AIBU to worry about the evil eye after mentioning my child's success?

[Sahiba2024]

I accidently mentioned a success of one of my kids in front of relatives and i had a sleepless night worrying i opened DC up to evil eye. I feel like it happened with them before when his educational successes were shared and then things went wrong. I am from a south eastern culture where this thinking is more prevalent but wondered if others beleived in the concep or have experoence

It’s nonsense.

YABU because the “evil eye” is not real.

Please dont worry, it's all bollocks.
Every culture has its superstitions and they are all bullshit.

If the 'evil eye' appears, poke it with a sharp pencil.

There’s no ‘evil eye’ and unless your relatives have children at the exact same stage and are likely to compare directly, they’ll be honestly pleased with his success. Obviously they should be at any stage.

Then spend tomorrow walking about talking about what a dope your child is, to avert the evil eye? Or just decide it’s superstitious nonsense on the same level as walking under ladders or spotting single magpies.

(I gather in some traditional parts of the Mediterranean in the not so distant past, the thing to do was to pass a woman and her baby in the street and say ‘Your baby is so ugly!’ and she would say ‘Thanks, yours too!’ to avert the evil eye falling on your handsome babies.)

"South-eastern culture" : Kent, Sussex etc? Does it include the Home Counties and Essex?

Essex hth

YABU because it's a load of nonsense.

It's called "tempting fate" in the UK and it's still bollocks.

I think getting some sort of therapy to un-brainwash yourself would be very helpful for both you and your children OP.

Please don't raise another generation too nervous to do and say completely normal things, due to superstition.

It can be very life limiting.

I don’t think discussing a cultural understanding that you grew up with, in this environment, is going to help you- you’re going to get a flood of replies saying ‘it’s all bollocks’. Will that make you feel better?

Load of nonsense so don't worry yourself about it. Absolute proof that the "evil eye" doesn't exist is the fact that the likes of Putin, Trump, Kim Jong Un and Tommy Robinson are walking the earth alive and well.

If the alternative is 'YANBU, this curse is absolutely real' then yes, I imagine 'it's all bollocks' will make her feel better.

Not that anyone should need to be told this.

Never heard of it. Sounds like a folkloric version of ‘boasting is bad manners’ or ‘pride comes before a fall’. Basically showing off makes others feel bad and you’ll look like a tit if things change, so best not. So… there is risk of you looking like a tit. That is all.

Not quite...

"In Southeastern, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean cultures, the evil eye—often called nazar or ain—is a widely feared curse caused by envy, believed to cause misfortune, sickness, or injury. Worn as blue glass amulets or jewelry, it serves as a protective charm designed to reflect negativity."

Its done now. Just work to keep dc safe from people's interference and harm

Yes but my point is that there is no supernatural power of envy, only envious people. The folklore has presumably been created to encourage social harmony.

Unless anyone is actively, culpably malicious, the worst that can happen is OP makes a tit of herself.

It doesn't exist, though.
So you don't need to worry.

Of course it’s all bollocks, but when you’ve grown up with this culture it’s difficult to shake off.

The Jewish tradition is to do a symbolic spit three times - just say tfu-tfu-tfu quickly - and touch the back of your first two fingers to your lips. That’s a shield against the Evil Eye, stops it hearing what you said. Alternatively you can divert the evil gaze from the subject of your boast by saying something terrible about them. After a big boast about us or our children, my older female relatives would just reel off a list of ridiculous insults, “stupid, smelly, can’t sing in tune” or other such complete nonsense, generally with a big, loving grin on their face.

Of course all this is as much nonsense as writing about the Evil Eye in the first place, but it’s comforting, and it’s also a connection with your own history. I still do it myself, occasionally.

Can’t edit. …worrying about the Evil Eye, not writing.

Don't be a dick

If people stopped passing this shit from generation to generation, there'd be no need to 'comfort' onself in this way.

My family are Irish and I saw first hand how anxiety inducing and life limiting all this shit was for my grandparents and then my parents.

I put my foot down when my kids were born and told them all to keep their shite to themselves.

I have adult cousins who still won't pass one another on the stairs or write numbers in red pens FFS.

Nonsense. Maybe my great-great-greats back in the shtetls genuinely believed, maybe they were as held back by their circumstances as by their superstitions. But these little rituals cause nobody any harm today. My own grandparents and parents never withheld praise, neither from us nor about us.

Maybe the difference between our cultures’ responses to something that might bring misfortune is that mine has a simple reversal. I don’t know whether your Irish culture does, but having a simple reversal means that the misfortune thing does not matter, it loses all negative significance.

Tie red thread around the wrist, and/or hang a zlo oko/nazar/mati amulet, if it offers comfort.

I’m southeastern European, so I get it.