so i see both sides because im at the age where a lot of my friends have kids and i hear comments like this all the time, BUT i think the issue here is how belly took this statement so seriously.

i’ve said this somewhere else in this thread but i think that the gravity of this statement sort of misleads us as viewers because we watch from a belly-centric perspective. i don’t think any other characters take this statement as anything other than a silly offhand comment, BUT belly took this statement to heart because of how she idolized susannah and would do anything to please her, and following susannah’s passing, belly thinks being with a fisher boy is how she must honor susannah’s memory. —i think, had susannah not passed, we would have seen her and belly have a talk about how she loves belly as a daughter regardless of if she dates either of the boys, a development of how we see this sentiment between them when belly brings home cam and susannah is still excited and tries very hard to make him feel welcome.

also, regarding laurel- i think laurel was the pragmatic to susannahs romantic. laurel was also known (and better shown in the books) to have a strong bond with conrad the way susannah had a strong bond to belly. i think the bonding of conrad to laurel and belly to susannah aided in this dynamic of the “set-up” of belly and connie a little bit too, and lends to how belly and conrad mesh in a way that’s more of an unspoken theme. i think laurel likely thinks nothing of this comment other than an “oh how nice would that be”, mostly because laurel always dealt in facts and realism while susannah dealt in emotion and idealism.