I have an anon who comes to visit three days a week. We play basketball. Eat chicken fingers with ranch. Teach him how to breathe through his nose and not walk on his knuckles. Now we on Reddit. Thanks for the gold kind stranger.

It’s also full of fake stories so there’s that

Sometimes Anon is wholesome to keep us guessing. It won’t last long.

As always, there are exceptions that prove the rule

Yes, it’s terrible for your long term oral health and if you do it enough your teeth will even get fucked up

I finally got adult braces to fix my open mouth breathing teeth and I’ve had about a dozen sinus surgeries but I breathe through my nose now and sleep and feel so much better

My guess is that it’s more sanitary to breathe through your nose if you’re in an enclosed room full of people with suboptimal ventilation. That way you’re not all chilling in a sauna of each other’s saliva.

Other than that though it seems kinda stigmatizing towards people with seasonal allergies, which is kinda shit.

Oh and George Washington apparently wrote a book on etiquette that includes not breathing through your mouth. Weird facts one remembers from homeschool, amirite?

Yes, your nose is the preferred apparatus for mammals to breathe through. Ours becoming so small has led to health issues, but it’s still the ‘correct’ way to breathe.

It’s bad for your lungs because your sinuses humidifies air before it gets there. Plus it causes dry mouth and bad breath and distorts the growth of your pallette, sinuses, and face, easily leading to a deviated septum. It’s also correlated with a lower IQ.

This isn’t necessarily a direct answer to your question, but it is tangentially related and I wanted to share this somewhere :)

I had a combination septoplasty+turbinoplasty about two years ago and it has been the single most significant quality-of-life improvement of anything in my life. Before the surgery, I could not breathe through my nose, and it’s hard to explain just how much better things feel now that I’m able to breathe through my nose most of the time. My mouth is no longer constantly dry, my lips are no longer permanently chapped and cracked and peeling. I no longer have permanently bad breath, which was something people in my family complained about a lot (doubly bad because i couldn’t smell it). I actually have a sense of smell now. My extremely picky eating is pretty much a thing of the past, because food doesn’t all taste like cardboard with a slimy texture. I used to have constant trouble with insomnia, now that I’m not constantly fighting to get air into my lungs I can sleep through the night almost every night.

Many trans people say that colors appear more intense and vivid after they started taking the correct hormones; that the grass is literally greener. I can confirm that from firsthand experience. I can also say with confidence that this is nothing compared to the sheer joy of unlocking an entirely new sense which you didn’t have for the first 21 years of your life.

You’ll get a dry mouth and bad breath. Also might need nasal polyps sorted or hayfever meds or something if your nose is constantly blocked. Also not a good look if your resting state is a slack jaw appearance.

If you are a child like anon’s nephew, mouth breathing will mess up your craniofacial development.

I have a severe deviated septum, excessive mucus and I have to most of the time. I don’t recommend it, makes your teeth damaged easier and your breath can smell. Sleeping this way is hard and you don’t sleep as well.

I used to be allergic to cats, and my family had cats growing up, so I was a mouth breather for most of my childhood until my body finally figured out that cat hair isn’t some secret bacterial plot to destroy me.

I had a bunch of sores in my mouth from it getting too dry, and I believe my teeth suffered a bit too, but I was lucky that they were all baby teeth.

It also just took a decent amount of time for me to learn how to rely on my nose for breathing after not using it for so long. I eventually learned, but it took effort for me not to just default to the breathing method that didn’t require concentration at first.

There’s a whole load of health issues that can come from it. For example it probably contributed to my developing of asthma. I needed surgery, and I’m still learning how to use my nose. Hardest to fix is while sleeping.

My nose tells me to stay away from things that smell like they are not good for me. My mouth won’t.

If you start shoving food up your nose, then yes.

no, but people think it looks stupid to have your mouth open

…no, it’s pushing them out of their comfort zone.

Nah, it’s important for everyone to have experience taking the lead and the risk for doing so is much lower when you’re younger. It’s the best time to train that skill set.

Your apprehension to the concept is one of the reasons most leaders are selfish dicks, since those were the only people who wanted to practice being a leader growing up (cause they like the power of it)

Even with as many downvotes and with as much disagreement as you’re getting, I do believe there’s more merit to the what you’re saying than others are allowing for.

Not all “pushing them out of their comfort zone” is beneficial. A lot of child actors/performers have a great amount of trauma from being forced to perform as children, for instance. I struggle with such trauma myself.

And I’m not sure I can nutshell exactly the difference between abusive coercion and encouraging personal growth, but maybe some rules of thumb:

• If it’s motivated by some deep-seated emotional need of your own rather than for the benefit of the child, that’s harmful for sure.
• If you’re already thinking about it as “forcing” the kid even from the get-go, that’s a huge red flag.
• If you’re pushing them into something they have no interest in (as opposed to encouraging them to stretch to achieve some of the passions/wishes/desires/goals they themselves authentically express) I think that’s problematic. Especially if it hampers the kid’s ability to engage in what they are interested in.
• The child’s temperament and environment in which they have to operate is also important. e.g. If they’re super introverted and have to extravert way more than they’re comfortable with even without being pushed socially, I think giving the kid more room to self-regulate is more helpful than trying to force them to be more extraverted or whatever. (And similarly with the reverse. And there are plenty of other examples one could come up with.)
• If someone’s guilting you into making your kids do stuff (a church pushing you to get your kid more involved or whatever), that’s shitty too.

The wholesome flip side way of encouraging personal growth in social areas might be something more like playing chess with your kid when they start showing an interest, then suggesting they join a local chess club. Or maybe their thing is debate (debate club). Or writing software (LUGs and user groups for whatever language or whatever). Or art (lots of libraries and art museums put on things that might apply). Or music (local orchestras or whatever). Or drama (drama clubs, improv classes, etc).

The leadership part comes later. Maybe they take on some responsibility at whatever club. Maybe they get good enough at their craft to start teaching one-on-one lessons/tutoring. Maybe they get some of their works displayed in museums or contests and get some notoriety that way. Maybe they give talks at school in public speaking classes about their areas of expertise.

But let the kid engage in what they’re authentically interested in engaging in. Don’t be throwing some kid arbitrarily in a chess club if they couldn’t give a fuck. Especially if you’re weirdly invested in them being good at some particular thing. I think it happens more and can be more damaging than a lot of people realize.

Exactly. This is some bullshit, pseudo-scientific authoritarianism dressed up as “wholesome”.

The societal emphasis on “leadership” is a bootlicking (mormon) grift.

• https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/problems-with-leader-in-me/
• https://hinoonvlog.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/the-hidden-dangers-of-the-leader-and-me-program-7-healthy-habits/
• https://medium.com/@gowayej414/why-most-leadership-training-is-complete-rubbish-and-what-actually-works-e730bd9bf3e4
• https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2016/06/the-unendurable-horrors-of-leadership-camp