Is the phrase "Make the kids breakfast" used to mean both making breakfast for kids as well as serving the kids breakfast?

I would probably assume you're also serving it unless there's some other context.

Depends on the context, could go either way in my opinion

Why would you need another verb for serving? Most dining areas are two steps away from the kitchen.

If someone said “he made me breakfast”, I would assume they prepared the food and brought it to the table. You don’t need to specify “made and served breakfast”; it is assumed that if someone is making eggs for breakfast then will not just prepare them and leave them in the kitchen.

“Make a plate” means serving/putting the plate together and I think this will help you understand the nuance of the word!

Unless there is context I would assume preparing and serving. For example context would be something like “I’ve made the kids breakfast for when they get out of bed”. There is also the mandatory dad joke context. “Make the kids breakfast” could mean “turn the kids into sausages and bacon”.

It definitely would include preparing the food. Serving is not required, but if I prepared and plated breakfast for kids and maybe helped to feed a very young child, I would just say that I made breakfast.

It only means cooking/preparing breakfast, but putting the breakfast on a plate and bringing it to the table is such a trivial task that when someone says they are making breakfast it is assumed that they also are serving it too. And if they don’t serve it, it’s not worth mentioning.

I feel like context would typically imply that if you’re making breakfast for kids you’re probably also serving it too, but I also feel like there’s not a lot of situations in which it matters all that much? Like, if you’re making breakfast for older children (or not children at all), there’s a good chance that they might just come grab a plate and a waffle or whatever themselves, but it feels like who gets the food on the plate is a minor enough detail that I don’t know if I’d ever specify or even really think about it?

I would use context clues, primary how old the kids are. If they're a bit older then maybe they can serve themselves. Elementary and below I'd assume whoever is making it would also serve.

Preparing and then serving. It’s implied.

Strictly speaking, you just made breakfast, you didn’t serve it. That being said, most every time I’ve seen it referenced, serving is implied.

Context matters. If there is no mention of someone else serving it, then either the breakfast is one that people can serve themselves OR the person making breakfast will be serving it. Some families will tend to have someone serving the food even when it is easy to self serve, other families will tend to self serve unless there is a really good reason they shouldn't (like toddlers and hot stoves).

It's usually implied. If you make food for someone, you're probably going to give it to them when it's done, unless you intend for them to get it themselves

Serving is often included as part of making. Especially in a household if you’re making breakfast for the kids. If you work in a restaurant, the wait staff serves what others make.

It's funny. It could also mean you are making the kids into breakfast like "Hansel and Gretl." Most people think the direct object is the breakfast while the indirect object and recipients are the kids.

Depends on whether it’s SVOO or SVOC. *Most* of the time it’s going to be an innocuous SVOO, but then you’ll have that rare SVOC version that makes the evening news with all its lurid details.

I would assume both making and serving in the context of children. Since adults rarely serve each other food at home in my culture, if it were instead “I made my husband breakfast” or “I made my parents breakfast” I would firstly think that sounded a little weird (it sounds like the speaker made breakfast only for others and did not eat any themselves), and secondly I would not assume they served it as well. It would be much more common to say “I made breakfast”, which means breakfast for everyone, and for adults to serve themselves. Children are different because they have limited skills and also a lot of adults prefer to eat something different from what they give their kids.

Like a lot of phrases, the exact meaning can sometimes be ambiguous and you fill in the blanks with context, if you need to or want to. "Made them breakfast" only strictly indicates preparing the food, but the serving part is implied. So it can mean both, but it doesn't have to. To take that to an absurd extreme, "make the kids breakfast" could also mean you're turning the kids themselves into breakfast. But without extra context, nobody would think that's what you're saying.

Unless I'm in a service setting like say being hotel staff or at a restaurant where people have explicit tasks, I would assume making food in any capacity is both the cooking and the serving. However if contextual where it's clear that they don't intend to serve or if someone is explicitly given the task of serving, then making food is solely the cooking portion.

Yes, it could be interpreted as either a causative construction or an indirect object construction. Generally, it would not be misinterpreted.

You could make the kids breakfast, but then they are in a hurry and leave without eating it or even sitting down at the table. In that case we still say you made them breakfast, even though you didn't serve it to them.

Strictly speaking, making just means making. You could cook oatmeal and leave it in the saucepan for the kids to put into bowls and bring to the table, or nuke something and leave it in the microwave for them to get.

If you’re talking about a family meal, then it’s implied that serving is likely involved. Whereas at a restaurant the two are likely different people.

99.9% of the time this means preparing and serving/giving. The only way it could mean something else was if there was a different context: honey, I'm going to make pancakes for the kids for breakfast but I'm going to have to rush straight out after I've cooked them - could you put them on plates and give them to them?