Dan Osborne has inadvertently reignited public debate about kissing kids on the lips after posting a snap of himself and his three-year-old daughter.
The former ‘TOWIE’ star, 26, who is dad to three-year-old Ella with his wife Jacqueline Jossa, and four-year-old Teddy from a former relationship, posted the photo on Thursday 15 February with the caption: “Just put my little princess to bed. Can’t believe she’s three tomorrow.”
An early commenter wrote that the photo was “inappropriate”, but swiftly deleted it after they received many replies from parents saying there was nothing wrong with kissing kids on the lips. We gauged opinion from parents who all agreed.
Mum Chelsie Jade Boyack, 29, from South Tyneside told HuffPost UK: “Kissing in my family is affectionate, a peck on the lips (or cheek) to say hello and goodbye. I’m 30 and I still kiss my grandparents and parents on the lip or cheek, there is nothing sexual about it. My daughter is five and she does the same.”
Boyack continued: “It’s affection, I have never forced her to and she makes the choice to do it. Our kids are growing up in a world where we are constantly bombarded with information of children and young people who have been sexually abused/assaulted.
“This has forced a reaction wherein people can’t seem to see the line between appropriate and inappropriate, and everyone is cautious.”
Boyack added when a kiss is forced or coerced that’s “not right by any standard” but when it’s a freely given peck on the lips then it isn’t harmful. She said: “When my child wants to stop giving me kisses then she will stop. It’s her choice.”
Lisa Humphrey agreed, writing on Facebook: “I’ve kissed all my children on the lips until they were at an age where they didn’t want me to anymore. My daughter is seven and still gives me kisses on the lips (unless either of us are unwell) there is nothing wrong with it at all and those that think there is are the ones with the problem.”
Another mum, Adele Foley said both she and her husband kiss their three-year-old daughter on the lips. “There is nothing sexual in it at all,” she wrote. “Anyone who feels that there is something sexual needs their head testing. It’s a sign of affection for someone I adore and love. I don’t force my three-year-old to kiss anyone though it’s what ever she is comfortable with.”
Mum Karen Lowe said kissing is simply a sign of love, affection and tenderness. She wrote: “The love between a parent and child is the most innocent thing in the world. People who sexualise it are the ones in the wrong. What next? No holding their hands to cross a road or cuddling. I don’t want to be in a world where everything is sexualised.”
Osborne isn’t the first celebrity to come under fire for kissing his daughter on the lips. The same happened when Hilary Duff posted a photo kissing her son on the lips and Victoria Beckham kissing Harper.
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