One of the things that arouse most debate among parents - and I don't quite understand why - is the issue of kissing children, and above all the kiss between them in the mouth. Although we have already spoken on this occasion on some occasion, we come back to rescue it so that you tell us a little how you see it, after David Beckham turn on the debate again by posting this photo with your daughter Harper, 5 years.
In his Instagram account, as we read in The Huffington Post, the well-known ex-footballer published this image accompanied by a brief phrase: "Kiss for dad". It was not long before the "Likes" and the comments valuing the image as a moment of tenderness and a beautiful moment, but also those that seemed out of place or even in bad taste.
People who think it shouldn't be done
"I try not to judge, but I can't help thinking that it is quite rare for him to kiss her on the lips, considering her age," said one person. "To be honest, kissing your daughter on the lips is a bit weird ... "said another. A third party went a little further and wondered" Why do that? We don't need to see it "; and like them, other people who believe that children should not be kissed on the lips, for different reasons.
Because caries risk increases
You may not know it, but there is a health reason behind the recommendation not to kiss children on the lips. As the Spanish Society of Pediatric Dentistry on your page, we should not kiss our children on the lips because we have them more risk of caries.
AdvertisingAnd it is not that children have more risk because parents have cavities; It is the exchange of saliva that transfers germs to the mouths of children (this makes it advisable to clean the pacifier with our mouth, obviously).
Because there is an age when you no longer have to do it
As we said a couple of years ago, there are professionals who suggest that since there is an age at which it is no longer advisable to do so - kissing a 12-year-old girl in the mouth, for example, could be considered as out of place-, to avoid the doubt of when to do it and when not, the ideal is never to do it.
They even consider that if we kiss them on the mouth, they will also do it with other children and adults, at the risk of not knowing that it is a practice that should be reserved only for when there is love and affection.
And is bad?
Well, leaving aside the issue of tooth decay, I don't think there is any study that shows that it is a dangerous practice in the emotional or social sense. Come on for children it has no transcendence or sexual connotation, as it does not have it either for parents.
You will say that I defend it because I have done it with my children. Yes, I have done it with them and would do it again, simply for love, for love, because for me it is a way to convey what I feel, one more than many, and because they have also done it with me as a result: a "dad, I keep you musho" accompanied by a kiss, that they have left me in love lost of them, and to which I have responded with a hug in my hand.
And I have done it until I have already felt that I could do it differently. For example, with Aran and Jon, aged 8 and 11, I don't do it. With Guim, who is still 5, some sometimes falls. And so, until the day that I see it already grown for it and let the two do it, with total naturalness.
