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The most common question that DINKs get asked has to be: When are you having kids? Because everyone knows that everyone must want kids, right? Everyone else has kids, so it must be the thing to do.

The thing is: A LOT of people don’t want to have kids. EVER. I know this a hard thing to believe for parents of little darlings and dashing young gents, but it’s absolutely 100% the truth.

If you don’t want to have kids, you don’t really owe anyone any explanations for why you don’t want to have kids. The same is true if you can’t have kids for a medical reason. As curious as some people are about why others don’t want to have kids, if they have kids, they probably don’t want to know the reasons. (Some of the reasons may include: kids are a lot of work, are expensive, and can be energy-suckers no matter how cute they look in all of the baby pictures.)

Others feel incredibly strong about their choice not to have children. This Guardian writer sounds really harsh in her reasons for not wanting kids and is even harder on the parents of children:

“Spare me. Spare me the one-track conversations. Spare me the self-righteousness, the sense of entitlement (you, with the toddler-on-wheels: astonishing news just in! You don't have pavement priority over the rest of the world!). Spare me the pretensions of martyrdom and selflessness. (It's my experience that parenthood doesn't make anyone less selfish. Humans simply extend the sphere of their selfishness when they have kids, so that it embraces the kids and dishes out a fierce battering to the rest of the world. Also - no one has a baby out of selflessness. You really want to be selfless? Adopt, lover.) And please spare me the pitying glances (I promise I don't want what you have. Honestly, I find it mind-boggling that you don't want what I have. Are you quite sure you're not poleaxed with jealousy?).”

Of course, not all of the women who don’t want to have kids are as negative about child-raising, kids, or their parents; however, the choice to have children or not should be a personal decision. Parents, grandparents, curious neighbors and others can and will ask childless couples when they are having children, but only the couple (or the individual) gets the final say. 

As this article points out, there are a lot of reasons that women don’t want children. Career, a dislike of kids and everything associated with them, or health reasons were the reasons I agreed with on the site. (Fear and jealousy, on the other hand, were not the most realistic reasons that I saw.)

If you are a DINK or a SINK (Single Income NO Kids), try not to worry when moms and dads ask you when you are planning to start a family. Just remember that the decision to have kids or not is a decision you have to make for yourself(ves).