Are You Hugger ?

? Phoenix did someone really do that?

I'm ok with hugging. Last time someone attempted the double kissing thing we both went the same way and met in the middle. Embarrassing.

I think I have a steely stare that puts people off hugging me!

Greyduster creative types lol

I always discreetly disappear if I can see a hug looming.

I come from a very tactile, huggy family, and I will hug anyone who needs it. However, I'm not into the kissy kissy stuff.
I do love hugs though.

I only hug immediate family and a few others. I know my parents loved me but we weren't brought up with a lot of hugging as adults. It didn't seem to be needed. There is an increasing amount of social hugging in our village but I don't get involved if I can help it.

admittedly it was east coast that I worked on dorset

I was going to post on here about a recent "hugging" experience, but as I'm still wary of the delightful person who printed and posted previous posts to my boss, I won't!

Notanan , FYI I too lived in the U.S. for over seven years. You must have been in a non hugging state as I was constantly hugged.?

I hug friends and family with abandon - except for DSiLs who consider a hug a threat and will run a mile! I much prefer hugs to this kisses/specs clashing thing you're expected to do after dinners. I don't expect kisses from DGC over the age of five when it gets to be embarrassing for some but do grab a quick hug which none seem to mind. In fact sometimes they give hugs voluntarily!

I still meet up with a group of (all female) former colleagues I have now known for about 30 years and we do hugs.
I quite regularly give my daughter a hug.
The littlest boy likes a hug and I sometimes get one from the biggest. They both like snuggling up if you are reading to them.
I wonder if this depends on how your family did this sort of thing. My grown up neice commented that I seemed more prone to hugging than my sister, (her mother) ever was.

The other thing I don't like is when parents insist a child kisses X or y. Why should they if they don't want to.

I was thinking exactly this!

It's funny how adults complain about physical contact yet many GPs complain that their GCs children don't force their children to kiss and hug GPs out of politeness - it's totally wrong! children's bodies and consent should be respected, and if it is they'll more likely grow up to be adults who bother to read other people's responses/body language and don't give unwanted hugs

Good point about watching body language jud.

Huggers soon get the message if one doesn't feel like, or want, hugging.

Don't blame the hugger - one is in charge of one's own body.

#takecharge

The other thing I don't like is when parents insist a child kisses X or y. Why should they if they don't want to.

I watch body language before I offer hugs. With family and friends it's fine. But with people I don't know, not. I think, though, a well judged hug when someone is feeling miserable can help. I find it comforting when miserable myself.

I'm one of those who tends to offer virtual hugs on here when I read of someone in distress. It indicates that I feel for them. Would it be better if I didn't?

As for group hugs.....?!

Lots of hug and kisses for close family and some very close friends. I can't stand the fashion for hugging everyone as soon as you meet. Definitely a no no in a formL or business situation.

When my daughter's husband died in America she said ' Mum if anyone else hugs me I'll scream

I felt that way here when bereaved over 2 decades ago!

I felt that people's need to comfort me trumped whether I wanted/needed to be hugged, and not a single American amongst them!

I hug (and have been hugged back) by friends and family in America, same in England, same in France. Haven't been hugged in America, in England, nor In France, nor anywhere where I don't wish to be.

One does not have to hug if it feels meaningless. Lovely to hug with warmth and friendship.

It doesn't depend on nationality.

No I'm not big on hugs either, find all the kissing here in France a bit tiresome too. When my daughter's husband died in America she said ' Mum if anyone else hugs me I'll scream ' We are not a touchy feely family.

Oh I definitely thinking hugging/kissing in a business context is inappropriate. Don't mind a good friends hug in fact my friends tend to squeeze the life out of me - which is nice in its way. I'm not good at the air kissing stuff with people I hardly know. Wouldn't mind a snog sometimes.

Awww GA, that NEARLY makes me wanna get a free hug tee-shirt… sadly as a woman I'ld be scared that it might be missinterpreted as an invitation to a little more of a grope than a hug and I'ld feel really vulnerable wearing it

That's lovely ga makes me feel like a miserable old bat now!

One of the most moving experiences I ever had was sharing a hug. I'd gone down to the seafront with a church group wearing a T-shirt with the logo 'Free Hugs' on it and offering hugs to passersby. One very elderly gentleman told me the exact date he'd last received a hug from anyone, it was many years ago and was from his wife on the day she died. Another very elderly woman told me she didn't think she had ever been hugged, not even as a child and wasn't sure she would like it. She did though!

I am always being hugged and kissed these days, people who I know don't really like me do it I find it uncomfortable. I remember years ago my parents saying how odd it was that some people from other countries kissed each other when they met.