A friend who always wanted to be childfree is starting to waver

A friend of ours (24M) has always been adamantly childfree. He has never wanted kids and was serious about it. His logic is that he could not fathom going through what his mother went through raising him and his 3 siblings. When he was 17, we met at a group home. (I was 16 and there for a year, he was there for 2 years). <br><br>He confessed to me in a text that he and his long time girlfriend (20F) were now thinking about having a child. He said to take it as a grain of salt cause he knows he doesn’t want kids but to hear him out. He said this past christmas he hung out with his cousin who has two daughters. He loved spending time with them and they really made him feel like he was missing out on something. <br><br>He also confessed that in the past month he was starting to feel depressed and unhappy. He said he doesn’t think it’s in regards to money, but he assumes it might be loneliness. He said he always thought he was happy being alone but maybe he just wanted to prove to himself he was capable of it and now that he feels he has proven it, he wants to try something new. He says he’s not in a good place to take care of a child but that he’s doing it anyway because he wants to have a kid. <br><br>I was ambushed by this text because he always talked about being childfree as a long term goal. I wasn’t sure what to say and he said I didn’t have to respond because he just needed to vent. I am sincerely worried that he is not in a good place to take care of a child. He has a lot of emotional baggage and is currently working at a dead-end job. <br><br>It will be a mistake for him to do this, I can already tell. I am not sure how to convince him of this.