No. Of course not.
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
10 points (61.9% liked)
No Stupid Questions
49850 readers
863 users here now
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.
If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
not sanitary and not normal, i knew one in High school that did that.
As long as they keep and use hand sanitizer before they touch anything, it’s whatever. Actually, the hand sanitizer would probably put a stop to it.
That said, I don’t think anyone would want to interact with that person if at all possible.
If you need to suck your thumb as an adult, get counseling. I don't mean it in a bad way, you have legitimate underlying issues that would probably be helped. You'd feel a lot better in general probably.
No because this man will come:
Struvelpeter
I didn't even have to zoom in to know this shit is German because of course it is!
Im going to say no for two reasons. Firstly its bad for ones teeth. If someone needs to feel the need to suck their thumb they are likely going to do it to the extent that its bad for the teeth. Secondly the social negatives will be massive. Bullies will wing off almost immediately and there is a good chance of having some sort of physical altercation. Unless your built like a line backer. Maybe then you can be so physically impossingly powerful to keep bullies silent. Beyond that though its likely to negatively impact various social situations if a schoolmate or work mate sees you. Heck it could follow you into some adult life interview. Its just to outside the norm.
It's not a crime or anything. I would definitely assume they have some sort of developmental issue though.
It's hella rude when touching stuff like doorknobs after
It's not even "okay" for kids past a certain age because it causes deformed teeth development. Or are you asking if people will look at you weird? Thats also a yes.
At what age does it start deforming teeth?
Rule of thumb I learned and never validated:
Two it starts, with three it can become an issue, with four it might affect the underlying permanent teeth - and there is no difference between thumb or pacifier.
think less "at what age" and more "after how much thumb sucking".
Context matters here.
A teenager with profound mental disabilities or one who expects to be get a job in the future?
Also, long term thumb sucking can impact dental development. I knew a kid who had to have braces for years because they kept sucking their thumb until age 10.
This question feels like a dog-whistle.
These new accounts are too much, if I see a fresh account with just 1-2 posts like this I just block.
I sort of assumed this was a question from Don_Dickle /u/patnou@lemmy.world
A bit surprised it wasn't.
It turns out that I have that one blocked too.
I forgot to do that earlier, thank you for reminding me.
Okay in relation to what?
Socially speaking, people will look at you weird.
Hygienically speaking, a bad idea as constant moisture etc. risks both bacteria and fungal infection.
If you touch things that other people touch with saliva in your hands, you might run into some trouble because again, it's unhygienic and most people will think it gross.
If you're cool with all that, you do you but other people don't have to be cool with you doing that.
Depends, are they biting their thumb at me? Might have to pull out my rapier.
What if I bite my thumb, but not at you, sir?
No
An important aspect of teenage life is the social aspect. Every teenager wants/needs to belong to a group of peers. It is quite literally the primary drive of the average teenage brain. This is how humans learn to live in groups since the dawn of history. Sucking you thumb in public will likely, negatively impact you social status among your peers and is therefor naturally discouraged.
On the one hand it is okay to be you, but on the other hand you need be very steadfast and confident if you're going to withstand teenage social pressure for something like this.
I sucked my thumb until about 18, but only in bed. Than I got a girlfriend. We quickly moved in together and slept in the same bed. She knew that I sucked my thumb, called it cute and didn't make me feel awkward about it. However, I practically couldn't wrap my arm around her and suck my tumb at the same time, so that's how I stopped doing it.
I would assume a kid that age doing it had some kind of disability and move on. A binary ok or not is irrelevant, because it'd be none of my business unless they want to shake my hand.
Only during sex. /s
did they just wash their hands? or maybe use hand sanitizer (although this isn't as good as hand washing). this is a fast track to catching some wild illness.
story time. my wife and I were at a zoo once years ago and we were having frozen lemonades. my fingers got sticky and before I could think, I licked the sticky spot. my eyes got huge because I realized it was a terrible mistake. within a few days I was sick as hell. too many germs around all those animals and kids. we still laugh about this because thankfully I had no serious long-term effects. just a week of absolute misery.
also yeah, as another response said, it deforms teeth and possibly palate depending on how chronically it's done. we have seen this personally.
Do what you want, but pretty unhygienic.
It's ok Ty, just stuck your thumb for another 7 years and you won't be a teenager
Unless I'm the teenager, it's none of my fucking business.
It’s a fucking free world. On the other hand, it is definitely good if a psychologist appears on TV, and explains the risks associated with such behavior; teenagers are little rebels, and an authoritative person telling them to stop doing something is good for their development towards adulthood, albeit it will guarantee that they will suck their thumbs even more. If you want them to stop sucking their thumbs, join in, and start sucking your thumb as well. Within 48 hours they will need to look for something else to upset you; which, interestingly is equally important for their development towards adulthood.