In the spirit of the posts lately about not moving in together without a ring on your finger, I feel like my situation is a prime example as to exactly why that can be a bad idea.

In many ways my bf is the masculine man of my dreams. He is happy to work long hours to save up for kids and a house while I stay home, cook, clean, and pursue my own interests. He always pays for dinner, deals with all the spiders, and is overall very dependable and sweet. Our sex life is also quite good. I know that my life is a lot of people's dream, and to a large extent I do feel very blessed and privileged.

However, I feel like our situation is almost ~too~ comfortable. He gets his housewife, without having to expend the money and effort to lock down the "wife" part. We moved in together 2.5 years ago, when I graduated college, and since then I've been very upfront about wanting to get married soon. We talk about kids all the time; I really want to start having them while I'm still young. We also talked about what I'd like in a ring over 2 years ago. Several times, we've had very serious conversations where I tell him that I'm upset that we aren't engaged yet, and he always tells me it's coming and he wants it to be a surprise. He is also well aware that I'm very touchy about other people getting married. He originally told me (in the fall of 2019) that we'd get engaged in the spring of 2020, but COVID hit, and the spring and summer came and went with no ring.

Here's my real question:

I've dropped several (massive, elephant-sized) hints about wanting a proposal at an upcoming event we have planned. I let him know this over a month in advance and he didn't raise any objections (but again, he always talks about wanting it to be a "surprise" so I doubt he'd tell me anything either way). As the event gets nearer, I'm getting more and more anxious about the very real possibility that, once again, he just won't propose. As a result, I've been pretty moody lately, and I know he's picking up on it. I always strive to be supportive and, to use Laura Doyle's term, "surrendered," but it's just not happening these days. I've blown up on him over minor things, and even though we always make up afterwards, I'm afraid that if he was considering proposing my bitchiness this past week has made him rethink it. I don't want to talk to him anymore about it, though, because I know that he'd just be annoyed at me for messing with the "surprise."

The thing is that I'm firmly considering staying at my mom's house for a while (a few months, maybe) if a proposal doesn't happen on or before this event. My mom lives in another state, and due to COVID, he and I wouldn't be able to visit each other. I really love this man, I think he's an amazing catch, and I honestly don't think that I could leave him even if he didn't propose for another 3 years. But I don't think it's good for us to keep living like this right now.

Is this a bad idea? Again, I am very happy with almost everything about our relationship, but the engagement thing is becoming a bigger and bigger problem and at some point I have to do something other than wait patiently and be surrendered, right?

Edit: Wow! Thanks for all the responses so far. :)

One thing I wanted to respond to is that I am seeing several accounts that seem to be run by men saying to stop hinting and to just keep showing my trust and patience in him. This is solid, reasonable advice and likely my man's perspective too, so thank you for the reality check. However, I am really hurting from waiting so long. Seven-plus years of dating was not at all the timeline I envisioned for my life, and I've always been upfront about thaat. I am happy with red pill values in most areas, but I'm realizing more and more that I do want at least a say in the timeline of my life, especially because to me, living up to red-pill values includes getting started on having a family sooner rather than later and not endlessly dating without real, legal commitment. The pain of waiting endlessly for a ring is truly damaging our relationship, and I don't think that me being silent about it will fix that.

Edit #2: This has been tremendously helpful, much more so than all the "Dump-him-first-and-ask-questions-later" replies I got in the general relationships sub. :) Hearing from ladies on the other side of all this made me feel a lot better, and I realized that I absolutely do need to divest myself from thinking it should happen during the event. I will give it some more time, with the awareness that I eventually do need to have a calm, open conversation about the fact that I cannot wait forever. Thanks all. <3