Who's the weirdo here? Him or me?

[HelpfulHermione]

I greet my family, friends and acquaintances with varying degrees of hugs and kisses. Real kisses and big squeezes for family and BFFs; genuine hugs and air kisses for other friends, hand on shoulder and air cheek kiss for acquaintances.

I say this is NORMAL

Friend says it's WEIRD and is because I'm posh (I'm not) or because I live in an inbred sort of county (I do, but I'm not!).

Friend doesn't kiss or hug anyone ever for any type of greeting. Which I think is really really odd.

Can MN please settle this?

I don't mind hugging & kissing friends and family but not acquaintances or colleagues. I worked at a place where everyone was huggy and kissy and I really didn't feel comfortable with random men expecting a hug & a kiss when a handshake would suffice.

yetalk and bell

DH is a massive hugger now. He certainly makes up for lost time! We hug all the time. However, the psychological is still very much there, especially when it comes to emotions etc. It's very sad.

Crushcuz I’m so glad he’s found his people, and that affection isn’t in short supply!

This is a cultural issue.

I live in France. Everyone kisses everyone in a social situation, even when being introduced to someone they haven't met before. Nobody worries about herpes.

Reading this thread is making me very uncomfortable. Please don't hug me or touch my face! backs away awkwardly

Happy to hug close family and close friends, nobody else though and definitely not acquaintances, I find it really awkward. I wasn't born in the UK, I moved here as a child but before then I lived somewhere it was the norm to hug/air kiss people hello and goodbye, I used to hide under my bed when we had guests!

I don't kiss or hug people who aren't very close to me. I just wouldn't do it. You might catch me once and I wouldn't make a 'thing' of it but I doubt you'd do it twice if you're in any way in tune.

It doesn't make you a wanker, OP and I don't know what class has to do with it either? Perhaps you just wanted an excuse to talk about your new squeeze? :)

Oh I would LOVE to talk about my new squeeze. He’s totally de-lish 😍

Go on then, HelpfulHermione, I'm listening.. spill the beans about Mr Marvellous!

Surely there is a huge over representation of non - huggers/kissers on this thread? Either that or I live in a very abnormal world!

Well the title of the thread doesn't give much away so I don't see that non-huggers would be particularly drawn to the thread. Non-huggers may be particularly drawn to the internet of course.

But say you greet 5 people. 2 may actively like hugging. 1 isn't all that bothered. 1 just about tolerates it and 1 would really like to kill you. So IRL you might think 4 of them are fine with it and the last one is backing off a bit so maybe don't hug or it feels awkward. It's perhaps not that the non-huggers are over-represented here - it's that they feel safe to say they don't want to be touched.

I do a bit of hugging and kissing, a bit of just hugging, a bit of just kissing - and I shake hands. Yes, I do!

We’re a very touchy family, but we’re not British, who I have found to be quite uptight when it comes to other human beings

I would respect and understand a persons personal space I'd never force a hug or kiss!

My dd has a friend she's 10
Her Mum told me recently that she hasn't had a hug, kiss or any physical touch from her dd since she was a baby
I felt so awful for the child's mother but also for the child.
The girl has no sn her older brother is the same.
I'm not a huge hugger, some days I'd rather no one touch me.
But don't we all need some kind of physical affection?

Unless you are European it's a really recent import even for the "posh" aka MC on these threads. I'd say 30-40 years tops. I refuse to do it on the grounds I'd have to double-kiss people I know but dislike. And there are SO many of those. In France however I happily double or quadruple kiss according to length of acquaintance/familiarity. Largely because it isn't particularly class based.