One of the questions parents ask is “Can I kiss my child on the lips?”
The question is, why do parents kiss or feel like kissing their children either on the lips or elsewhere? The simple answer is to show affection.
A celebrity, Victoria Beckham kissed her daughter on the lips and posted the picture on social media some time ago. This generated a lot of debate and some experts gave their opinions about the subject. There are several reasons why some people argue against kissing on the lips. These include:
1. Boundary Intrusion
One of the experts that gave her professional advice is a child psychologist, Dr. Charlotte Reznick. According to her, you should never kiss your children on the mouth. The lips and the mouth are the personal boundaries of a kid’s body. When you kiss a child on the lips, you show them that their body border is open and that someone can intrude into their territory with no problem.
One of the experts that gave her professional advice is a child psychologist, Dr. Charlotte Reznick. According to her, you should never kiss your children on the mouth. The lips and the mouth are the personal boundaries of a kid’s body. When you kiss a child on the lips, you show them that their body border is open and that someone can intrude into their territory with no problem.
2. Hygiene
Some dentists also warned that there are a huge number of microbes in our mouths that may not infect adults, but can be transmitted to children and harm them greatly. And since the child has a weaker immune system, some dangerous infections can enter their body through saliva.
3. Sexual Confusion
Children are sexual beings and they start to become aware of their sexuality at an early age. Dr. Reznick said “As a child gets to four or five or six and their sexual awareness develops, the kiss on the lips can be stimulating to them,” She believes that although it doesn’t hurt to kiss your children on the mouth when they are babies, parents shouldn’t start doing it at all because the child can become confused later on. The lip is a part of the body sensitive to sexual stimulation and is capable of releasing feel-good chemicals associated with sexual arousal when kissed. However, some parents disagree on this point.
It is also believed that since children learn by observing adults, they might try to repeat the same gesture with others, without realizing the intimate implication of this gesture. This is why it is recommended to only kiss children on the cheeks or on the forehead.
Personally, I don’t feel comfortable kissing my kids on the lips but I do a forehead-to-forehead show of affection and off-course, I kiss on the forehead and cheek. My idea is if the main reason is to show affection, can I equally show and communicate affections without necessarily kissing on the lips? My answer is yes. In my opinion, kissing my children on the cheek is not less of affection than kissing on the lips. It might be less of affection when the person in question is my husband though. What do you guys think?
Lastly, I want to add that there is also a cultural aspect to this. Kissing children on the lips is more prevalent among certain cultures than others. The western culture might be more open to this than others. 
And one thing I have observed the western culture do well is seeking consent, even before showing affection. Any affection given to anyone including children should be welcomed. If affection is forced and makes someone uncomfortable or feel unsafe, then it would be inappropriate. We should respect a child that refuses to receive a hug from someone, be it aunty or uncle or anyone.
I believe what is most important to note is that we teach children what is appropriate and inappropriate by our actions and not necessarily what we say.