Interesting that you can pinpoint so accurately. I recently broke up with a girlfriend of 4.5 years for a bit of a similar reason, although I can't say precisely when I realized it's what I had to do. Sometime in the last year--in the summer is when it got bad--I realized that what I want out of life is a family of my own. I spend as much time as I can with my niece (an adorable Japanese-American 20 mo old) and it's made me realize that I think I'd be a pretty decent family man, which is odd, because I've never seen myself in that role. In fact, I think I've actively pursued relationships that I knew had no chance of becoming permanent. So, I took stock of my situation, realized that my current girlfriend, whom I lived with, a seriously complicating issue, would make an absolutely terrible wife and mother, so I did what I knew was an inevitability and broke up with her (which I felt terrible about until it came to my attention that she was a huge whore anyway--makes one feel a lot less guilty). It's these kind of tough choices that help make us into stronger people, I think. I'm not used to putting my own feelings above those of others, but at some point, we need to think about ourselves. Breaking up with a person you care about (even if you harbor a lot of resentment and anger under the surface) is about the toughest thing you can do. But for me, it's been the best choice I've made in a very long time.