We polled our friends and the only one who agreed with him has a very cold, distant relationship with her parents.

Seriously? Because I have a great relationship with my parents, but I have never kissed either one on the mouth. For the idea not to squick me, it would have to be a very young baby.

Here's a pro-mouth kissing argument: Someone I know never kissed in his family growing up, so he really only kissed women he was making out with. So at his wedding, when his brand new wife's best friend went to give him a little smack on the lips (as she would any close friend or family member), he accidentally slipped her a little tongue. Oops!

We don't kiss Annabel on the mouth. I'm well aware that I come from one of the world's least physically demonstrative families that actually does like each other, and I'm trying to be more cuddly with the babygirl, but I'd just feel weird about kissing her on the mouth. Totally my thing, though--I don't have an issue with other people kissing their babies.

Plus, if I kissed her on the mouth, she'd be perfectly positioned to grab my glasses. So I'll stick to cheeks, hands, tummy zerberts, etc.

Seriously? Because I have a great relationship with my parents, but I have never kissed either one on the mouth. For the idea not to squick me, it would have to be a very young baby.

Me too.

Seriously? Because I have a great relationship with my parents, but I have never kissed either one on the mouth. For the idea not to squick me, it would have to be a very young baby.

I'm not saying EVERYONE squicked by mouth kissing has crappy relationships with their parents. But it has a lot to do with the traditions in your family. My husbands family NEVER kisses each other on the mouth. We do. It's not like we're French kissing--just pecks on the mouth.

It's a deeply complex issue, as I've found.

I kiss babies on the mouth; at some point when my kids were growing up, we shifted to cheeks.

Played back in slo-mo, it looked like squicky opened mouth kisses, and someone called the cops.

Thing is, babies will slip you the tongue. Because even if you know the socialized boundaries - they don't. But that's so freakin' wrong to have called the cops, because babies are always crossing that boundary. Emmett (infant, less than a year old) would tub with me, and he had no problem with grabbing me by the scrotum. (I had plenty of problems with it, of course.) They do stuff like that all the time. That's the thing you learn as a parent - there is intense physical intimacy that is NOT sexual.

I'm totally curious about kissing now and how the custom originated. I mean, it has to have developed somewhere along the evolutionary line from some practical application (mothers feeding their babies pre-chewed food, etc. which DOES squick me). Then it became a sexualized custom for certain situations but not others.

I just need to avoid Freud.

I'm totally curious about kissing now and how the custom originated.

In China it was considered absolutely barbaric. Tantamount to cannabalism because you were tasting somebody else. It's totally cultural.

Um, eww. How do you "accidentally" slip someone some tongue? It's pretty easy to keep one's tongue inside one's mouth. Unless she kissed him when his mouth was already open, in which case, that's kind of her fault. I don't think that's something to blame on the family, in any case.

ETA: In response to Jesse's kissing groom story.

Or, you know

Seriously? Because I have a great relationship with my parents, but I have never kissed either one on the mouth. For the idea not to squick me, it would have to be a very young baby.

Me three.