News, Should parents kiss their kids on the lips? (babies, grandma, mother)

[renovating]

Kiss my teething baby on the lips????? No way unless I want to taste her drool....quite frankly I thought babies and children had the sweetest, softest cheeks made for kissing.

Why would I want to kiss their drooling, sticky lips when they have chunky cheeks from heaven???

Not to mention the germs.....

[Magritte25]

Those germs are going to be transferred no matter where you kiss! And they are your kid for cripes sake! How germophobic can we get?

[ajzjmsmom]

I fail to see what the big deal is, if someone truly feels like it is of a sexual nature to kiss their child on the lips then don't, if it doesn't bother someone else, then kiss away.

[ajzjmsmom]

Originally Posted by psr13

It may not be weird to you, but to other people it will be weird. You may not care what people think, but a high number of people is disgusted by it. My old roommate hated when parents kissed their kids on the lips. Every time it was done on a TV show she would make a comment, let alone when it happened in real life. I don't think it's sexual, but to much of society it is.

Best thing to come of getting old is the realization that life is to short to care about what other people think and I am sure the poster to whom you were referring, could care less about what other people think.

[Kathleen1971]

I think some of it may be a generational thing. All of my elderly relatives ( those over 70) are and were lip kissers. Not my thing but I am not really an affectionate person anyway. Still, there was never anything perverse about it. Much as I didn't care for the lip smacking I sure would give anything for my Grandfather, who would be 96 now, to be alive today and get kissed by him. I wouldn't complain for second.

[kahncss]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'm sure even families that don't kiss on the lips are close, affectionate families too.

I never said they weren't. I just see nothing wrong w/ a light kiss on the lips. Sometimes we just hug and kiss on the cheek. When I'm not going to see my father for a long time, I give him a quick kiss on the lips.

Originally Posted by psr13

It may not be weird to you, but to other people it will be weird. You may not care what people think, but a high number of people is disgusted by it. My old roommate hated when parents kissed their kids on the lips. Every time it was done on a TV show she would make a comment, let alone when it happened in real life. I don't think it's sexual, but to much of society it is.

I don't care what other people think! There are alot more disgusting things going on in public besides a parent's kiss to their child on the lips. If your old roommate hated seeing parents kiss their kids on TV, I'm sure she's appalld at what she sees on TV now.

Originally Posted by ajzjmsmom

I fail to see what the big deal is, if someone truly feels like it is of a sexual nature to kiss their child on the lips then don't, if it doesn't bother someone else, then kiss away.

Originally Posted by Kathleen1971

I think some of it may be a generational thing. All of my elderly relatives ( those over 70) are and were lip kissers. Not my thing but I am not really an affectionate person anyway. Still, there was never anything perverse about it. Much as I didn't care for the lip smacking I sure would give anything for my Grandfather, who would be 96 now, to be alive today and get kissed by him. I wouldn't complain for second.

Sorry for the loss of your grandfather. I'm glad someone else understands there's nothing perverse about a kiss.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by renovating

Kiss my teething baby on the lips????? No way unless I want to taste her drool....quite frankly I thought babies and children had the sweetest, softest cheeks made for kissing.

Why would I want to kiss their drooling, sticky lips when they have chunky cheeks from heaven???

Not to mention the germs.....

I was thinking the same thing when reading this thread. I would not want to get my lips anywhere near drooling! LOL

[psr13]

Originally Posted by Magritte25

Those germs are going to be transferred no matter where you kiss! And they are your kid for cripes sake! How germophobic can we get?

Exactly. You're going to get the germs in other ways anyway. This whole, "what about the germs?" gets to me. We encounter germs all the time, but we can't live in plastic bubbles.

[FinsterRufus]

Originally Posted by Magritte25

Those germs are going to be transferred no matter where you kiss! And they are your kid for cripes sake! How germophobic can we get?

Not to bring this thread down, but actually it's the adults' germs that are the problem. You can transfer a very nasty bacteria to an infant's mouth called Streptococcus mutans or S. Mutans - which is the main cause of ECC or Early Childhood Caries, formerly known as baby bottle rot. It's a really horrible infectious disease that causes rampant tooth decay in young children, and they believe it's transmitted to a child by it's primary care giver, usually the mother.

So if your infant has any teeth, be very careful about transferring your saliva to his/her mouth, until they are about 30 months old. That includes licking spoons, putting the paci in your mouth, that kind of thing.

I'm not trying to be alarmist, but it's very common, and often undetectable until the damage is done.

Ok sorry, PSA over.

[psr13]

I'll also say that even though I see no problem with this, I did not grow up that way. In fact, I never remember being kissed by anyone in my family. We hug in my family.