Family Matters

Power in Russia has been in the hands of women for a long time. Russian feminists never needed to declare war on men, since men freely surrendered to the more educated, more cultured, more intelligent, more hard-working, less hard-drinking sex. In relatively unimportant fields, such as politics, men still prevail but amongst teachers, doctors, engineers, not to mention service staff, as well as families, woman reigns supreme. If the husband is the head of the family, the wife is the neck, dictating which way the head will look. Defeated and subdued, Russian men submissively and it seems almost willingly, bow to ‘the weaker sex’.

It is not for nothing that, grammatically, “Russia’ has the feminine gender. She is Mother Russia – nobody would dream of calling her ‘Father’.

There is a big gap between belief and reality in Russian family life. Ask a Russian about his values and he will tell you that above all he values his family and children. Yet divorces are quickly outnumbering marriages and a family with one child or even with none, is more typical than a family with two or three. Children may be the flowers of life but let them grow under the neighbour’s window. Children have become too expensive especially if you take into consideration that your child simply cannot be dressed worse than the Ivanovs next door and giving him an education is ruinous to your budget because you don’t want your little precious to go to the state school round the corner. It will cost a pretty penny, sending him off to a private school but what won’t you do for your Only One?

With a single child in the family, Russian parents heap the heavy weight of their love on the poor, innocent head of their offspring, a love which in former times would have been shared among innumerable siblings.

The person who really spares the rod and thus spoils the child is babushka, the grandmother.

The child’s mother can be certain that nothing will happen to the child while she is out working: Babushka will see to it that he has everything he wants and much more. If Daddy or Mummy say “No’ to the young master’s whim, he knows that if he goes to Grandma, she will always say “Yes”. The mother’s first baby is her last doll. The grandmother’s first grandchild is her first baby.

In Russia the elderly have always been shown respect, especially if they are your own relatives. The most ignominious thing you can do is to send your decrepit mother or father to a home. Old folk’s homes in Russia are institutions of the lowest reputation and it is well deserved. Each generation is taught to show respect to their elders and every child is told to give up his seat on a bus to the elderly (seats are also reserved for the disabled and mothers with babies)

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 842