Amid a push for Chinese couples to have more babies, Beijing resident Four Wang, 42, and his wife have decided it is too much of a risk.
"It would be just like opening a mystery box," Mr Wang said.
"I have no courage to open it."
The finance worker said a child would be expensive and could reduce his quality of life.
"The money I saved can be used for shopping," he said.
"I won't need to worry about children's lives, health, safety, et cetera."
Mr Wang and his wife, who also works full time, are among a growing number of "double income, no kids", or DINKS, in China.
But these couples' choices clash with traditional views in a country where being married but not having children is taboo.
There is also an expectation that a couple needs a child to continue the family lineage and have someone look after them in old age.
But Mr Wang, who has five married and child-free cousins, said many couples no longer cared about those perceptions.
Instead, he said he felt his decision was "smart".
His comments come as Beijing ramps up efforts to encourage people to have children in the wake of China's fertility rate hitting a record low of 6.77 births per 1,000 people in 2022.
China recently announced it was launching pilot projects in more than 20 cities to create a "new-era" marriage and child-bearing culture to foster a friendly child-bearing environment.
Also, single women can now take paid maternity leave and receive child subsidies — and take IVF treatment legally.
These are just some of the latest measures Beijing has announced since ditching a rigid one-child policy in 2016 because of an ageing and declining population.
Couples can now have three children.
DINK families in China on the rise
There are about 188 million DINK families in China and that figure is increasing, according to Chinese sociologist Shouting Lu's analysis of the latest census data.
"This is an important factor in China's low fertility rate," Mr Lu wrote in an academic paper in 2022.
Nancy Zhang, 34, who works as a sales representative for a pet food company in China's northern city of Tianjin, is among the DINK cohort.
She has been married for six years and is enjoying her child-free life.
Ms Zhang said she chose not to have children because there were "too many uncertain factors in Chinese society" such as access to education.
She also said there was no "guarantee" she would be happy if she had a child.
"There is too much pressure to have children, both physically and mentally," she said.
"The subsequent education and parenting have invisible costs, and many women tend to bear more pressure than men once they have a child."
Yang Hu, professor of global sociology at Lancaster University, echoed that sentiment, adding that women had to work and look after the household.
Professor Hu said this was a roadblock in China's effort to boost fertility rates, and he urged Beijing to try to achieve "gender equality".
"If people want to have a child, do they have reasonable maternity leave? Can society give more support to women?" he said.
"[The Chinese government] is keen to promote fertility … but just using policies [makes it] very difficult to change the situation.
"It requires a cultural change."
Professor Hu said traditional family values were also shifting.
"More and more people are paying more attention to individual development," he said.
'Family is no longer the most important option'
Jian Ma, 49, who owns a cafe in the southern city of Dalian, once felt the pressure of those traditional values. However, his views have changed.
"I had made a promise to my father before he died that I would have a child in the future," Mr Ma said.
However, he and his wife decided not to have a child because of his wife's age and their personal circumstances.
They also felt they could do "retirement planning" differently.
"I have two plans. One is that I'm going to migrate to a country that has great social welfare," he said.
"[The other plan] is all my savings will either be given to a nursing home to look after me in the future, or a lawyer will manage it."
Yuying Tong, a sociologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said increasing options for retirement and improvements in China's social systems were impacting fertility rates.
"The development of social security in China has reduced people's dependence on family when they become older," Professor Tong said.
"With the development of socio-economy … influenced by Western culture, family is no longer the most important goal that people are focusing on.
"[Many people] feel that the give and take of raising children is no longer proportional."
Mr Ma said he and his wife's DINK life was "very cool".
"If I had kids, I would give them my best and that would lead to a decrease in my quality of life," he said.
"Generally, it is good if I spend [all my money] before I die."
The cost of raising a child in China is the second highest in the world, according to Chinese think tank Yuwa Population Research, and 3.3 times more expensive than raising a child in Australia.
Chinese parents also usually spend a lot of money on their children's extracurricular tutoring to make sure they don't fall behind their peers, and help their adult children pay for housing, cars, and weddings.
The cost of raising children in China has led many young people to discuss the issue on social media, with posts like, "children are cash shredders" and "housing prices are the best contraceptive pills".
For DINKS like Mr Wang and his wife, Beijing's policy changes and push for a higher birth rate have done little to change their minds.
"State policies are constantly changing. When I was born, having a second child [was] rebellious and illegal," he said.
"I don't know what kinds of policies will be imposed when I am older."
Additional reporting by Bang Xiao
