These strange Russians: why our families surprise Americans
'13.12.2019'
Source: Yandex Zen
Family life and attitudes in it among different nations can differ quite strongly. What is normal in one country causes shock and bewilderment in another. The same is happening between Russia and the United States. Some of our usual family things are completely unacceptable for Americans, writes the channel author “American MOTHER”On Yandex Zen.
1. Early marriage
In our country, quite often young people get married / get married very early. For better or worse, you need to watch each time individually. But, unfortunately, there are statistics that every second such marriage breaks up quite quickly. In the USA, this is not accepted at all, of course, there are isolated cases. But basically they get married already consciously.
2. Young family lives with parents
It just follows from a previous habit. Young people get married without anything behind them. There is nowhere to live, there is no money to rent a house, and a common communal life begins, which leads to quarrels, scandals and so on. In America, this is simply out of the question. Even without starting a family, in most cases, children after 18 years live separately from their parents. Living communes there is completely not accepted.
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3. Household
I think it’s not a secret for anyone that the main burden of housekeeping rests with the woman. She goes to the grocery store, washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning, managing with children and still has 1000 and 1 responsibilities. At the same time, the man in the vast majority of families is quite free and not burdened with anything. In addition to work. In “overseas” everything is completely different, all responsibilities are distributed between partners, and everyone understands perfectly what he is responsible for and what he needs to do so that everyone lives in harmony.
4. Maternity leave
In our country, this is completely the task and duty of a woman - to bear a child, give birth and then deal with it for at least one year, or even up to three years. Units of Russian men take maternity leave (although by law they can do it). In America, due to the fact that such a vacation can not exceed 12 weeks, first a woman takes it, and then a man takes it. They share responsibility and responsibilities for caring and raising a child among themselves, and no one considers this abnormal.
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5. Grandmothers
The so-called "Institute of Grandmothers" perplexes not only Americans, but almost all foreigners. In no country are grandparents ready to sacrifice virtually all of their time, work, personal life in order to raise their children. But with us this is in the order of things. It often even happens that grandmother is told good news and immediately confronted with the fact that she will need to work as a nanny, only without payment.
Here are the most common complaints, or, rather, the perplexities that Americans express when they talk about family life.
Maybe you have some other examples? Let's discuss!
