Reality Show - Welcome to Plathville - kids vs children?

We always referred to our kids as ‘the boys’.  ‘What do you think the boys want…ask the boys…etc.’

I'm pretty sure I say "the kids" quite regularly. I mean, people know I'm talking about my own children when I say it, so it doesn't seem necessary for me to specify that they are mine/ours.   For instance, I talk to my parents daily.  I tell them about our day.  To me, it would feel odd to keep saying "I took my kids to get ice cream." or "I took our kids to the movies"; because  I imagine my parents' reactions would be "Well, who else's kids would you be taking??"


If anything, these days, I am more aware/concerned what my fairly new-ish adult kid might think about me still using the term "kids", LOL. I mean, they've technically been an adult for a long enough time for me to be used to it, but I still do it. I refer to my nieces/nephews who are 18+ as "kids", too, though, so at least maybe my adult kid can comfort themselves with the notion that I'm not sayin only they are still a "kid".

Most often it’s “the.”

I guess I can think of a few instances where I would use “my.”

Like, if someone else initiates the conversation and says “my child says what happened was…,” I might reply, “well, my child says…”

But if I’m just talking about my kids to someone I would say “the.”

Like “On our road trip, the children really enjoyed Colonial Williamsburg, it was their favorite thing.”


I also don’t really like the word “kids.” I’ll say children or babies or BAEs or boos or pretty much anything else.

Quite familiar with both assumptions - ours are 30, 22, and 15...yes they have the same father (and the same mother), no, the youngest was not an accident (she was probably the most planned), yes it was like starting over with each of the younger ones, and actually we wanted more (secondary IF)

And yes - I tried to word things to make it clear that we were not a blended family (not that there's anything wrong with blended families- I grew up in one - it's just ours isn't one)

The kids.....I like

The children....I don't like

Oh, so its the "children" part your talking about....then I agree, saying children sounds formal to me. We always just say the kids.

I never understood why people don't like to use the word "kid/Kids" vs. children. I mostly use the "kids".. maybe children sprinkled here and there. "Kid" can have more than one meaning like lots of words do. Not just goats.

"The children" sounds so stilted and formal. The kids sounds more...normal.

I watch that show too and I always cringe at how everyone refers to the youngest children as the "little girls" like those kids have no individual identities.

My oldest sibling will be 63 next month, and the youngest (of 6) is 50. My mom still calls us collectively “the kids,” as in “all of the kids will be here for Thanksgiving.” I’ve never thought twice about it until this thread LOL.

I always say "the kids".  I hardly ever say "children".  I just prefer "kids".