No more kisses, I cannot stand it, it has to stop!

Surely there are far worse things in personal interactions to contend with than kisses and blesses. It's just people trying to be nice - get over it!

NS, I second your thought to the letter. 👍

So much going on in the country and the rest of the world right now and people are getting wound up by a few x 🙄 xx

’Bless you’ is a comment I hear frequently in Norfolk. It is a term I feel indicates kindness. As to kisses, it can be comforting to people who are having a tough time and to show you care about them, even if they are strangers.

There is a lot of room for compassion in our society, why is it so offensive to people here?

BlueBelle

…..And I m not your hun

Or "you guys". Example - a waiter/waitress asking "are you guys ready to order" . "Are you ready to order" is enough.

Coco51

’Bless you’ is a comment I hear frequently in Norfolk. It is a term I feel indicates kindness. As to kisses, it can be comforting to people who are having a tough time and to show you care about them, even if they are strangers.

There is a lot of room for compassion in our society, why is it so offensive to people here?

I'd someone says "Bless or Bless you" then I'd cringe inwardly but I wouldn't say anything. Although as a po says it's the patronising tone it's usually said in that I dont like.

Not appropriate unless I have sneezed or the person saying it is a vicar other minister of religion.

In my experience, people who say "Bless him/her" when he/she isn't around usually mean completely the opposite!

One of the good things about Gransnet is that it serves to remind you how different good manners are even in two countries that geographically quite close.

Here in Denmark, no-one would ever add kisses to a business e-mail, and if anyone did by mistake and a complaint was made by the recipient to the firm, boy! would there be trouble!

Back when businesses and government offices started using e-mails, most firms made templates that you had to use. If they did not use templates, they issued guide-lines that had to be followed, as the e-mail was a business communication.

So the problem with xxx = kisses hasn't arisen here. They are not commonly used in letters, either, except sometimes by children in the past, when children wrote letters to their grandparents. I have never received a letter from a close Danish friend with kisses, only from close British ones.

A medical professional who was over-familiar would be complained about too, here.

I recently had an email from a utility company that started "Hi hun" . I must admit I thought it was unprofessional

undines

Surely there are far worse things in personal interactions to contend with than kisses and blesses. It's just people trying to be nice - get over it!

There will always be "far worse things" in personal interactions... many of us have probably already experienced some of them.

But why should that prevent anyone from commenting on more minor irritations? Is there some yardstick by which we have to measure our annoyances and not comment if they fall below the bar?

That's the nature of 'chat' on SM sites - we can natter about things that are fairly inconsequential, maybe just for the heck of it... we don't have to focus on the serious stuff continuously - do we?

I object to strangers, children and trades people calling me by my Christian name instead of Mrs...... Nowadays even sites like Amazon say Hello E......
when I was young we never even knew people’s forenames.

As a former local councillor I would say this is unprofessional conduct. ditto emojis or any smiley faces.

Regards

Me

Me too 😂😘

seadragon

A major Covid bonus for me, I hereby confess, is that perfect strangers, on first introduction, no longer grab me and try to kiss me on both cheeks. That all started a few years ago for some mysterious reason. Even the family dog knew not to try and kiss me!!

Me too, I'm not a kisser. I've found that friends' husbands often find it uncomfortable too.

Bijou

I object to strangers, children and trades people calling me by my Christian name instead of Mrs...... Nowadays even sites like Amazon say Hello E......
when I was young we never even knew people’s forenames.

I don't put my first name on forms now if I can help it, just my initials. They now call me CE...

NotSpaghetti

All the above drive me mad.
I don't regularly use "kisses" on messages even to family. I only send kisses when I want them to have them.
I don't bless anyone either.
"Aw bless" is parricularly horrible. I wish there was a polite way of stopping this one!

Also the whiney way it is said "Ah bleeeeeess". So patronising, I'm not a small child.

Goodness! Am I being unreasonable to think some of you should get over yourselves? An x on an email or a particular expression is not going to accelerate the end of the world. Plenty of things ARE doing that. Better to use our combined wisdom to do something about that, in my opinion.

Aaargh! 'Aw bless' from anybody, usually a young person to an older person makes me want to spit! It is patronising and very annoying. Not so bothered about kisses at the end of a message.

I don’t like it either. Too many phrases are being overused and become meaningless and jokes. Professionals need to stay professional.

Maybe in time there will be other newer cultural memes to replace those annoying ones. Hmm?

Here’s the alternative - when people STOP blessing you, wishing you well and safe travels and to stay safe, etc and the twitter-verse turns more cynical, cutting and spiteful because people are overly anxious, snarky, angry. That is alarming and already happening elsewhere (not on GN tho).

Which way will humanity behave? I guess in the end I’ll go for the softer caring touch.

Grannyben

I normally only text my daughters but, on one occasion, I messaged my employer and put a xx on the end. I did message back rather quickly.
On another occasion I handed a customer their purchases and said "love you". I can still picture the look on their face.

That really made me laugh Grannyben.

I can’t stand being called love ( except by dh) or hun young people often use hun it really grates on me

Nothing to do with kisses I know but I'm throwing in another annoyance - "Reaching Out" !!
Thanks for reaching out (instead of thank you for your email/contacting me)
Drives me crackers!!!

Well said Dickens

It's not a kiss. It's a letter x and nowadays it stands for things like Best Wishes, Yours truly, Your obedient servant and all the other multifarous wordy burblings that people have used to sign off letters and notes.

You don't have to use it yourself.

I don't find it any worse than "Kind regards" – another common wordy burbling used by people one has never met or spoken to.

Shrug and move on. It's not worth getting heated under the collar about. Neither is Bless you!

Grumping about it is... well... just grumpy.

*multifarious