What do you call your child’s underwear?

[DorothyLNaySayers]

Potty training 2.5 yr old Dd. I hate the word ‘panties’ but ‘knickers’ seems age-inappropriate and ‘underwear’ too generic. Are there any better words out there?

Can’t believe I’ve been backed into defending panties as a word. FML.

I can't believe that there is a 9 page discussion about pants/knick(er)s/kecks/shreddies, only on MN!
Remember these threads next time you feel harrassed for time!

What do you people who use ‘pants’ for underwear use to refer to ‘generic apparel that you put on your legs’ if you’re not calling them pants, though?

Trousers/leggings/tights/jeans and so on. Did you skip primary school?!

I think that my problem with the word "panty" is that the only time it really gets used around here is in "panty liner".

I'm Irish and it's pants or underwear here. Panties just sounds wrong to me. I have never heard anyone here ever refer to their trousers as their pants.

I use knickers and pants interchangeably for girls'/women's, but DD has been determined for as long as she's been out of nappies that girls' ones are knickers and pants are only boys' ones. DH's are usually described as pants unless we particularly need to distinguish between everyday boxers and the smaller, tighter ones he wears for sports.

Broomstick,was just about to say the same.
My mum and gran used to call our underwear panties,that's in the 60s so not a porn thing.Knickers at school as in those days we had have navy blue ones instead of shorts all through primary school.
I now call them knickers or undies.

I think the panty word may be american as on pantyhose for tights.

Knick knicks we sometimes use otherwise it’s generally knickers or boxers for my DS 😊

DH -from Yorkshire- calls all underwear for the bottom half 'duds' . It has sort of become the word in our house.

seventhgonickname Mon 19-Nov-18 23:15:23
I think the panty word may be american as on pantyhose for tights.

Rubbish - I was brought up in the north east and our underwear was called 'panties'.

We just call them undies.
' go and pick your undies up from the bath room floor and put in the wash' ( repeat daily x 17 years)
' there's clean undies in your drawer'

For girls it would be Knicks, obviously shirt for knicker.
I must admit have never had underwear angst.

Knickers, or knix for short

Pants here are trousers/leggings/jeans.

Knickers are knickers, knicks or undies.
Boys wear jocks, joxers or undies.

No one says panties ever. Cos, shudder.
I'm Irish too.

Chonies!!!

Rhymes with 'ponies'. Mexican American slang for underwear and a relatively common term where we live. When our boys got older we used 'shorts' or 'undershorts'.

'Panties' may sound objectionable to those in the UK, but it's perfectly acceptable in the US for girls OR women's underwear and carries no 'pervy' connotation here. When in Rome.......

DH / boxers
Me / pants
DD / Knick knacks
DS / pants

Pants or undies when younger , now it’s boxers . All boy house ( except me 🙈)

This is yet another mumsnet moment where Irish things are called American.

Like Halloween, calling trousers pants goes back a long time in ireland and isn't an American import, though unlike the OP I've only ever heard panties used on American tv and do get an icky pervy vibe from it.

Growing up and now I say knickers, DH has boxers, and not having brothers or, so far, sons, I've realised I don't know what I'd call small boy child underwear - I guess undies work? But vests to me are also generic underwear so not entirely sure.

Undies. Usually I call trousers pants, I know it's said to be American but even my mum calls them that.

I’m Irish. We used to say panties and front bottom in my house when I was small and there was absolutely never anything pornographic about either. Overly twee, maybe, but definitely not pornographic!

I'm also Irish, and the only scenario I could imagine 'panties' being sexual is in some sort of Benny Hill sketch.

Growing up I was taught to not say 'knickers' as it was rude.

Girls wore panties. Boys wore underpants. Both were worn under pants. Pants are different to trousers. Trousers are tailored, and have a crease down the front and back of each leg. Pants are different. They are more casual.

Australian here because we abbreviate everything undies seems to be the word of choice here for both male and female underwear.

Pants or knickers here, with long-legged outwear being generically known as trousers, more specifically jeans, cords, etc.

I genuinely didn't know that anywhere outside of the US referred to trousers as pants, but it shouldn't be surprising - America was born from British and Irish migration, and their language is a reflection of that.

I understand the frustration of having to defend a regional term as not being 'an Americanism' - I'm from the West Midlands and we use mom for mother! 😁

knickers is fine or pants or underpants if you prefer.

Ugh panties for a little girl ... just no. Pants. Or underpants for boys. You can quite easily refer to all other leg coverings as trousers. Everyone will know what you mean. Problem solved.

Is this a real question or a porn thing then...some are into this kind of thing...sounds like many are..10 pages!
Do you really have to ask what to call a little child s underwear?
How do you manage other decision s!?

Pants for all here. I hate the word knickers and panties to me sounds very, very wrong. My mother says briefs and it always made me feel queasy!