Pinching of kids cheeks by adults (or adults by grandma :)) as a mark of affection seems to be common in USA and India (my sample space). Is it so for the rest of the world ?
Thanks
Sometimes, but a good spam filter usually catches it.
I’ve encountered it in multiple European and Latin American locations both as a form of affection and as a very painful move by assholes.
There may be some cultures that don’t do it, but it seems pretty common around the world.
Not in East Asia.
I think I’ve only ever seen it on TV. I’ve never encountered it in the wild.
It’s not something I remember encountering, either. It’s entirely possible that it’s something that varies across individuals or families or communities, rather than treating a large, diverse nation as someplace where it does or does not occur.
Not a UK thing in my experience.
Seems to be all over British and ex-colonial literature and media, though. E.g., in British writer Wesley Stace’s novel Misfortune:
I usually hear about men doing this. I heard Rome is a place where a woman can’t walk through a crowd without getting her cheeks pinched. I wasn’t aware that pervs pinching kids on the ass was that common. And what kind of grandma goes around grabbing adult’s butts anyway?
Hmm. Very common in my experience (Eastern Midwest USA). To the point where my just-turned-3 y.o. son will pinch anyone’s cheeks and tell them that they are cute. LOL. He did it to his pediatrician last week…she pinched his cheek back and said “Aww, you’re cute, too!” Bum-pinching (for babies, at least) is probably almost as common and blithe.
I’m almost 40 and I’ve had my cheeks pinched a few times in recent years in a similar manner as we do to babies. It’s rather condescending, if I dwell on it, but I do have a big baby face, so I deal. 
There are worse things. Now if you pinch my bum you better have precedent…
I’ve heard a few times about Italian (actually, I think it was always Sicilian) grannies even “affectionately” pinching kids’ erm, bits and pieces, with a comment or two, but it’s hearsay for me. I tried to look it up discreetly, but I didn’t want to end up on a list, so this will have to go under an “unconfirmed” heading.
You know who pinched cheeks? That’s right, Adolf Hitler did. In the last footage of him alive, where he decorates some children for their acts of bravery in defending Berlin, he can be seen doing the cheek pinching thing. Leading me to believe that at least at some point in Austria or Germany or both, this was a thing.
Same here. I had the impression that it was an outdated tradition resurrected simply for humorous effect.
They’re just checking to see if the kid is fat enough yet for butchering.
I wish. I remember an instance 8 years ago when we pretty much had to grab a woman to get her away from my niece’s cheeks. As her father put it “she can’t say no because she can’t speak, crying means ‘no’!”
For some reason, every female cheek-pincher I’ve seen in action was painted up like a clown. I’ve got the hypothesis that they may be behind a good chunk of the fear of clowns.
The one time I can recall someone doing it to me, I bared my teeth and growled, “Don’t touch me!” That person (I don’t even remember if it was a man or a woman) was very startled and backed away.
I was, at the most, 5 or 6.