“Baby Kissing” Etiquette

Kissing other people’s babies seems to have been a late-Victorian / Gilded Age fad in many social circles, based on the articles we continue to find in news archives. But not everyone was inclined to kiss somebody else’s baby, even if it was the expected thing to do: “Anti-kissing societies grow and multiply in the land, and for this the babes have the greatest reason to be thankful. It is at last a breach of etiquette to offer a babe the unpleasant compliment of a kiss...” – 1895

Q. “Charlie” anxiously enquires: “Is it impolite to refuse to kiss a two months’ old baby; it is a female?” 

A. Not exactly impolite, but very impudent ; especially if the invitation comes from the mother. But your expression “it is a female” is a saving clause. Did you ever kiss a little female “it,” Charlie? No? then try it and you won’t find it such a hardship as you think.  

Of course add about eighteen years to a “two months’ old female baby,” and you have something heavenly; but you can’t always perform this addition—we know we never have been able to, though we love mathematics—and the next best thing is to take what you can get. Half a loaf is better than no loaf, provided it is fresh; and what is fresher than a dear little girl baby; yum yum. Try it, Charlie, and write us what vou think about it. — Placer Herald, 1889

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia