Hellobee Boards

Are these kisses on the cheek or on the mouth? Xander has been (attempted to be) kissed on the mouth by other toddlers and I really don't like it. Personally, I think mouth kisses should only be between romantic relationships, so I don't want my child doing them with anyone at this age. For another, Xander is EXTREMELY allergic to milk and I worry about a child having some milk (or some other dairy product) and then accidentally passing it on to my child via a kiss (he once broke out into hives by being licked on the cheek by a dog who had had some milk earlier).

If my child was the one going around trying to kiss people, I would try to stop him. I think greeting new friends (a.k.a. strangers) should be "Hi" followed by a wave (or just a wave if your LO can't say hi), and hugs are okay for current friends, but we don't kiss people without their permission!

I would encourage LO to hug or high five instead of kissing. It's just a germ issue for me.

@illumina: honestly, I would listen more to what other UK bees say, because American are squeamish about contact in general. I been obviously, people in the UK aren't going around kissing strangers on the cheek (or wherever), but it's generally more common there to kiss hello and goodbye with friends/family/acquaintances so you aren't likely to have as many people upset that a toddler did it to another toddler.

Anyway, for a few months I lived in Argentina and there the custom is to kiss hello EVERY SINGLE PERSON at a gathering---both hello and goodbye. Even if you don't know them all well. Even if there are 15 people there. It takes a long time and was hard for me to get used to as an American, but my roommate said it's really rude not to do it, so I did it. And kids and babies did it, too!