Is it wrong to refer to children as kids? One discerning mother, when asked about her kids, always replied, “I don’t raise goats, but my children are fine.” Grant explains that as early as the 1600s, the word kids had popped up to refer to bratty or unruly children. But by the 1800s, it was normal even among upper-class households to call their young ones “kids” without any negative connotations. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Children vs. Kids”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Drew White. I’m calling from Oceanside, California.
Well, welcome to the program.
Thank you.
What would you like to talk with us about?
Well, this is one of those things that stick when you’re a little one from your mom.
Mm—
When mom was raising me, everybody was raising children. You didn’t work. And your level of…
Oh, no, that wasn’t work.
No, it wasn’t work at all, huh?
They kind of raised themselves, don’t they?
Plug and drag.
Oh, you just got to keep the water dish filled and they’re fine.
I know.
I know.
And it’s changed so much because the level of a good, you know, mother was the perfect house, very clean, perfect children, well-behaved, articulate, you know what I mean, all of that.
Well, I have to say, in all seriousness, that’s still the standard, isn’t it?
If you’re the house husband or the house wife, that’s still the standard.
Well, kind of, but it’s a little looser than it used to be, you know?
And that’s where this whole thing came in.
I remember somebody coming up to my mother and saying, how old is your kid?
And my mother straightening up to her full height.
And let me throw this in.
My mother looked like Marilyn Monroe and acted like Lucille Ball.
She must have been amazing.
Oh, she is.
Wow.
You’ve got the visual.
Okay, so she really got away with a lot.
-huh.
And she straightened up, and she looked at them, and she said,
Oh, you know, we don’t have any goats, but my daughter’s 10.
Oh.
She resented her children being called kids.
Because she was raised on an arm, and she explained to me that it was slang,
And kids were unruly, unbehaved children that you really didn’t want to let into your house.
Oh, I see.
And she was a super…
And to this day, now that pretty much there is no word children,
Everybody calls them kids, you know, I go, oh, my God.
Well, then they have a brat.
Very good.
Yeah, children is for hospital forms, right?
Yeah, yeah.
You know, I mean, W.C. Fields, it was, you know, get your kid out of here.
It was derogatory when I was growing up.
So where on earth did that start?
Well, it’s interesting. It predates calling children kids easily goes back to the 1600s, and it did start as a contemptuous use.
It was used in a way to talk about kids as brats.
Thank you.
But by the 1800s, it was normal. Even people in the upper classes of British society were using kid to mean children.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, so it’s got hundreds of years behind it, and I have heard your mother’s complaints before.
Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
I have to say, I don’t necessarily agree with it, but if she meant it as a way of distinguishing her well-behaved, clean, orderly children, if she meant that as a way to distinguish them from the rabble, then good for her.
Yeah, that was exactly it.
And I thought, well, did this just start when she was raising them, or has it been around?
And obviously, it has been around forever.
Yeah, a long time.
And you’re right.
It’s basically the standard term for children these days.
I’m just trying to get over the little hairs going up the back.
And it’s all from my mom.
You know, they do a good job.
She loves the language.
She’s a stickler for the terminology.
And she’s Southern.
She’s a good old Texas girl.
Okay.
And she loves our show, I’ll bet.
She adores your show.
Very good.
Well, Drew’s mom.
You sound like a winner.
Yes.
She is a winner.
She’s a doll.
Drew, we have to ask you.
Do you have, how shall I put this, offspring?
I do.
I do.
I have a son.
I do.
-huh.
And what do you call him, your child or your kid?
I basically call him my son.
Okay.
You know, my child.
Child is a little affordable.
I just say my son.
Mm—
My son, the firefighter, would be my whole, that’s his whole handle right there.
Well, it sounds like you did a great job with your kid there.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Your son.
Well, tell your homemaker mother, tell your beautiful homemaker mother that we said thanks for listening and she sounds like a delightful person.
Thank you for calling, Drew.
This is a huge treat.
Thank you so much.
Our pleasure.
Bye-bye, Drew.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
You know what?
Everybody needs a kind of magical person in their life, whether it’s a teacher or a librarian or a parent or a grandmother or somebody like that.
That one person who’s got spine and wit and knows how to use them both.
And you’re mine.
Oh, I feel sorry for you.
Call us and tell us about the stickler in your life and what you learned from that person, 877-929-9673.
Or tell us the stories about that person in email at words@waywordradio.org.
