Oh dear! Perhaps you can fob him off with very realistic dolls? It is certainly not as though you would have the option of changing your mind. Once you add a person to the world, they are right in there affecting your continuity until at least one of you dies. Alarming!

Also, maybe people who "love children" just enjoy interacting with people who don't do some of the more wearying things that grown-up people have usually learned to do? Children don't do much complaining about the co-worker they hate or interest rates or how fat that dress makes them look. (In general, though, I think that you are right and it is strange of them. Some children are great. Some children are terrible!)

@ Yak Boy:

I was going to say something about staying classy, but it gave me a weird moment of déjà vu. Maybe I did that last time you left me a comment. It seems plausible enough.

"I love kids" is kind of a mean thing to say. Its like saying that you only like one group of people. "How old are you? 8? You're okay. How old are you? 14? Fuck you."

Saying you love children is okay to say as a general statement.
It's when you get into specifics that you get into trouble.
"I love twelve year olds."

I also don't really get all of these people who say they "love children." What -- all of them, indiscriminately? I can't grok the idea of categorically "loving children" any more than I can grok the idea of categorically "loving people." (I do love most animals.)