoing.
Last night, out of nowhere, my girlfriend told me she got a pregnancy test and she is pregnant. She told me this and told me she has no idea how she feels, but she wanted to talk to me first before coming to a conclusion on what to do. My initial reaction was, I don't really know what to do. I wasn't expecting this. I have a lot of concerns though. I don't know how we can do this, but I will support you no matter what we end up deciding. I gave her a list of concerns in regards to if we keep it, those concerns being financial, is our relationship healthy enough, we don't have family here to help us, etc. I listed concerns if she decides to get rid of it, and those concerns included how it would negatively affect her emotions, how it would negatively impact our relationship with each other, would she view it as a painful memory that she associates with me now, etc. She heard this, paused for a little while, became avoidant, and then told me she was extremely disappointed because after talking with me, she realized she had actually been more excited than she initially thought she was, and that she was very disappointed that I had not been as excited as she was, and that I had not been optimistic ("this is amazing! Lets figure out how we can make this work!"). To her credit, she's correct. I did not immediately jump for joy and leap around with enthusiasm. However, to my credit, I did not try to convince her to abort it. I didn't try to convince her to have it either. All I told her was this is a big decision, I have concerns both ways, and no matter what, please believe me when I say I will be here to support you through it. She took that as me not being excited to have this kid and have this life with her.
Fast forward to today. She had an appointment and found out we have about a month and a half to decide what we're going to do. However, without consulting me at all, she has told me that she's going to have the baby and that if I am not 100% on board and enthusiastic to have it with her and be part of its life, she would rather I not be part of it at all. And she's giving me an out to simply walk away. I've been trying to tell her I don't want an out. I don't want to simply walk away. And I too can also see a future where this genuinely can work. However, I can only see that future happening if she has the resilience to have hard discussions about our future, have hard discussions about our child, have hard discussions about us. We can make the finances and schedules work, we can ask family to come help and support, but the hardest part in my eyes is going to be committing to a child when we are struggling to even commit to each other. Additionally, she told me she wants to have this child because she wants to be a mother and finds the idea of having a happy family of her own fulfilling, but i feel like shes glossing over issues that will effect the development and happiness of our child. Doing whatever it takes to make having a child work, doesnt mean it'll be a good or ideal life for that child. And based off how shes blown up at me, im concerned about her using our child as a ultimatum in this relationship.
Those are conversations I want to have, however, she is telling me she is only willing to have those discussions with me if I am able to 100% commit to having this baby with her. To me, this feels circular because I'm telling her I want to feel confident, but I can only do so if we can actually talk about it, and she does not want to do that. To me, I feel she is putting the cart before the horse. She wants to make it work and thus will come up with whatever reasons and justifications and plans she can to make it work, including being a single mom, taking care of this baby alone if that's what she ends up wanting (since she has expressed she may end up leaving me). Which, for the record, I do not want that to be the case because I genuinely care about her. And as mentioned previously, her family situation isn't great either. She lives with her mother. Her father's not in the picture. Her father is actively abusive. She lives with two siblings, both of whom are under the age of 13 and have to also be cared for, and her mother works night shifts so she wouldn't be able to watch the child while we're both at work. We both also don't make a whole lot of money. She is a pharmacy tech making near minimum wage and no degree, with student loans and debt to her name. I also have loans and debt to my name, and Im in the military so I get called on work trips semi-often. Again, I think the finances and stuff can be worked out, but my main concern at this point is she's not even willing to discuss things before having come to the conclusion of what she wants to do with it. And then when I tell her I'm willing to be supportive and be part of this with her, she does not want me to if I'm not already 100% supportive in the first place and 100% optimistic to make it work in the first place. That to me feels unfair. However, she's now preparing to move out and break up with me and have this baby be hers without me.
Her friend came at me recently telling me i shouldnt be pretending to want to be with her just to not look like an asshole. But I've been providing for my girlfriend the best I can because I love her since day 1. I've paid thousands of dollars on trips for us, for repairs to her car, i pay majority rent, i cook and clean, and I try to take care of her when she has migraines or is sick. I have never once cussed her out or lashed out on her which she cant say the same for me cuz she has multiple times while in an insecure rage. I feel betrayed that she is now throwing it all away because she sprung pregnancy on me and didnt get the reaction she herself wanted in hindsight. I feel betrayed that she doesnt even want to consult me or give me a chance to discuss, unless i already am fully on the same page as her. I feel like I've given up everything for her (I moved into a bigger more expensive apartment closer to her home so she can live with me, her idea orignally), and its done nothing to pay off. What can I do? Am I genuinely being the unreasonable and obtuse here and just blind to my own issuss, or is this her being unfair? I've been weighing pros and cons in my head and plan to bring them up during a family counseling session I've booked, and will be supportive until then. No point in unnecessary stress on her, but it needs to be discussed especially with an expert when i can only find a laundry list of cons and a handful of pros. For starters, i know she hasnt even started budgeting the costs of pregnancy, childbirth, and 1st year parenthood yet... at this point i am leaning towards wanting the abortion, due to these concerns but especially how shes continued to lash out rather than try to discuss, and i have little hope these relationship/behavior problems are gonna be easy to solve either for both of us.