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As a child, were you forced to hug/kiss relatives or friends when you didn't want to? If you are a parent, do you force your children to hug or kiss when they don't want to, either you or other relatives or friends?

HereticSin 7 Sep 25
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1

sorry, no kids here. as a kid i wasn't forced to kiss or hug anyone. i wanted to. one uncle always said he couldn't because he had a cold. i guess he didn't want to be forced!

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0

No kids, either. When I was a kid I was told to hug/kiss relatives and I never really minded. The only relative I couldn't bear to touch was my mother. That made my skin crawl.

2

I don't remember, but I doubt either that I was forced to kiss relatives, or that I forced my kids to do it, since we're all a bit headstrong and rebellious at times.

But it's a very bad idea to teach kids to accept unwanted physical touching from adults. Ever.
Or to be mindlessly obedient to them.

1

No. I think my parents encouraged us to say bye, and we kinda decided if a hug was gonna happen.

I continued that with my own kids. As we leave, I say tell them bye and they decide to what degree.

But I'm not a huge kiss/hug-say bye type myself, unless it's my SO

0

! I always hated having to feel the rough stubbles of my relatives on my cheeks as they hugged and kissed me in family gatherings. It felt like sandpaper.

1

No. What you are referring to is not common in Denmark where I grew up.

Stig Level 5 Sep 25, 2018
1

I think this is changing today. Possibly we see it secretly today that all this huggy kissy stuff could have caused uncle Charlie to end up molesting you. That's why he doesn't get this treatment from kids today and gets only a goodbye if he gets anything at all. Today kids are told to say "goodbye" but only if they are in the same room as the adult leaves.

I disagree with your last sentence, that’s not how I raised my kids

@Marcie1974 Let me explain. When I leave my daughter's place the kids are not gathered together to tell me bye because "grandpa is leaving." They might be outside playing or in another room.

@DenoPenno we always gathered our kids to say goodbye. I’m not saying EVERYONE does this, but you generalizing that “this generation” doesn’t teach that is wrong. Plenty of us do.

@Marcie1974 OK, and you are free to do it but it doesn't mean that everyone does it. This is the only fact I was reporting.

Surely it depends on whether this is "goodbye until tomorrow" or "goodbye until this time next year"?

0

I’m very affectionate and have a very small personal space so it was never forced. My kids are pretty affectionate as well so it’s almost a foreign concept to me. Ultimately no, I wouldn’t force them but I would talk to them to understand why. My fear being inappropriate touching from the adult. However, if my child just wasn’t a cuddly person, I would respect that.

1

No.

weldy Level 4 Sep 25, 2018
0

I'm mostly Italian, and it's just tradition to hug and a kiss on the cheek.
Well, at least the hug part.
It's not sexual in any respect, it's a show affection, love, and respect to each other.
There are some traditions I still hold dear, and that is one of them.
.
I'm the same way with my good friends,men and women, a hug upon meeting, and leaving, minus the kissing part.

But I do feel a bit strange doing it with people I don't really know yet.

1

I was, occasionally, but don't inflict the same treatment on our son.

1

My daughter was just naturally affectionate . As a child I showed affection to my parents and grandparents but I don't remember hugging and/or kissing others. I'm not a particularly affectionate person but I will hug people I know. Don't want to touch or be touched by strangers although I will shake hands .

0

I was forced to. I did not force. I think that it can hurt the child's sense of personal autonomy and and could set them up for abuse.

this was what I was thinking about. I had a big problem with both personal autonomy and with learning to respect others, I had to teach myself that shit, because it wasn't shown to me. kudos for not passing that on to your children!

1

Only up until 5 or 6, can't say forced to more like asked to.
Didn't do it when my daughter was young.

2

Good question. My family were not, and are not huggers. It still feels creepy and forced, to me. Never forced my kids to hug anyone, usually helped deflect such awkward moments. Our hugs are earned, not given away 😉

Varn Level 8 Sep 25, 2018
0

Not normally but last time my son saw his granddad I made sure he gave him a kiss .......granted my dad has not got long so it may have been the last time it happens so I can be forgiven for it

was it forced, or a request with an explanation?

@HereticSin just give gramps a kiss goodnight

@Simon1 yeah, I can see that. if it is that last time, he might regret not taking that opportunity later, even if it was a bit coerced. I ain't mad atcha.

@Hercules3000 nothing to do with age ..illness

2

My daughter doesn't force my grand girls to kiss or hug anyone...I like that. I didn't force my kids to do anything like that either and I also made sure they knew how to refuse anything inappropriate. For example, when my girl was a preschooler, we went into a convenience store for water and an old man approached her with a quarter he insisted she accept because she was so pretty. Wow. I politely refused and made sure my daughter understood what was wrong about that situation (oh so much).

love it! respect, Ready!

1

Yes I was, being raised Latin it happens. No I don't support it.
My children have their own body autonomy and it is up to them if they feel like they would like to hug or kiss anyone.

this is me too, although I was silent for a while when they were young. I didn't do the forcing, but I didn't call my family out when they were insistent. took a while to understand, for me. kudos to you.

@HereticSin this actually triggers me. I have my personal reasons, but I have no problem putting my sister in law in her place when she tries to pinch my son. He said no, and she will respect that. That's how consent is learned.
I totally understand the culture programming though. Glad you didn't force it ?

@Sirena I started defending my daughter when she was around 7. too late, in my head, but I learned. just wish someone had taught me better, so I didn't have to come late to the party for my daughter, ya know.

@HereticSin 7 is better than never... good for you ♡

@Hercules3000 it's the "making the child hug or kiss" others that blurs the lines of consent and body autonomy

2

i never was. i still kiss my mom and my one aunt with a peck on the lips, my dad with a peck on the cheek. most of my family is so estranged that if we get together it's so awkward even a hug seems innapropriate.

@Hercules3000 mine never started close. both of my parents are estranged from the family, so i inherited no family except for my parents and 1 aunt. and i'm an only child 😀

@Hercules3000 my mom's parents were abusive so the kids just drifted, except my moms youngest sister, and my dad was raised by his grandparents and when he moved back in with his mom when he was 17 he had 3 younger siblings he didn't know about. then a yer later he went to vietnam

1

Yeah, my mom was big on that shit. Not good.

was it a struggle to understand bodily autonomy, when you grew up? I don't mean intellectually, but did it seem "natural" when you saw people forced into physical affection? that's what happened to me, it was just a hurdle to understand why it was wrong, since it was my experience growing up.

@HereticSin I think that it just made it tough to understand boundaries on general. They always seemed oddly arbitrary for other people where I just felt like I wasn't allowed to have any. For things like pushing yourself to go harder in something, that's a great quality. For picking partners, not so much. It took me awhile to learn not to accept leeches in my personal life.

@HonkyBMcfunky me too, not just leeches, but people insistent on my attention or affection even when I didn't feel that way. In a love relationship, I don't always feel like kissing, but I felt bad saying "not just now", because of the way I was raised. Instead of understanding that the other person was not respecting my right to decide what my body was available for.

@HereticSin tell your partner what you're struggling with. If they are cool, they'll work with you and you'll be closer for it. If they aren't cool, then you saved yourself a lot of time, misery, and money. Turn this stuff around and try to have it work for you. We are all a little crazy. Make it work for you if you can.

@Hercules3000 ... what now?

@Hercules3000 I think you misunderstood. This was a past partner.

1

We didn't kiss at all as a family, and only hugged in the immediate family. We still all do this, but I think it's mostly because my family is spread out, and only see each other infrequently. I love showing my family affection with a hearty hug, and it is reciprocated. If it was not, I wouldn't do it. I won't force my eventual children to do it. I think, for us, there was no breakage in the family roles. My parents only ever acted like caring nurturing people, and my siblings are good natured, so we never dealt with any kind of abuse, physically or sexually. I think this is why hugging my mom, dad, brother, or sister, is totally natural and comforting to us.

thank you for your perspective. I think so many people force their children to hug or kiss relatives BECAUSE it was a natural part of their growing up, and they don't think of what it feels like for the child not to want to. I'm glad to hear you don't plan to force your children into displays of affection they are not comfortable with, kudos to you!

1

I remember one person in particular, Great Aunt Tess swooping down for my Xmas hug, christ she was scary. An unmarried, wiry woman in her 60s, formerly the headmistress of an all boys school in the east End of London. Femme Formidable 😮

2

Yes I was forced to and no I did not force my children to. There was an incident at the store where an elderly kept trying to talk to my son who did not respond. She said something about rudeness and I immediately told her that my son had been taught not to talk to strangers and reminded her that she was a stranger.

My youngest grandson has an aversion to hugging to me. Unsure if he is like that with everyone but my daughter in law tries to coax him into it but I always take his side. He is willing to fist bump so that is what we do.

I am so glad to hear that you take a proactive role in defending his right to say no, even in the face of his parent's pressure. that will serve him well, later in life, knowing that people have his back!

1

My kids only hugged people that they felt afection. for..

2

Wasn't and never made my kids. It's gross. When my kids were younger it seemed to offend many people that they didn't.

MsAl Level 8 Sep 25, 2018

@Hercules3000 They do if you condition them too. Whenever I ran into old friends and their kids they always hugged everyone and all my brothers kids do it. It always felt like people were judging me and my stuck up unsocialized kids.

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