[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Mystic Mock

The adult who's say 22 years old gives the 14 year old a kiss on the cheek to boost their confidence, should this be classed as a form of grooming or not? Because the 22 year old would know about the 14 year old having a crush on them and it could be seen as encouraging the crush, but obviously they've not had sex with the 14 year old either so it's a bit tricky I think.

I know it's a weird thread, I was just interested to get people's responses to this as it happens more often than people realise and I don't know how people feel about it in general.

....hmmm, it wouldn't feel ok for me personally Mock but that is just more a personal thing than a generalisation...obviously I wasn't 22yrs old when my sons were 14yrs old and their 14yr old friends were always at our house all of the time but I would never have felt that it was ok to kiss one of them on the cheek as a 'confidence boosting' thing...I have a different perspective though as a mum and also through working with children ..I do know that confidence boosting/raising self-esteem and self-belief etc are important but for me, not in a way that would involve any physical contact at all...especially I think if the older person is aware that the 14yr old does have a crush on them etc...