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Venting (judge free)

my boyfriend calls me his wife

I know this, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t a huge deal…but it drives me crazy that the father of my two children calls me his wife. I’ll be honest, I thought it was cute when we had first started dating because he expressed that he planned on marrying me. We were so in love…But 4 years and 2 children later it’s not so cute anymore. Insulting might be a better word. I’ve asked him multiple times to stop, because my feelings aside it’s also really confusing for other people when he does it. At this point though I’ve come to the conclusion that he does it when he’s trying to save face in front of strangers and acquaintances. I believe he wants to appear like he’s this traditional family man. What really gets under my skin about this whole thing is that halfway through my last pregnancy he went out with his coworkers and the next day claimed that he had planned a proposal for me after feeling guilty for staying out later than he had promised (came home at 4 am - also not the first time this has happened). Showed me a ring and everything - to clarify, he did not propose he just told me about his plan lol. Turns out that guilt really stemmed from the fact that he had hid that he went to a strip club and then got a lap dance…god knows what else happened. He never had attempted planning a proposal prior to that. I’m 5 months postpartum now and whenever he calls me his wife it makes my skin crawl. I try to force myself to ignore it, but every once in a while I can’t push it down and I just feel so disgusted by him.

I’m struggling to figure out how to deal with this in a way that doesn’t result in my kids growing up in a broken home…does anyone have any tips?