Do you think DINKs are the future?

[Anonymous]

FYI, DINK = Dual-income, no kids.

With the cost of everything skyrocketing, do you see this as the future for Gen Z? Or maybe even SINKs (single-income…)?

[Anonymous]

I see a lot of SINKs. Mostly women. In my family out of ten cousins, three are single women without kids. At work, there are several women in their 30's and 40's who are single without kids.

[Anonymous]

I signed up to to a DiNK 15 years ago. My ex husband chanced his mind (or lied).

I feel like I was ahead of my time.

[Anonymous]

If so, I am optimistic that this will result in the added bonus of diminishing their progressive political ideaology since the couples who will likely opt into continuing to reproduce will trend conservative.

[Anonymous]

No they are not. The U.S. population is changing and the newcomers don’t subscribe to this nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Most of the childless people I know are single.

[Anonymous]

I think DINKS are now. Less than 40% of my friends from college have kids and we are 40-47. Those who don’t already have them are committed to the DINK life. I say good for them! Parenting is not for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of SINKs. Mostly women. In my family out of ten cousins, three are single women without kids. At work, there are several women in their 30's and 40's who are single without kids.

This too. You are describing half of my college sorority, all very late 30s to mid 40s.

[Anonymous]

Sure, but if they are then our future isn't very long.

But maybe not. I think that many more people will choose to not have kids across the world as BC access improves for women and the climate crisis worsens. But... biology is strong. Very, very strong. With how miserable the world has been in ways we can't even imagine today, people still had kids.

[Anonymous]

Nah, I think childfree people tend to be vocal about it but in reality they are the minority. I'm 33 and most of my friends have or want kids.

[Anonymous]

I think the DINK or SINK mentality can be heavily influenced by certain decades.

As an example, kids graduating into the 2006 - 2015 job market probably have a very different perspective than even graduates today.

Is you are 21 in 2006, that puts you in the 40ish range which seems to comport with some of the answers above.

Not sure GenZ will have the same perspective.

[Anonymous]

Both my nieces in their 30's and married do not want kids. They have beautiful homes, travel, workout and like their lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

How can DINKs be the future? Once we reach negative population growth, we wind up with massive economic problems. It doesn't work. Our whole society depends on the idea of there always being a replacement workforce (who will pay taxes and take care of the elderly) coming up.

I don't care if any individual person has kids or not, and I myself decided to only have one so my spouse and I didn't even reach replacement level. But the idea that "the future" is people just choosing not to have kids is crazy because that future would be extremely short lived and ultimately really unpleasant.

[Anonymous]

Not at all.

[Anonymous]

I think DINKs and SINKs are the now, the millennials. I know many at work who don’t have kids, don’t want kids, don’t want to get married.
Gen Z is just graduating college, the eldest are like 25, it’s too soon to tell what they will do. The small n of my DC and friends in college indicates that they have or want to have long term relationships, but again what they will do, it’s too soon.