When asked if any My Chem songs held a special place in his heart, bassist Mikey Way said the following:

I think our mutual favorite in the band is the “Kids from Yesterday.” To me the song is like a time machine. You listen to it and it makes us all think about growing up and it makes you think about being a kid. And then it makes you think about being a teenager. And it makes you think about where you are now and where you’re going. […] It’s just a very somber, introspective song and just one of the most powerful choruses I’ve heard in a rock song.

His brother, and MCR frontman, Gerard Way spoke to Billboard and shared his feelings about the song.

Our favorite song on the record and the last song we wrote. I think it’s the most special song for all of us because we were able to come to the conclusion that, yes, we have grown up, but we’ve done it our way. This feeling of completion and success came from that song because we felt like that. It was like, ‘Cool, it was okay to grow up. It’s okay to be in our thirties and make an album.’ But it’s our most immature mature record – the most fun but most mature. The song is really about growing up, nostalgia, finding a new way to describe an adult, which is to say, ‘You’re a kid from yesterday.’