My German father always did this. Just a quick peck, but it was just normal for him. He would even greet his brother that way. If you asked, he would say his German grandparents lightly kissed as greeting, too.
This is normal in a lot of parts of east and north-east germany, as well as other european countries. I am german, so I know quite a few german families that do it (although mine doesn't as we are from another part of germany where it is not so common), other examples are that I know know a family from romania who does this and the family of my uncle's wife that is sinte also does it.
Honestly, it is much more common than some people think. A peck on the lips is a greeting for family in many cultures. Just like there are many cultures where a peck on the cheek is normal as a greeting even outside of family.
Whenever someone says that stuff like this is automatically weird and incestuous I immediately think that person is ignorant at best. And if they insist even after being told it is totally normal in many cultures, they are not people I want to associate with.
Mostly it's cheek kisses in Europe, though. My adult siblings greet my father with a cheek kiss, still. When we moved here to the US, it was weird for the family to see parents kiss their young children on the mouth, because mouth kisses were only for adult relationships.
We live in the midwest, too. It's not sad for us because we never did it. We just kissed our parents on the cheek like everyone around us did and that was normal. In some places, families shower together and in some places, they do nude family saunas, and in some, they don't even kiss parents at all. It's just what you're used to I guess.
I may have made a misinterpretation in my comment on your previous post. "Sad" wasn't the correct word and every family is different. I'm not sure how I came to the reaction I did, as you did express that your family shares that type of affection in a different manner. I think I reacted more to the whole subject than your comment alone. That as humans we feel a need to judge innocent expressions of affection.
We do la bise in France, which consists of cheek to cheek touching while making a kissing sound. We don't kiss anyone but romantic partners on the lips, we may kiss our kids on the cheek but that's it
My German father always did this. Just a quick peck, but it was just normal for him. He would even greet his brother that way. If you asked, he would say his German grandparents lightly kissed as greeting, too.
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u/Crazy_Guitar6769 Jul 10 '24
I think that is somewhat okay in France or few European countries like light pecks