I was watching Oprah one day, around the time that The Pursuit of Happyness came out, and she was interviewing Will and Jayden Smith. During the interview Will Smith kept kissing his son on the lips and I kept thinking to myself "why in the world does he keep doing that"?
A year or so later I was having a conversation with a co-worker and the topic of kissing your children on the lips came up. I mentioned the interview to my co-worker and talked about my being uncomfortable with it. She got very defensive and said "well you'll feel differently when it's your kid". I've always viewed kissing on the lips in a romantic manner, something shared between a person and their significant other. Not to mention the fact that neither of my parents kissed us girls on the lips when we were growing up, so it's not something I'm used to.
Fast forward 4 years and 2 kids later and it's just now, within the past month actually, that I've started kissing my kids on the lips. Oddly enough it all came about when J had chapped lips and instead of putting ChapStick directly on his lips I put some on mine and then smeared my lips on his. I'm pretty sure that J's prematurity is a huge contributing factor as to why I'm just now allowing myself to kiss him.
But maybe it is different when you become a parent. Although I don't think I'll continue when they're older. But who knows, I never thought I'd kiss them ever so things could change.
My husband and I said the same thing until we had Marino (who we kiss on the lips).
ReplyDeleteBTW, I wanted to say that the spot you mentioned Justin had might be an eczema patch. Marino has one patch the NEVER goes away on the back of his leg, right below his butt. It's dark pink (the rest of him is light pink:)), hard and scaly, and no matter how many times we use hydrocortisone, it never goes away.
I agree with the eczema possibility. I had one one fall in st. louis and I was convinced it was ring worm because I worked with kids. The dr. said it was eczema and could tell because the sides weren't raised and it got bigger..ring worm doesn't get bigger and the ring is very pronounced.
ReplyDeleteAnyway...I'm not kissing my kids in the lips. My mom never did it and convinced me it was inappropriate. We didn't eat or drink from each other either.
Might be why I'm a selective hugger. Lol
Ambyr, all I can say is just be open to it. I was strongly opposed to it but you see what happened. Granted it's not a full blown on the lips kiss, it's more borderline mouth/cheek. But you just never know what you'll do until you have them.
ReplyDeletewell im of the minority here...im 30 years old and still kiss both my parents on the lips. just a quick hello kiss but thats how I grew up. and so therefore i SHOWER my son with kisses, he puckers up for them and be drooling at the same time! LOL. I love it!! but i know alot of ppl who are very against it.
ReplyDeleteps. about the eczema..Donald used to have a patch on his back, dry scaly..just one spot. he had to treat it with ointment and it got alot better but that particular spot is still ligther than the rest of his skin but now its smooth and not dry and scaly.
I kiss Alexa European style on both cheeks. Isaac kisses her on the lips, but he was raised that way. As long as you give the lovin it doesnt matter how you do it.
ReplyDelete