Funny you should bring this up because I long noticed that over the years non-romantic kissing seemed to have gone out of style. When I was a kid whenever aunts and uncles would visit the men would greet women with a kiss and the women would greet each other with a kiss and the men would greet each other with a handshake. I used to kiss my mom, aunts, grandma and sister-in-law. Occasionally when I or she was particularly jubilant I might even kiss a platonic female friend. I noticed in the 80's that when I would see my sister-in-law and try to kiss her like I used to she would turn her head and kiss the air, when I tried to kiss my nieces they would turn their head and offer me their cheek. For the last two decades the only person I kissed non-romantically was my mom. Non-romantic kisses now seem weird. I always wondered what caused this shift in behavior.

 
No one thinks it is sexual, it is just fuckin weird!

If you want to kiss your young kids on the lips go ahead I guess, but grown adults kissing on the lips? Weird as hell. My wife's step dad does it with his mom and it is just weird as hell, obviously not sexual at all, but weird to see.

To be fair, we're on a forum of people who, by choice, spending thousands of dollars on gear, wearing skin tight clothing, & shaving body hair for the sole purpose of saving a few seconds in amateur competitions that inherently mean nothing in the end, only to prove who's the best at exercising in their particular regional group & age bracket.

I'd have to say that's a little more weird than parents & children who show affection with a quick peck on the lips!

 
I am 31 and can't think of a single person I know in my age group that kisses anyone other than their SO on the lips.

Must be an old person thing. :)

Obviously the behavior for showing affection is learned and cultural. What I was getting at was when I was a kid in the 1960's and 1970's it wasn't weird because everyone did it; it was just normal. It started to get weird in the 1980's. I wonder if the change came from the way people behave in movies and TV shows? Was it the AIDS crisis that made people afraid of each other's bodily fluids (I understand you can't contract HIV from kissing though)? Was it the increasing influence of religious fundamentalism and fear of veiled sexuality? The Victorians would put skirts on pianos and trees because they found piano legs and tree crotches obscene. In 2002 John Ashcroft put curtains around the Spirit of Justice statue in the Justice Building because one of Lady Justice's breasts was exposed. Are we so prone as a society to see everything as sexual we are inhibited from showing affection?

At some point my parents stopped kissing me on the lips and I've always assumed the same thing would happen with my kids.

Wait, you mean this isn't about The Donald creepin' on Ivanka...?

Now you've gone & done it.

This is why we can't have nice threads!! Somebody always has to bring up Teflon Don!

What about some undersweater action if the kid has done a good thing?

Over the pants only.

Nice.

I'm 54 so age doesn't identify the circle of parent/child lip kissers. I've met all kinds of folks in my life, but I've missed this one. Had no clue it was out there.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

Lips or elsewhere doesn't make a difference to me, but one of the dads of my kids' friends often refers to his male kids as "sweety" when he talks to them. He gives me the heeby jeebies whenever i hear him do it.

Cold sores are usually HSV1 outbreaks. It's not cool to give the herp to children, and it can kill newborns.

I'm pretty certain that getting sick tends to work the other way with kids - especially once in school / nursery i've never been so sick........

Just being in the same room as the infant petri dishes is enough to make you ill.......

My thoughts exactly. I don't find anything wrong with or sexual about. I ain't doing it because warding off the germs is a full time job without being so close to other bodily fluids. When I was a kid some of our family kissed on the lips and some did cheeks. Others would pinch my cheeks which was a form of child abuse I believe.

I never liked kissing on the lips because it grossed me out as a kid...maybe I was always a little OCD about germs. So I never did it as an adult.

~Matt

Who's your daddy?

Sorry - couldn't resist

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.