# Should parents kiss their kids on the lips? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 21, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562 "2010-09-21T18:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/81 "2010-09-26T17:53:04Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > > [@Malthus](#): > > > > Because giving a child a good-night kiss is so very obviously the gateway to hardcore pedophilia … ? > > > > Sheesh. I hate to think what you’d make of seeing my boy sitting on my lap and reading (gasp!) Peter Rabbit. > > You’re reading him a book with the word PETER in the title?! Hence the “gasp”. I mean - “Peter Rabbit” - it’s practically an admission that the contents contain some sort of beastiality. Beatrix Potter is full of perversion. I mean, just look at some of her illustrations. WTF is going on in this one?! [![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WIqA6x5O5rc/Sd6UlDL2eEI/AAAAAAAACNM/n6Qk9iPYSy8/s400/BenjaminBunny25.jpg) ](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WIqA6x5O5rc/Sd6UlDL2eEI/AAAAAAAACNM/n6Qk9iPYSy8/s400/BenjaminBunny25.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/82 "2010-09-26T18:05:19Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > I walk naked around my kids all the time, and they can come sleep between me and my wife whenever they like, but I wouldn’t think of kissing them on the lips for any reason, ever. To me, lips touching means sexual interest, plain and simple. A kiss on the cheek? Totally OK. Once lips meet, a huge line is crossed. Yeah, you’ve got this totally backwards. ---
**Author:** ![Redpill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58956e/32.png) [@Redpill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redpill)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/83 "2010-09-26T18:35:54Z")
Well duh, how else are you supposed to get them in the mood? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/84 "2010-09-26T19:02:26Z")
Parents kissing their children on the lips is perfectly normal and healthy. But you know what’s really bizarre? Two grown adults who are sexually interested in each other kissing on the lips. No, I’m being completely serious, here. You know how kissing originated? When children are being weaned, but before they’ve got their full set of teeth, mothers would feed them by chewing up food for them, and then transferring it into the kid’s mouth. Well, humans being social animals who invest a lot of resources in our children, it developed into a sign of affection, and so parents would kiss their children even when not feeding them. And then it developed from a sign of affection towards children specifically into being for affection in general. How twisted is that? We managed to turn a technique for feeding toddlers into a prelude to sex. And if you’re really troubled about the connection, there, then you should be giving up the sexual kissing, not the parental kissing. ---
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/85 "2010-09-26T21:57:41Z")
Never kiss my kids on the mouth. (have you seen what can come out of a kids nose-and therefore get on those lips ??? :eek: ) Kisses on the cheek, forehead, top of the head, lots of hugs. As a doctor, I would tell the parents of small children: "You want to avoid getting every cold and cough your child has? 1. Don’t kiss on the lips 2. don’t share drinks (you make a BIG DEAL out of it= You are a BIG boy/girl, you get to have Your OWN CUP 3. Wash your hands often. ---
**Author:** ![Cattitude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Cattitude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cattitude)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/86 "2010-09-27T03:41:28Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > No doubt I’ll get shit for this, but kissing a kid on the lips is disturbing. > > Its a sexual act. > > If a kid kisses you on the lips thats ignorance. > > Sorry but thats how it is. You’re not well. THAT’S how it is. IT’S not very nice to post such ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/87 "2010-09-27T12:33:31Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > You’re reading him a book with the word PETER in the title?! ^^Username/content juxtaposition FTW. ---
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/88 "2010-09-27T12:38:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > How twisted is that? We managed to turn a technique for feeding toddlers into a prelude to sex. And if you’re really troubled about the connection, there, then you should be giving up the sexual kissing, not the parental kissing. Not to mention sexual suckling… another baby-feeding technique turned into foreplay. I know exactly what you mean, which probably explains why I kissed my own child on the lips even though I wasn’t raised that way myself. The instinct to do so was just so unbelievably strong. I came to the conclusion at the time that kissing had been invented by/for babies, and went from there, as you say, to a more general expression of affection. ---
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/89 "2010-09-27T12:40:38Z")
> [@pudytat72](#): > > Never kiss my kids on the mouth. (have you seen what can come out of a kids nose-and therefore get on those lips ??? :eek: ) Yes, well, I’ll give you that. 😉 There is definitely a squick factor in that sense. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/90 "2010-09-27T13:16:22Z")
Wow. When y’all talk about kissing kids on the “lips” or “cheeks” you are talking about their faces, right? Cause I’m another FFS. > [@BigT](#): > > cheek kisses are something a girl does to a guy as a reward I believe you’re thinking of a BJ.😛 ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/91 "2010-09-27T15:32:01Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > > [@Lust4Life](#): > > > > I would suggest that you take a litle look at how you behave around children. > > > > Some of your behaviour might well be considered inappropriate by those who do not share your outlook. > > **Lust4Life** I think you should take your own advice. Do you have kids? do you understand the overwhelming love and affection a parent feels, that has nothing to do with sex? > > My 14 month old daughter will come over and cuddle or hugs us, often kissing us on the lips, cheeks or sucking our noses. > We kiss her on the lips, she comes into our bed some mornings where we cuddle and she sometimes breastfeeds. > > All normal and healthy stuff IMO. > > I kiss my parents and sisters on the lips and cheeks, and I’ll cuddle on the sofa with my sisters to watch a movie. My in-laws and close friends get pecks on the cheeks and hugs, and I don’t really like touching strangers, so they’ll get a handshake. No no no! Bodies are dirty and sexual, and touching and intimacy of any kind is all about penises and vaginas! I know that whenever I hug or kiss anybody it’s really all about wanting to spooge all over them. Don’t lie and pretend that it’s not the same for you. What are you, some kind of sicko? All you child-cuddlers and kiddie-kissers are no better than pedophiles. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/92 "2010-09-27T21:43:33Z")
I don’t kiss my kids on the mouth. We do lots of face kisses, hugs, and cuddling and sleeping together. I’m much more affectionate with my kids than was typical in my family of Yankee WASPs. When we got mushy we _shook hands._ Hugs, and especially cheek kisses were so rare as to be distinctly memorable occasions. Weird, eh? It doesn’t bother me to see families kiss on the lips. It’s just not natural for me to do. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/93 "2010-09-27T21:56:59Z")
> [@Chicken\_Fingers](#): > > I don’t kiss my kids on the mouth. We do lots of face kisses, hugs, and cuddling and sleeping together. I’m much more affectionate with my kids than was typical in my family of Yankee WASPs. When we got mushy we _shook hands._ Hugs, and especially cheek kisses were so rare as to be distinctly memorable occasions. Weird, eh? > > It doesn’t bother me to see families kiss on the lips. It’s just not natural for me to do. Heh, I’m sorta similar. In fact, I remember one time when I was heading off as a young kid to camp, and the other kids were kissing and hugging their parents - and I _shook hands_ with mine. I never forgot that, because that was pretty well the first time I ever felt that my family was a bit odd. Now I’m a parent myself, I’ve decided to be much more physically affectionate with my kid - I do give him good-night kisses on the lips, partly because that’s more prevelant in my wife’s culture, and I’ve decided that I like hers better than mine in that respect. ---
**Author:** ![Kelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@Kelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelby)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/94 "2010-09-27T21:57:53Z")
> [@Doxy](#): > > I kiss all three of my kids on the lips. #1 daughter is 24; #2 daughter is 16; #1 son is 14. > > My husband has switched to kissing on the girls on the cheeks and fist-bumping with the boy. > But we still all cuddle up and hug and hold hands when we’re watching a movie or the like. My daughter went from kissing me on the lips to the cheek about the time she entered middle school. She decided. I just stick my face out there. I will occasionally grab my grown up son for a hug, but no kissing anymore for him, except from his mother, of course. Yes, the old standards die hard. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/95 "2010-09-30T16:10:14Z")
Sorry all, but I stand by what I say, sitting on laps, cuddles etc. are perfectly normal (though anyone who reads Peter Rabbit to their kids is obviously some sort of deranged pervert) but kissing on the lips is a sexual act. Do you as adults kiss your parents on the lips ? If not why not ? Do you as adults kiss your adult brothers and sisters on the lips ? According to your contention this too is a perfectly normal way of showing none sexual affection. No, it doesn’t work for me no matter how hard you try to rationalise it. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/96 "2010-09-30T16:12:03Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Sorry all, but I stand by what I say, sitting on laps, cuddles etc. are perfectly normal (though anyone who reads Peter Rabbit to their kids is obviously some sort of deranged pervert) but kissing on the lips is a sexual act. > > Do you as adults kiss your parents on the lips ? > > If not why not ? > > Do you as adults kiss your adult brothers and sisters on the lips ? > > According to your contention this too is a perfectly normal way of showing none sexual affection. > > No, it doesn’t work for me no matter how hard you try to rationalise it. Yes, and yes. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/97 "2010-09-30T16:14:22Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Sorry all, but I stand by what I say, sitting on laps, cuddles etc. are perfectly normal (though anyone who reads Peter Rabbit to their kids is obviously some sort of deranged pervert) but kissing on the lips is a sexual act. > > Do you as adults kiss your parents on the lips ? > > If not why not ? > > Do you as adults kiss your adult brothers and sisters on the lips ? > > According to your contention this too is a perfectly normal way of showing none sexual affection. > > No, it doesn’t work for me no matter how hard you try to rationalise it. Heh, I’m over 40 and I don’t suckle on my mom’s teats. But my newborn suckling on my wife’s teats isn’t a “sexual act”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/98 "2010-09-30T16:28:51Z")
Come to think of it, I don’t kiss my children much anymore. And I don’t recall kissing on the lips either, even when they were young. I kiss my daughter on the top of the head, mostly, because she’s shorter than me and that’s what I can reach. My son is pretty much eye to eye with me now, and I don’t think of kissing him much. They’re both good about hugging their old dad, though. Except they are both away at college now, so… Sigh. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/99 "2010-09-30T17:01:36Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Do you as adults kiss your parents on the lips ? > > If not why not ? > > Do you as adults kiss your adult brothers and sisters on the lips ? Yes and yes. Also my granny, my best friend and his wife, my one year old nephew (although I can do without the giant-open-mouth toddler kisses - whoa, buddy!), and a few other folks. It’s an affectionate peck, usually while hugging hello or goodbye. If you can’t tell the difference between the kiss you’d give your mom and the kiss you’d give a lover - even if both are on the lips - you’re doing something wrong. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562/100 "2010-09-30T17:01:53Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > No doubt I’ll get shit for this, At least you got that part of your post right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-kiss-their-kids-on-the-lips/554562.md?page=6)