Children......

Mike

Mike

Well-known Member
Location
London
.......Or Kids?

When I hear people referring to their children as Kids,
it reminds me of when I was at Primary School, the
teacher said to somebody who had made the same
mistake, "we are humans, humans have a child or
children if there are more than one, Goats have a
Kid or Kids if there are more than one".

Am I wrong in thinking this way, or are you calling
your children "Kids"?

They make the same mistake on the TV news.

Mike.
 

I know that “kids” is wrong but I’ve probably used it on occasion, maybe because kids is shorter than typing I have 2 children.

Im basically lazy and hate typing....that’s my excuse.:)
 
Soon after my daughter started school , aged 4 or 5.. she came home and told me off in a stern voice.. ''Mummy, Kids are baby goats, I'm a child, not a Kid''.... ;)

Of course she was quite right..but ..
She's still got that same proper little madam attitude to this day....
 

I almost always say kids even though I know it's not correct. Sometimes in a more formal setting,such as someone in a doctors office, a lawyer, or maybe a bank wanting information, I will say I have two children.
 
My parents had two kids. No one then and no one now has mistaken my brother or me for goats. :confused:

Doesn't really mean they haven't though, of course. Who knows. :shrug:
 
Stop sweating what you call your offspring. Language is fluid, changing constantly. "Kids" is accepted by the masses. I doubt that most kids today even know the baby goat thing.
 
At least today in the US, your Primary School teacher would be in error. According to Merriam-Webster the primary definition of "kid" is "a young person". I don't know what's considered correct in London.
 
Kids was a common slang word for children since I was a kid. I use both terms today, but I use kids more often. I don't have any kids except for my two furkids. :D
 
I wonder if using the word "kids" was popularized after Bye Bye Birdie was released in the 60's? "What's The Matter With Kids today" was one of the songs that really caught on!

The words kids and children are interchangeable when I refer to my brood. I've never given any thought to which I use more. Same with the grands, sometimes they're grandkids, and sometimes grandchildren, depending on both whim and context.
 
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kid

[h=2]Is the word kid slang?[/h] Noun
Some people worry that kid, when used of a child rather than a juvenile goat, is either slang or too colloquial to merit acceptance in standard English.


The fact is that we have been using kid to refer to a child that is human, rather than goatish, for more than three hundred years now. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that although this word was considered “low slang” when it first began being used, it had entered “familiar speech” by the 19th century.


In contemporary English, kid is neither slang nor improper. It is, however, most definitely informal, so those writing professionally or in a formal register might prefer to use child.
 
We still call them "the kids", they are 54 and 56. We also have grandkids in their 20s.
My sister has great grandkids.
 
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