My friend, a fellow mom to an 11-year-old, sent me this helpful vocabulary update:
In return, I told her about how I had recently learned that “you sold” is something you say to someone who did a bad job—because one of my kids tearfully told me his brother had said it to him.
My older son also sometimes starts sentences with “POV:”. I knew “POV” from Instagram reels and Tiktoks (in addition to the ancient phrase “point of view”), but now it’s in actual dialogue. I think it’s a version of how we used to say, “This is you:” or “I was like…” but also? I don’t care. I know it’s not for me. Yet it’s funny to hear.
In this vein, my friend Christina told me about her son hearing the Tiktok-famous phrase “Fax, no printer” (in lieu of the term “facts”) and trying to use it but saying “Copier, no printer” instead. And he adorably thought “ikr” stands for “I can’t relate.”
I’ll add all these to my youth lexicon. What cool slang are the kids in your life using these days, accurately or not? When we learn what they’re saying, we can confuse them over the weekend when we casually drop terms they thought we didn’t know. 😈
PS If you have a little one and they’ve made up their own slang, tell us. Theirs is probably better than the older kids’.
My 6yo picks up slang at aftercare. (It’s always aftercare.) He came home and asked, “Mom, are you Gucci? Am I Gucci?” I assured him we were both Gucci.
My kid also advised me to use the term "bet" here as in "You know it" but I disappointed him by letting him know we were saying "bet" in my day as well.
I wonder if they still say "psych!" (sike?) or if there's a replacement for that.
I know about as much Gen Z slang as Martin Scorsese, which I know because of this incredible video his daughter made: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8rRNaTV/
But also in my actual life: my 7 year old has become fixated on the term “sus” to the point that he and his friend make fake money called Sus Bucks (???)
Sus I know!!! My son is really into Among Us so we are all sus. Tangentially related, since he likes Among Us we played the board game Secret Hitler at Christmas which ended up my then 7 year old yelling at his grandmother, "you're sus! you're the fascist!" (I got ahead of that train wreck and prepped the teacher when we returned from break).
Secret Hitler is great. I have four teens and it’s been a hit for the whole fam. They call it My Little Hitler, which sounds real bad, but it also makes me laugh. 😬
Secret Hitler is a lot of fun. It was extra hilarious when we had my daughters first bday party and my husband put tons of games out on the tables for people to play and my aunt explains “what the heck is secret Hitler!?” Spoiler alert: I am Jewish. My husband is not 😂
In the game you’re a liberal or a fascist and you have to sus out who is who and you have to figure out who Hitler is. Idk with younger kids if you’d want to explain the historical significance there. You have to have a good poker face for this game. It’s fun and I am very bad at it 😂
Everything is sus in our house and also "slay" to the 8 year old, as picked up from and used with the twenty-something sibling. 8 yo: I got Subway! (Holds up bag.) 20-something: ~Slay~!
These are all so good! My 12yo texted my husband & I a bunch of pictures of the giant organs (!!!) they were dissecting in Science class and my husband responded "Unsubscribe" (A+ adult slang) and he responded "What do you mean." We still got it!
not really slang, but my son (4) will start his independent play time by saying "welcome to my channel! so, today we're...... (fill in whatever he's doing)" and i'd heard other parents say how their kids mimic youtube/tiktok/vine slang, but it still makes me giggle whenever he does it. and if i say anything that acknowledges i just heard him talking to his make believe "viewers" he gets so embarrassed.
So glad my kid isn't the only one who does this! I've caught him saying "don't forget to like and subscribe" at the end of whatever he's doing as well...
Oh man, my 3.5 year old does this! He's not quite as clear about it, but he'll narrate whatever he's doing like he's explaining to his audience. To be fair, I have this weirdly vivid memory of walking my dog on my dead-end gravel road as a kid and describing it all like an instructional video. It was WELL before the youtubes.
My 4 y.o. does this even today. She’s a big reader and a big feeler. Her voice is very much an omniscient narrator, sympathetic to her as the hero in a world of nefarious idiots. And honestly? I get it.
My 7yo is just starting to learn/notice slang at her school (functionally only child as bro is 25) and she is fascinated with “Ayo” which she doesn’t use herself but talks about how everyone else uses it (which seems to be like “hey” or “yo” from back in my day). It is pretty funny.
But her best personal slang ever was the three months when she pronounced chimpanzee as something that for all the world sounded like Joe Pesci. We had a little toy joe pesci and we visited the joe pescis at lincoln park zoo and were joe pescis better or were gorillas better? Literally the best. She was 2.
I did not realize Ayo was a current slang. Kid came home from school or daycare with that last year (we assumed it was slurred something...I thought his best friend at school was named Feel for uh...too long before we realized kid is actually Theo. good times)
I want to know if "Ayo" sounds the same as the "Hey-o!!" they say in "Always Sunny" or if it's a modification. Side note; I knew a guy named Ayo in my 20's so this makes me think of him. I wonder what he makes of his name being slang.
It is like hey yo but with less h at the top and a little more glide together (if you listen to the tyler the creator version of you’re a mean one mr grinch, there’s an example there)
The kids were taking forever to get ready to start getting ready for bed and saying “POV: this” and “POV: that” until I shouted “POV: you’re taking a shower.” And it backfired because they wouldn’t stop laughing and talking about it.
My 6 year old recently started saying “hell yeah” when she is interested in something. It’s not just “hell yeah” it’s the way she says it. All hulk hogan hell-yeah-brother-esque. I died laughing. Obviously we’ve had the don’t say that at school talk but I can’t be mad when she says it. It literally makes my insides tingle with glee 😂 not that that’s necessarily slang.
But I get the occasional “bruh” and she does say “bussin’” too. both of which make me cringe 🫣
Also we have family slang which I now force onto the entire world- my kid never wanted his food hot or cold, just "medium" and for some reason now that means whenever something happens that's not bad but not great I will describe it as "medium" "pretty medium" "very medium" It's so useful as a phrase! (Maybe I also picked it up from somewhere I'm not that creative with language lol)
Bussin’. Apparently it means cool, great, delicious. Used most often with food I think? That’s from my niece and nephew. My 10 year old introduced me to “ate” as in “She ATE that” which means she killed it, owned it, slayed it. 🤷🏽♀️
Was just thinking of Paris is Burning as I read through these! I confess I'm not sure how to tell "tribute to drag balls" from "appropriated from minority community," but I feel like the kids at least get a pass.
My 13 year old has recently informed me that 'riz' means cool, like 'lit.' She called me 'bruh' sometime shortly after that. I really didn't anticipate being called bruh so much as a mother.
NPC (non player character) is big with my teen boys, used to describe a person who just kind of exists in the periphery/background of their lives. One of my guys is much more talkative than the other, so he sometimes says his brother is a total NPC at school. (Sick burn!)
Also ‘main character’ as in She thinks she’s the main character. Not a charitable description… also HIM as in “I’m HIM” like I’m the man, or ALPHA that’s another one
AAAAAH low key. My sister is 11 years younger (early 30s) than I am and when she comes to dinner my husband and I count how often she says it and compare totals after.
Paul was advising me on this issue and said "I have another one. 'Drip.'" I said "OK, say it to me in a sentence." He said "I don't know... 'that's drippy?'"
My 6yo picks up slang at aftercare. (It’s always aftercare.) He came home and asked, “Mom, are you Gucci? Am I Gucci?” I assured him we were both Gucci.
you are SO gucci!
My kid also advised me to use the term "bet" here as in "You know it" but I disappointed him by letting him know we were saying "bet" in my day as well.
I wonder if they still say "psych!" (sike?) or if there's a replacement for that.
my 9yo just like two days ago held up her hand for a high five then slicked her hand back behind her ear saying "psych!!" :D :D :D
fonzie vibes
I know about as much Gen Z slang as Martin Scorsese, which I know because of this incredible video his daughter made: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8rRNaTV/
But also in my actual life: my 7 year old has become fixated on the term “sus” to the point that he and his friend make fake money called Sus Bucks (???)
Sus I know!!! My son is really into Among Us so we are all sus. Tangentially related, since he likes Among Us we played the board game Secret Hitler at Christmas which ended up my then 7 year old yelling at his grandmother, "you're sus! you're the fascist!" (I got ahead of that train wreck and prepped the teacher when we returned from break).
Sounds like Secret Hitler is going on the Christmas list!
Secret hitler is both fun and an existential crisis waiting to happen because it is so hard to fight the fascists.
Secret Hitler is great. I have four teens and it’s been a hit for the whole fam. They call it My Little Hitler, which sounds real bad, but it also makes me laugh. 😬
Secret..... Hitler? That IS sus! How old does one have to be to play it?
Secret Hitler is a lot of fun. It was extra hilarious when we had my daughters first bday party and my husband put tons of games out on the tables for people to play and my aunt explains “what the heck is secret Hitler!?” Spoiler alert: I am Jewish. My husband is not 😂
In the game you’re a liberal or a fascist and you have to sus out who is who and you have to figure out who Hitler is. Idk with younger kids if you’d want to explain the historical significance there. You have to have a good poker face for this game. It’s fun and I am very bad at it 😂
*EXCLAIMS! Not explains.
My 6yo is also very into “sus.” He asked recently, “Are any presidents ‘sus’?” and my husband and I cackled.
all of them basically!
Exactly!
literally are there any non-sus presidents!
ahahhaha
lol! Sus Bucks! What can you buy with it??
I think nothing, because they’re sus!!
Everything is sus in our house and also "slay" to the 8 year old, as picked up from and used with the twenty-something sibling. 8 yo: I got Subway! (Holds up bag.) 20-something: ~Slay~!
Subway is never a slay but go off sandwich queen
These are all so good! My 12yo texted my husband & I a bunch of pictures of the giant organs (!!!) they were dissecting in Science class and my husband responded "Unsubscribe" (A+ adult slang) and he responded "What do you mean." We still got it!
lol Why is this so precious to me
brb just adding that to my vocab.
not really slang, but my son (4) will start his independent play time by saying "welcome to my channel! so, today we're...... (fill in whatever he's doing)" and i'd heard other parents say how their kids mimic youtube/tiktok/vine slang, but it still makes me giggle whenever he does it. and if i say anything that acknowledges i just heard him talking to his make believe "viewers" he gets so embarrassed.
So glad my kid isn't the only one who does this! I've caught him saying "don't forget to like and subscribe" at the end of whatever he's doing as well...
YESSSSSS when my daughter was younger and more into doll play, she would say, “Subscribe for more videos.” 😂😂😂
I’m liking and subscribing!
Smash that like button!
I just got the most vivid memory of playing “commercials” with my neighbors - acting out our own fake ads.
Oh man, my 3.5 year old does this! He's not quite as clear about it, but he'll narrate whatever he's doing like he's explaining to his audience. To be fair, I have this weirdly vivid memory of walking my dog on my dead-end gravel road as a kid and describing it all like an instructional video. It was WELL before the youtubes.
I definitely used to narrate my own life in my head but in novel form. i bet children of old did this in cuneiform.
My 4 y.o. does this even today. She’s a big reader and a big feeler. Her voice is very much an omniscient narrator, sympathetic to her as the hero in a world of nefarious idiots. And honestly? I get it.
you're a great mom <3
My 7yo is just starting to learn/notice slang at her school (functionally only child as bro is 25) and she is fascinated with “Ayo” which she doesn’t use herself but talks about how everyone else uses it (which seems to be like “hey” or “yo” from back in my day). It is pretty funny.
But her best personal slang ever was the three months when she pronounced chimpanzee as something that for all the world sounded like Joe Pesci. We had a little toy joe pesci and we visited the joe pescis at lincoln park zoo and were joe pescis better or were gorillas better? Literally the best. She was 2.
I am dead at this 🙈
I literally had to like hold my breath to not laugh at this every single time and ruin it.
I did not realize Ayo was a current slang. Kid came home from school or daycare with that last year (we assumed it was slurred something...I thought his best friend at school was named Feel for uh...too long before we realized kid is actually Theo. good times)
I want to know if "Ayo" sounds the same as the "Hey-o!!" they say in "Always Sunny" or if it's a modification. Side note; I knew a guy named Ayo in my 20's so this makes me think of him. I wonder what he makes of his name being slang.
It is like hey yo but with less h at the top and a little more glide together (if you listen to the tyler the creator version of you’re a mean one mr grinch, there’s an example there)
The kids were taking forever to get ready to start getting ready for bed and saying “POV: this” and “POV: that” until I shouted “POV: you’re taking a shower.” And it backfired because they wouldn’t stop laughing and talking about it.
Family slang from my three-year-old: airpods, especially because I use them almost exclusively for podcasts, are eartalks!
that is adorable!!!! Once I was whispering to my husband and my son, a toddler, said angrily, 'I want ear talk!!"
Haha!! Omg I love that
I love this one!
My 6 year old recently started saying “hell yeah” when she is interested in something. It’s not just “hell yeah” it’s the way she says it. All hulk hogan hell-yeah-brother-esque. I died laughing. Obviously we’ve had the don’t say that at school talk but I can’t be mad when she says it. It literally makes my insides tingle with glee 😂 not that that’s necessarily slang.
But I get the occasional “bruh” and she does say “bussin’” too. both of which make me cringe 🫣
Hell yeah brotha! (Said Hulk Hogan style)
: (
Rizz - to have charisma but really it’s to get someone to like you, used as both a verb and a noun. He has a lot of Rizz but also he rizzed her up.
The guy on the golden bachelor said his granddaughter told him he has rizz. And he does!
That man is the Rizztator of the Drip Kingdom.
lol
Thank you for this explanation (charisma) of why rizz is.
Yeah I meant to look it up after golden bachelor but didn’t 🤣
Bless you for this; my daughter has been using this without explanation and I have been SO CONFUSED (about the transitive form)
Also we have family slang which I now force onto the entire world- my kid never wanted his food hot or cold, just "medium" and for some reason now that means whenever something happens that's not bad but not great I will describe it as "medium" "pretty medium" "very medium" It's so useful as a phrase! (Maybe I also picked it up from somewhere I'm not that creative with language lol)
You've created the adult version of "mid". It was just mid. He's so mid.
“Mid” is DEVASTATING
I - age 51 - have adopted mid SO quickly. It's just so useful.
Bussin’. Apparently it means cool, great, delicious. Used most often with food I think? That’s from my niece and nephew. My 10 year old introduced me to “ate” as in “She ATE that” which means she killed it, owned it, slayed it. 🤷🏽♀️
A lot of these phrases, I think, trickle down from the drag scene which I love. Slay!
Was just thinking of Paris is Burning as I read through these! I confess I'm not sure how to tell "tribute to drag balls" from "appropriated from minority community," but I feel like the kids at least get a pass.
I have a preschooler who calls skylights “sunlights” and I refuse to correct him
upgrade 4 sho
My 13 year old has recently informed me that 'riz' means cool, like 'lit.' She called me 'bruh' sometime shortly after that. I really didn't anticipate being called bruh so much as a mother.
Rizz doesn’t mean cool it means like you have charisma, that you can charm people..which can be cool but I have told these are two different things :)
everything I know about rizz I know via stories about Baby Gronk--what are these words I'm even saying?
NPC (non player character) is big with my teen boys, used to describe a person who just kind of exists in the periphery/background of their lives. One of my guys is much more talkative than the other, so he sometimes says his brother is a total NPC at school. (Sick burn!)
Oh yeah I’ve heard that one on like Reddit. Also I saw my son using “gigachad” in a text
Also ‘main character’ as in She thinks she’s the main character. Not a charitable description… also HIM as in “I’m HIM” like I’m the man, or ALPHA that’s another one
Low key/ high key - how you are feeling about something or not very much, kind of or a lot. I’m low key worried about the test tomorrow.
AAAAAH low key. My sister is 11 years younger (early 30s) than I am and when she comes to dinner my husband and I count how often she says it and compare totals after.
This isn’t so new, but since about 2020, everything that seems shady to my kids is “sus.”
My 10yo boy is also really into “vibes.” A typical conversation in our household is like this:
Kid: “Mom, can we throw away all of the clothes you bought me and get new ones???”
Me: ?!
Kid: “These clothes you buy me — they’re just not my vibe!!!!”
Me: “What *is* your vibe?”
Kid: “I don’t know… but just not (gestures in direction of closet and dresser) any of this!!!”
I’m sure I’ll think of more…
Paul was advising me on this issue and said "I have another one. 'Drip.'" I said "OK, say it to me in a sentence." He said "I don't know... 'that's drippy?'"
Sus.
Is Paul collecting advising fees these days?
I pay him in making his entire life possible!
That is the best response ever. “I pay him in making his entire life possible.” You ate that! 😆
the people are hungry!
I torture my children by saying "drip drip!" when they are looking particularly fly and they say MOOOMMMM no one SAYS THAT
this is so cute and made me lol
I am constantly being told by my 11 yo son that I "don't pass the vibe check".
My 15yo sent me a text saying "ONG we are so good at running." Apparently, ONG = "on God," which means "I swear" or "verily," lol.
I am not changing OMG by one letter. No.
Now I want the youths to start saying “verily.”
"Yea, verily" even!
Work in a middle school and can confirm