In my family we always kissed on the lips. No big deal. There was never anything sexual about it. I've known many others who do as well. This is just to let you know that it IS normal for some people. Along with Cary, I would never imply there is anything wrong with you for how you feel, you have a different background. But kissing on the lips IS okay, so I do think it would be wrong of you to ask for a change of behavior based on your different sensibilities. If it really bothers you to that extent, I would suggest talking to a professional about it.

There's a difference?

God, we're from the South and my family kisses on the lips too. I hate it. I think it's strange and disgusting. I wanted to scream the first time my mom kissed my husband on the lips -- and dread the day she wants to kiss the baby on the lips too. It's germy and too intimate for "kin," in my opinion. I prefer a good cheek kiss for family & leave the lips for lovers!

Say something to your husband, but phrase it as a question to open a dialogue without judgement. Maybe it eeks him out too. Who knows? It's marriage, though, and I'd suggest talking to your partner.

A elderly relative with whom I'd spent the day kissed both my wife and myself goodbye with open mouth. A friend attributed it to her Sicilian background, I don't know if this is accurate. Based on this, I'm guessing it's a cultural norm, but I found it disconcerting as well.

My mother-in-law always kissed her kids on the lips and would get upset if my husband offered the cheek instead. I always thought it was a little weird until I had my own kids and felt that mother love. Your husband will always be your mother-in-law's little boy. There's nothing wrong with her kisses.

My SO of eight years kisses his teenage daughters on the lips. Skeeved me out at first. I could never ever kiss a male relative on the lips. To me, it's just ... ick. Non-issue now with SO and his girls; after all these years, I know there's nothing unhealthy about their relationship. I've never said anything about the kissing. But I don't watch it either.

I've experienced this on occasion, usually from much older men and women. My family are all English so all forms of public affection are frowned on. On the other hand we call total strangers Pet. Takes all kinds.

My family is mostly Polish and we all kiss each other on the lips. No one I've brought home has found this disgusting or unaccpetable and I've dated from various backgrounds.

Ack I gotta post fast because DW wants to watch episode 4 of Torchwood: Children of Earth.

LW you are just being weird. Some people do a peck on the cheek, some do a peck on the lips. Get your mind out of the gutter and grow the **** up. If they opened their mouths, if she gave him baths (thanks Sex and the City) you'd have a point, but if the BIG THING is they kiss on the lips, the problem is in your head. FFS, you'll have to deal with a lot worse over the course of a lifelong marriage - are you one of those women who won't be able to deal with washing a male baby's penis? Yeeesh!

This has to be one of the strangest letters I've seen... As far as I've seen, a chaste kiss on the lips is normal out here, regardless of what the family's roots are.

The only time I recall anyone having a problem with it was in junior high... Then again, that's the same age kids walk twenty feet apart from their parents in public and start showing a serious inability to keep their hands/lips off each other instead!

if he was doing the men's room two-step than kissing his Mom on the lips.

I had a friend who married into a family where not only was there kissing on the lips between family members, but kissing on the lips between male family members.

But she put on her big girl pants and dealt with it. Her husband's family had a lot to offer and the kissing thing was part and parcel of who they are. She loves them all. They're the family she deserved but never got.

She shared with me the family lore that one of the men in her husband's family had his brother officiate at his wedding.

And when the brother announced the couple married, it was the enthusiastic officiant brother that kissed the groom in congratulations before the bride did!

absolutely horrifying.

That is all

We all kiss on the lips. Its only weird if you overthink it, so I don't. Whatevs.

If so, then yeah, there's a problem.

Thank you, Cary, for your gently expansive and inclusive response.

LW: a kissing on the lips anecdote, from my past. Years ago I cared for my dying lover. We had to move to his home town, where two of his cousins lived. Both were kind and generous with their time and resources. But one of the two always came to his bed, in the hospital or in the home, and greeted him with a kiss on the lips. I'd never seen my friend kiss another man, he was normally gruff and a bit of a homophobe. But this affection from his cousin really touched him, he told me. I could tell it made him feel loved.

I am from the South. This is just gross. I have not seen it.

If this just happened once, it could have been an accident. When my son was a toddler, I used to play a trick on him that he loved (and subsequently played over and over on his dad and me), where you tap your cheek and say, "give me a kiss," and when they do, you whip your head around so they smack you on the lips. Giggles all around. Now that he's a tween, I wouldn't do that, but it just reminds me that sometimes it's unclear who is the kisser and who is the kissee, so maybe they just both went in for the kiss. Oops! Once does not a creepy tradition make.