DINKs — dual income no kids — boast about sleeping in, eating snacks and going on holidays in viral trend

“DINK” couples are bragging about their child-free lifestyles where they sleep in, eat out at restaurants every night and go on holidays whenever they want.

Young DINK couples — dual income no kids — are bragging about their child-free lifestyles where they sleep in, eat out at restaurants every night and go on holidays whenever they want.

In a series of videos going viral on TikTok, young couples take turns describing all the things they enjoy doing, listing each with the refrain, “We’re DINKs!”

“We’re DINKs — we go to Trader Joe’s and workout classes on the weekends,” a woman says in one video, also boasting that “we get a full eight hours of sleep and sometimes more” and “we spend our discretionary income on $8 lattes”.

Her partner adds that “we get into snobby hobbies like skiing and golfing”, “we get desserts and appetisers at restaurants” and “we’re already planning our European vacation next year”.

There are going to be a lot of “DINKs” in the future in their 50s to 80s that are going to be regretting this strategy.

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pic.twitter.com/BZU2xNQrmZ

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) December 5, 2023

In a video of another couple, the man says that “of course we’re going to go out to eat every night after work” and “I’m going to go to every football game and play 18 holes whenever I want”.

His partner brags that “we don’t have to ask our family for financial help or to watch our kid when we want to go out” and that “we have disposable income to spend on whatever we like and don’t have to spend on a kid”.

A man in a third video says they can “go to Costco and buy all the snacks we want”.

His partner adds, “We’re going to get chastised by people on the internet because they’re going to assume that we’re just obsessed with material things, even though arguably you need a lot more material things once you have kids.”

DINKs stands for ‘dual income no kids’. Picture: X

Several of the videos have gone viral after being shared on X.

“You’re both genetic dead ends congrats,” one user captioned a video that has been viewed more than 24 million times.

The site’s billionaire owner Elon Musk even weighed in by describing the trend as “awful”.

“There are going to be a lot of ‘DINKs’ in the future in their 50s to 80s that are going to be regretting this strategy,” the account Wall Street Silver wrote.

Musk, who has fathered eleven children with three different women, replied, “There is an awful morality to those who deliberately have no kids: they are effectively demanding that other people’s kids take care of them in their old age. That’s messed up.”

Not everyone agreed with Musk.

X chief executive Elon Musk. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

“I can totally understand why young people, even folks my age, would be wary of bringing children into the world,” one man said. “It’s totally rational. There’s so many reasons. Economic, familial support, healthy environment, etc. Personally, I’m hoping for a personal robot.”

A second person said, “I’ve never had children, but I still have to ‘pay’ to educate the kids of others. Pay for school lunches, pay for buses to get them to school, pay for ‘free’ community camps for their kids to go to in the summer. I’d say we are even-steven.”

A third woman wrote, “I know lots of people in their old age and their kids are living in the basement and they aren’t taking care of their parents. The good news is that many people I know who didn’t have children, some couldn’t, were able to save enough millions that they don’t need anybody else’s kids to take care of them. They can afford the best.”

Couples have been promoting the DINK lifestyle. Picture: X

The DINK trend has gained media attention in recent days, with Business Insider publishing an article on Monday headlined, “Meet the typical DINK: They have over $200,000 in the bank and aren’t paying for pricey childcare.”

The article claimed that DINK families “are thriving economically” with a median net worth of more than $US200,000 ($305,000) and six-figure salaries, while also being “set up for a cushy retirement, with more money stashed away than other groups”.

DINKs “are seeing their ranks grow, especially as a high cost of living and the climate crisis weigh particularly on people with children”, it said.

Around one in five adults today intends to remain childless, a figure that has doubled since the 1970s.

You’re both genetic dead ends congrats pic.twitter.com/IACLvQzp1v

— ᴡᴇϟ (@offtheraiIs) December 4, 2023

A 2022 survey suggested about 5 per cent of the US population consisted of cohabiting couples who do not live with a child under 18 in 2022, and around 29 per cent were married couples who do not live with a child under 18, Business Insider reports.

“Deciding not to have kids, and instead deciding to just focus on our interests and our desires and what we want out of life has just given us a little bit more freedom, essentially, to take advantage of the world now, versus having to wait until our kids are grown or until we retire — if we retire,” Nicole Valdez, 37, told the outlet.

In Australia, a 2015 analysis by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) suggested childless families would outnumber those with children for the first time by 2030.

“ABS projections suggest that families will look very different in the next 15 years with more couple families living in smaller households without children than currently do now,” AIFS director Anne Hollonds said at the time.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data showed that the proportion of couples without children increased from 28 per cent in 1976 to 37.8 per cent in 2011.

Kaz and Mitch Hills. Picture: Supplied

Aussie DINKs weigh in

Mitch Hills, 29, and his wife Kaz, 33, have proudly embraced the DINK lifestyle.

When the Brisbane couple, who run digital marketing business Mastered Marketing, got married 18 months ago they had already agreed they did not want children.

Mr Hills said it was his wife who felt more strongly about the decision.

“I was a bit upset for a day, but then I thought, do I want kids or is it just what’s expected?” he told news.com.au.

“I realised maybe I don’t want them. I also love my wife so much I’d rather be with her — I value my wife more than I value kids.”

Mr Hills said he and his wife were both “very active and work out every day so our health and sleep is very important to us”, and they were “excited about traveling later in life and doing things a lot of people with kids are unable to do”.

He added that “the benefits I would get from a kid [don’t] have to come from my kid”.

“Of course you want to guide and mentor someone, but that can be nieces and nephews, we’ve also got a sponsor child in Africa,” he said.

While they hadn’t received “too much pushback” from family and friends, Mr Hills said the one thing that “grinds her gears” was when people told Kaz “you’ll change your mind”. “She’s like, I’m not a child — it’s quite patronising,” he said.

Mr Hills said the biggest benefit to the DINK lifestyle was “there’s just not a big giant weight on your shoulders that you have to plan for”.

“We don’t have much to worry about in the future other than standard stuff like health,” he said.

“There’s not that giant cloud. It’s very admirable raising a child and I don’t judge people who do it but it’s not for me. They talk about how hard it is — it is hard, but you don’t have to do it. It’s like they’ve been involuntarily enlisted in the army. You chose this.”

‘We don’t have much to worry about in the future.’ Picture: Supplied

He pushed back on Musk’s argument that people who don’t have children are “selfish”.

“If the reason you’re having kids is for someone to look after you when you’re old, that in itself is kind of selfish,” he said.

“The other thing is there are so many people in aged care facilities who have kids and don’t get visited.”

Katrena Friel, 54, has been married for 37 years and knew she didn’t want children from the age of 16.

“I think because I was one of four girls and so for me growing up it seemed like my mum had it really hard,” she said.

“I just remember my mum in the laundry with piles of washing that never ended — it didn’t seem very attractive.”

Ms Friel, a speaker and trainer with Refresh Your Thinking based on the NSW central coast, said she made up her mind and “never deviated” even after meeting her husband at 18. “I didn’t have to convince him at all, we were both on the same page,” she said.

On the pros and cons of the DINK lifestyle, Ms Friel said they “don’t think there’s any cons”.

“I have spent a lifetime trying to work out why do people have children, because they all seem to complain,” she said.

“It’s the most challenging job on the planet, is what I’ve come up with. So much can go wrong and you’re in a constant state of worry about everything.”

Conversely, “in terms of our lifestyle the pros are complete freedom”.

“People often think the financial impact is important but for us it’s about freedom and being comfortable and knowing how much is enough,” she said.

“We’re not pursuing big houses, big mortgages, we’re more interested in comfort, no debt, travel. I was going to write a book, 1001 Reasons Not to Have Children, but I don’t really think it’s a long list — it’s the fundamental ones of freedom, less worry and stress, and in my case I make career my focus.”