As we head toward holiday season, love is in the air!
But for some on the internet, how that love expresses itself is meant to be strictly regulated and criticized when necessary.
Welcome to the world of David and Victoria Beckham, who continue to kiss their children on the lips, despite having been told repeatedly by very vocal internet factions that this is simply not done.
On Monday, David, 43, posted a photo of himself with Harper, 7, just before taking to the ice rink. In it, he's sharing a small kiss with his daughter:
Which, according to naysayers, is wrong. Among the comments:
"This is not appropriate."
"She's your daughter ... why are you kissing on her lips..?"
"I feel like a kiss on the cheek is better than that n the lips. The lips is just weird."
"Perhaps if some of the people that find something wrong with this beautiful photo, had been kissed on their lips by their adoring father, you also would view things differently," said Jilly Hancock.
"If anyone sees anything other than a little girl who loves her dad in this picture it says more about the state of their mind than anything else," wrote tatsaf66.
Kissing on the lips is just what's done in the Beckham household, where they have four children: Brooklyn, 18, Romeo, 14, Cruz, 12 and Harper. But Victoria drew fire after posting a picture in 2016 in which she kissed Harper on the lips, while David generated criticism in 2017 for doing the same thing.
The Beckhams are not alone in this practice: Hilary Duff kissed Luca, 4, on the lips in 2016; Olivia Wilde smooched Otis, 3, in 2017; Tom Brady kissed Jack, 11 earlier this year and Harry Connick Jr. kissed Charlotte, 8, in 2010.
Experts seem divided; in 2010 educational psychologist Charlotte Reznick said, "If you start kissing your kids on the lips, when do you stop? It gets very confusing."
Meanwhile, psychologist Samantha Rodman wrote in 2014, "Parents do loads of things with kids that sexual partners will later do ... Why is a backrub or a bath or a cuddle OK and a kiss is not? If you love someone, you're physically close with them."
TODAY fans overwhelmingly support kissing your child on the lips: a 2016 poll indicated 69 percent of you said it was just fine.
We couldn't agree more!