Recently, David Beckham posted a photo while kissing baby Harper on the lips. All of this opened up a great online debate that divided people into two groups. Those who saw it as perfectly normal for one parent to kiss his child on the lips and the second group to categorically oppose such a gesture.
What do psychologists say?
They first emphasize the fact that children need to feel loved and secure in the family environment, but kissing on the lips is not the best way to express parental love.
1. Children may develop a misconception about personal boundaries.
The lips and the mouth itself are the "personal boundaries" of a child's body. According to psychologists, when you kiss a baby on the lips you tell them that every part of the body is open and one can enter that "territory" without a problem.
This is also true when a parent tries to force a child into a hug, or when she is forced to feed. Such gestures develop in the child the inability to say no and manage themselves.
2. A kiss on the lips is absolutely unnecessary!
Doctors, especially dentists, warn that there are hundreds of germs in the mouth of an adult that, while not transmitted to another adult, pass on to the child. Their poor immunity does not withstand them and this can cause serious infections.
3. Children can start kissing other people on the lips, thinking that this is how they express their sympathy for them.
The child behaves outside in the same way he or she sees inside. Psychologists say that no matter how naive the gesture was from the parent, the children will imitate it. Tomorrow, they will do the same to someone else outside the home without understanding the purpose.
