I have been dating my boyfriend for just under 5 years. His is now 25 and I am 29, we have lived together nearly the entire time we have been together and other than a few minor issues that we talked through, our relationship is wonderful. We have talked about marriage and kids and he tells me he wants both just like me. We both agree that marriage must come before kids.

My problem is that he knows that I want him to ask me to be his wife and he keeps telling me he wants me to be his wife and continually makes comments that I would make a good wife and mother. But this has been going on for nearly a year now and I am honestly getting tired of waiting for him to ask.

Do you think he is just stringing me along or could he be afraid of committing to me or is he just too comfortable in the fact that he has everything right now (I do the cooking, cleaning, taking care of the dogs, taking care of his needs and anything else he might need or ask me to do). I am confused and quite honestly I don't want to nag and keep asking him about marriage and I don't want him to feel like I am forcing it upon him and when/if he does propose I don't want it to feel like it was because I said something by putting him on the spot and asking him "are you ever going to marry me" or something like that.

What do you think? I would also really like a man's perspective as well as a woman's. I don't have any friends that I feel I can talk to about this so as much feedback as I can get would be great.

Thanks and I apologize for it being so long.