The concepts of “capacity” and “competence” play a central role in moral and political philosophy by determining the moral status of a subject. More specifically, they play a central role in determining their rights, especially throughout the literature addressing the rights of children. Despite the importance of these concepts, capacity and competence are often used interchangeably, or not defined at all leading to confusion regarding their application and significance. This seems to be a particular problem when using the concepts to determine the rights of the child. Throughout this paper we propose a distinction between capacity and competence, introducing the additional concepts of latent capacities and ableness. In doing so, we address the nature of the regress problem of capacity. Finally we argue that these concepts, properly understood, can offer a more nuanced understanding of rights for children.