How do you explain to your kids that kissing someone in the lips is not okay?

Philippines
July 1, 2007 12:32pm CST
My daughter is exposed to media influences at a young age. She sees a couple kissing on TV when my in-laws are watching, even her fairy tale book has a picture of Ariel and her prince kissing. As a result, she imitates this by kissing my husband and I in the lips. For the two of us, it's okay because we're her parents. I'm just worried that she might also do this to her cousins and friends who are boys. What do you tell your children about this kissing matter?
5 people like this
7 responses
@villageanne (8553)
• United States
1 Dec 07
The media is often a bad influence on our youth. It is sad. They are not allowed to be kids anymore. They see and hear so much that can determine how they view the world. When our kids were small, we told them that kissing on the mouth was a good thing for Mommy and Daddy because we are married. Kissing on the mouth was ok for mommy and daddy and our kids. But kissing on the mouth is never ok when you are not family. Save those kisses for your spouse. It worked for us but our kids were not exposed to all the media. Good luck to you.
• Philippines
1 Dec 07
Yes, we also do that now. Whenever she sees a couple kissing on tv, we just tell her that the couple is a mommy and a daddy, and that they kiss because they love each other. But there are times that she sees a movie wherein the kissers do not look like a mom and dad! They look like children to me! That is the hard part. I just tell her that they love each other and that grown ups should do the kissing thing. Whew!
@cream97 (29087)
• United States
19 Feb 11
Hi. sheryllontok. I would tell my kids that it is not okay to kiss anyone on the lips at their age. I try to kiss my kids on the cheek. I don't want them to imitate me by kissing others on the lips. I would tell them to wait until they are older to kiss someone on the lips.
• United States
29 Jan 11
I don't know I would say it's not okay but to children you might want to warn of the dangers .. nowadays ..of casually kissing people on the lips.. There are many ways for diseases to pass and kissing surely would be one way, if the person you are kissing has a disease.
@deedles88 (297)
• Australia
2 Jul 07
Thats a tricky situation. First, I think its best to explain to her what a kiss means. We kiss our parents/siblings/family (on the lips, depending on the closeness of the family member etc) because we love them and we want them to know. We kiss our friends on the check, because we want them to know we love them, but not the same as we love our family, etc. I hope that helps a bit.
@GuateMom (1411)
• Canada
1 Jul 07
My parents always told us that you should only kiss someone if you really, truly love them. I think that is a pretty good guideline. :D
@vicki2876 (5636)
• Canada
1 Jul 07
I think it depends on the age for you daughter. For my childern I didn't really need to say anything until they started daycare around 4. There were a couple times when other childern tried to kiss them on the mouth. I told them they aren't old enough to kiss like that. I gave names to the kinds of kisses, Mommy kisses, daddy kisses, aunty kisses, mom and dad kisses, even a gut giggling gramma kiss. They are all okay kisses but only used for the right people. Later on when they were older we have talked about good touches and bad touches too.
@emarie (5442)
• United States
1 Jul 07
you don't say kissing on the lips is bad. i mean, its nice to kiss someone on the lips since its a sign of love. just explain to her the different types of kisses. at a young age, its okat for kids to kisso on the lips. they'll realize when they're older that they don't (the eeewww boys/girls phase). you know eventually they're going to start kissing. at least teach them the responsible way of kissing.