Not Exactly What I Had in Mind When I Imagined Being Kissed Silly

How do you kiss your kids? Your parents? Other relatives? When I was a kid, my grandmothers always kissed us kids on the lips -- quick, lipsticky kisses -- or they kissed us on the cheeks, leaving lip prints sometimes, then rubbing them off for us. My parents never kissed us on the lips, maybe because my dad was kind of a germophobe. When I met my son's paternal grandmother, she kissed me on the lips, but she's a grandma, so I pretty much expected this. ;^) My son's paternal uncle kisses everyone hello and goodbye on the cheeks in that oh-so-sophisticated way that Jerry Seinfeld objected to in one episode of his eponymous show.

When my son was a baby, I kissed him everywhere, and as he got older, I settled on cheeks and lips as my favorite spots. Sure, I kiss him elsewhere sometimes, like during those first weeks of kindergarten, when I'd put on lipstick and kiss the palms of his hands so he could carry my kisses with him all day. We're very big on kissing and hugging and snuggling around here. We kiss elbows and hands and necks and almost anywhere, and we hug several times a day; I don't want my son to grow up wishing he'd been kissed and hugged more. Despite being comfortable with -- and encouraging -- all this show of affection, however, I'm now finding myself trying to squelch my son's latest kissing habit.

See, my son has taken to wanting to kiss me on the lips and tilt his head from side to side, mushing my lips in imitation of a romantic movie kiss. I told him that's not the way moms and kids kiss each other, and showed him "the way we do it" (kissing cheeks or little kisses on the lips, or instance), but he keeps trying to kiss me all silly because it makes me laugh so hard I can't breathe. I guess I should try not to laugh if I want him to stop, right? But it's just so hilarious and innocent that I can't not laugh.

Obviously I have my work cut out for me. (But what would Herr Freud say?) ;^)