To not respond when people say “bless you”

[OswaldOwl]

I just watched one of those ‘English etiquette guide for foreign visitors’ videos and it mentioned always say thank you when somebody says ‘bless you’ when you sneeze.

I don’t do this 😬 Thinking back to my childhood, the belief on the school yard was that saying thank you ‘cancelled’ the good luck of ‘bless you’. Obviously that is ridiculous but it might explain why it didn’t develop as an automatic habit, though clearly I should have picked this up since.

I think I might mutter a ‘sorry’ after a sneeze, maybe a thank you if the bless you comes from a stranger, but by and large I don’t respond.
Clearly I have been a rude sneezer for the last 37 years!! How unreasonable / rude have I been?
I like to think I am polite in my other interactions

Oh my God I'm a fairy mass murderer 😫😩😩

I think I say "you too" after someone says "bless you" to me. Where does that stand in the fairy murder stakes?

An ex used to get mildly offended when I didn't say ' bless you' after he sneezed- like I secretly wished him harm or something.
I'm not from this country, and it really wasn't a ' thing' in my family. Plus he was rabidly anti religious.
And he was a crap shag ...

I didn't know it was supposed to be bad luck . I always say thank you.

[quote user16395699]www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/well/mind/sneezing-sneezes-god-bless-you-manners-etiquette.html[/quote]
Just because the Americans speak the same language does not mean that they know the first thing about manners in another country.

You could just hold your nose and give a thumbs up ?

I too am an atheist but I always say "bless you" to my muslim friend and he always says thank you. But in my head i'm saying "god bless you" and then I wonder if i've offended him. Overthinking much.

Polite answer to bless you IS thank you.
I a patient at work say ‘I don’t want your Christian blessing’ to my ‘bless you’ once. And now ask if they want a tissue!

I was taught that you don't thank for a 'bless you'

It was one of those weird church-y rules

There are lots of non-religious uses of the word 'bless' and I think a post-sneeze blessing falls into that category, for me at least - similar to saying 'we've been blessed with good weather'.

Hold the phone. I'm from Ireland where blessings and fairies are our bread and butter. How and why have I never heard of this fairy saving/killing business?

Back to bible class I’m afraid!

Isle of Man also has fairies, they make the tea … where would they be without a cupola?

@Pucarbuile that’s because Irish people will know @GeorgiaMcGraw is absolutely right in her assessment of the wee folk as resilient, violent, and well-armed.

It’s us mortals that need protecting from them should they be angered (or simply in the mood for making mischief, let’s face it); & no amount of sneezing[-related-shenanigans] is a threat to them. Which is as well, really, because humans these days are woefully ill-prepared to defend themselves from the fair folk…