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

Say a prayer and get yourself and your dd a charm on a necklace or a bracelet or something 🧿

No, that’s more of a culturally Protestant hang up.

It is the envy that is malign, not someone’s enjoyment of the good fortune that attracts it.

In fairness, while I’ve heard about not passing people on the stairs, Ive heard about it from English people, and I’ve never heard of not writing numbers in red pen. But I entirely agree about the whole thing being about tall poppies and social cohesion, and I reject it totally. I grew up seeing my mother put me and my siblings down performatively in public all the time (no one likes a confident or clever girl, the only way people will like you is if you continually say how stupid and ugly you are) and told her if she did it about my child she wouldn’t get a chance to see much of him, that I understood that this was how she’d been raised, but that it was stopping here. That hearing her tell the neighbours that I was ‘too lazy to just get a job’ when I won a big international scholarship to study abroad for a PhD was really not normal.

I agree with Delibertian, it's hard to shake off your culture even if you don't agree with it. Here in Ireland people traditionally were disparaging about their children (so in reply to someone praising your child's sporting skills, you might say "if he gave half as much attention to his books as to that bloody football he'd be doing well"). I understand this also grew from traditional beliefs that you didn't want to make your child desirable to the fairy folk, this is not believed any more of course though the way of talking persisted for longer than the beliefs that shaped it. But the point is, it can be useful to reflect on how your cultureal beliefs may not be serving you well in your current life.

I am from a south eastern culture

Like Kent?

Of course it’s not true.

OP says Essex.

How tragically small a world.

Daft. Just stop believing in it and tell anyone else from your culture you don"t want it mentioned around you any more.

Most cultural beliefs are daft. All religions are, in my atheistic view. But this is ridiculous advice. We don't just lightly stop believing the things we were brought up to believe in.

Well you think your way and I will think mine. 🙄

What is your advice then? Or are you just here to criticise other people's opinions? Rude!

Plenty of us critical thinking adults do.

Critical thinking adults can also comprehend that human beings are no more exclusively rational than they are exclusively emotional and/or instinctual. Cultural norms are for the majority of people deeply ingrained, unconscious, and exceptionally resistant to change. Regardless of what the rational brain may know.

This made me giggle! Sorry OP! 🤣

I did, and left all the superstitious shite behind, including religion 😀 I really didn't find it hard at all.

What is evil eye? I daren’t google it 😱

Why on earth wouldn't you Google it? Wiki says 'The evil eye is a supernatural belief in a curse brought about by a malevolent glare, usually inspired by envy.'

OP the evil eye is a superstition, the dictionary says a superstition is 'a widely held but irrational belief in supernatural influences, especially as leading to good or bad luck, or a practice based on such a belief.'

It's sad to me that these horrible negative beliefs are passed down from generation to generation. Please don't pass this nonsense on to your own poor children OP. Also why on earth would you think your own relatives would want to put a curse on your child? Surely they'd be pleased about their success?

Don’t be daft. It doesn’t exist and never has.

YANBU I'd be really worried about it too.

I’m amazed anyone would give credence to this.
We live in a vast universe with billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars and planets but you believe that something you said on our insignificant planet in a few moments during the 13.6 billion years of the existence of the universe will cause a supernatural event.

The fact that beliefs similar to the OP’s arose at least in north European Judaism, Irish Celtic culture and south east Asian thought (and probably other cultures as well) suggests that this has deep roots in the human psyche. Contrary to what the scoffers on here imply, it is not easy simply to abandon such “superstition” for a more “rational” belief. When a deep rooted internal response to something causes fear or anxiety, it’s helpful to examine it, reflect on the process, and if it remains, then to find a way to manage it so that it doesn’t cause problems.

I cant say anything someone has said about their own child has stuck in my head for longer than 2 seconds, what am I missing?

not sure what is a missing is obvious but why so you think others care about your child's success that deeply?

I come from a similar culture and can confidently say it’s nonsense, but if it makes you feel better then spit on your DC (obviously, can’t believe you haven’t done it already) and hang blue evil eyes 🧿 around your house if you haven’t already.

I believe in evil eye 😅🙈

It’s ok OP, you are not alone, and it’s normal to feel anxiety about your kids, they are precious after all

You can Amazon prime an amulet bracelet etc to yourself - I did when I got some good news & it made me feel better so I can use my mental energy better elsewhere. They are very economical too so just do that & move on