The issues of identity and existence that are central to the novel have been discussed above. However, Shade's Children also obliquely addresses the role of children in society and the relationships between adults and children. The overlords treat the children as objects, as a commodity to be produced or a natural resource to be mined.

Nix's novel goes to the heart of current controversies about children's rights and their role in society.

Also, Shade's Children comments, again obliquely, on the beneficial role of parents in the development of a child's life. In this futuristic world we see what happens to children who grow up without adults. In the restored world at the end of the novel, the nuclear family is again central to the child's experience.