HA! My in-laws have 8 kids and rather than kisses, it’s hugs and even though they are family, I still feel a little creepy.
Makes me feel old.

-Chris

hugs, high fives, cheeks, foreheads ... ok. I’d find it a uncomfortable to kiss other people’s children’s lips. I don’t do that with my own kids. Culturally, it’s strange for me too.  I never remember my parents kissing my lips.  Then, I can’t remember my dad kissing me at all ..

get over it fellas, its all about the kids development, not about maintaining your own emotional bonsai.
Why on earth are you squeemish about it, look deeeeeeeep inside, what is scaring you? I kiss, hug, hold, shout at, swear at, talk to, play with, argue about, for and on account of the little pains in the arse. grow up before they overtake you and you realise they are pointing and snickering at you as that old emotional retard who wasn’t confident enough in his emotions to be a real person.

Huh?

...and by that, I mean: That’s quite a judgment of me, my character, my parenting style and how my children will turn out, simply based on “I don’t like to kiss my children on the lips.”

But you know what? Even if (and that’s a big if) my kids perceive me as being an “old emotional retard,” I can guarantee you that they will never feel that I thought of them as “little pains in the arse.”

My kids are my world, and they know it. So chill out.

Angryexpat,

I mirror Jungle Pop’s comments and would also add that though I do on occassion kiss my sons on the kips, it usually becuase they kissed me rather than I kissed them. Call it what you will, but our society is not accepting of men kissing boys on the lips. As for my other family, I see these kids like two times per year and to have their 15 year old daughter come over to me and expect me to give her this big hug, or heaven forbid a kiss...all I can think of is how I would feel as a dad if someone my kids hardly knew did that.

Last thing I want is for the kids to remember me as “Creepy Uncle Chris.” Every family has one...and I don’t want to be that guy.

I think that maybe part of this whole discussion may be a cultural thing. 

I’m originally from the South (hey, y’all!). When you greet people, you shake hands, but then you hug if you’re being really friendly. When I first met my wife’s family (before we were married) in a north-eastern state, the common greeting was a kiss on the cheek, which I was very uncomfortable with, but was normal.

(Her extended family got wind of my coming, and so I was kissing strangers left and right.)

So M2M kissing your kids may be common for some, and uncomfortable for others.  I guess, I’d fall on the “not on the lips” side of things.  I’ve only done it by accident when I was headed for another part of the face and missed!