One of you wanting them and the other not is not very negotiable, and hopefully you sorted this out before the two of you got involved. (If not, make sure you do the next time.) If you're sure you don't want kids and have absolutely no doubt, get yourself sterilized, get a t-shirt that says as much, and never take it off: You'll save yourself a serious amount of heartache. If you've changed your mind, be honest about it; people do change. Still, it's a hard issue to compromise.

A major cause of breakups of otherwise promising relationships is someone else's kids. If you or your date has kids from previous relationships, it's a good idea to make sure your relationship has lags before you get the kids involved. Once the kids are involved, they become attached, and the relationship between the adults becomes that much trickier. If the two of you are really cooking, but the kids hate the idea, you may want to seek out some good couples' counseling before you call it a day. Kids can be incredibly disruptive, but adults owe kids even when it's hard on a social life.