There is no "let him down easy." He's going to be disappointed, at best.
The best thing you can do is be frank and honest. Don't be coy. Don't say "it's not you...it's me." bullsh*t. It's both you AND him. Otherwise you wouldn't be breaking up.
No matter what you say or do, he’s going to be disappointed unless like you he realizes that the relationship is coming to an end. I’m going to guess that he may be expecting it, since he may be feeling you withdraw from the relationship. Notice how he seems to be feeling. If he seems to be withdrawing, then he may not get angry and depressed about the breakup.
My feeling is that you need to have a face-to-face end-of-relationship discussion to formally end things. You can tell him you have something to talk about. When you get together, start off by telling him about the positives of your relationship. Then tell him why you now need to end things. Doing it that way will let him down more easily. Don’t promise to be friends to soften the blow. You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. I’ve never been friends with any of my exes. I think it’s better to just let them go so that they can start over with somebody else.
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There is no "let him down easy." He's going to be disappointed, at best.
The best thing you can do is be frank and honest. Don't be coy. Don't say "it's not you...it's me." bullsh*t. It's both you AND him. Otherwise you wouldn't be breaking up.
No matter what you say or do, he’s going to be disappointed unless like you he realizes that the relationship is coming to an end. I’m going to guess that he may be expecting it, since he may be feeling you withdraw from the relationship. Notice how he seems to be feeling. If he seems to be withdrawing, then he may not get angry and depressed about the breakup.
My feeling is that you need to have a face-to-face end-of-relationship discussion to formally end things. You can tell him you have something to talk about. When you get together, start off by telling him about the positives of your relationship. Then tell him why you now need to end things. Doing it that way will let him down more easily. Don’t promise to be friends to soften the blow. You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. I’ve never been friends with any of my exes. I think it’s better to just let them go so that they can start over with somebody else.