Yeah, this is the only kind of cheek-pinching I have ever experienced or seen in real life. Barely even a “pinch”. I had no idea people pinched kids’ cheeks in a mean-spirited way.
Huh. I thought you were supposed to thump on the rounded end.
Anyhoo, I thought of pinching cheeks as a gentle thing too, like snuggling your face into them or chucking them under the chin.
My mom had to ask my grandpa to stop playing that game because I took it literally and cried and cried. Same with Nana: “Don’t run in the house or it will fall down.” :rolleyes:
The one time I can recall having this done to me (and I have no idea if it was a man or a woman who did it), I bared my teeth and snarled, “Don’t…touch…me.”
I was maybe 5 or 6.
Darn - beat me to it. OK, my fallback is:
Checking to see how much cooking time they’ll need?
IME it is - and I’m one of those people who have had it done as adults; yes, I’m young enough to be your grand-daughter; yes, I have round cheeks (well, I did - not any more); no, damnit, you’re no more allowed to pinch them than you are allowed to grab my tits. Most of the time, when I see someone pinching a child’s cheeks, the child is trying to escape. Touching and pinching are two different things - one doesn’t hurt, the other does; if what is being done would have left a bruise in a different body part, or if the recipient is howling “noooo” while trying to escape their pushcart, I don’t think it’s acceptable.
One of my brothers made an exception for specific neighbors, but it was for specific people: they did not pinch, only hug too hard and kiss too sloppily (why do so many women who paint themselves like circus ad escapees insist on sharing their lipstick and foundation with the world?), and… they gave him cookies. Sloppy hugs and kisses, he didn’t like; cookies, he did. Mercenary little brat…
We actually have a word for this in Filipino - gigil (pronounced like the English “giggle”). Now it could mean be so frustrated with someone that you want to slap them silly, but at its core it means a sense of overwhelming cuteness such that you want to squeeze the life out of kittens and puppies. It’s often accompanied by a high-pitched squealing sound.
Maybe this started with Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal?
I’m having a hard time parsing this. Is this about **Nava **being from Spain? IIRC **Oakminster **works (worked?) with abused children within the legal system, so I’m pretty sure this isn’t about how silly someone might be to equate a painful touch with child abuse, sooooo … 