1/4Photo: Sergey DzhevakhashviliPhoto:Sergey DzhevakhashviliPhoto: Sergey Dzhevakhashvili“The hood in the shape of a nose is my idea!” says Alexey. “It’s functional and fun at the same time.” Photo: Sergey Dzhevakhashvili“I can’t say that we’ve moved here permanently,” says Alexey. “We still live in Moscow during school hours, when the kids need to go to school, and we only come here on weekends. But from May to September we’re always here. The house was originally designed for a large number of children. By the time construction was completed, Amina and I already had two sons, and Asya was on the way. That’s why we gave the younger generation an entire wing. Each has their own room, a common play area. There’s even a secret children’s room that adults are not allowed to enter. It’s simply impossible for a big person to get there, you have to climb the wall to get to the second floor, there’s no special ladder. This is their kingdom. The children swear that it’s clean and tidy, but it’s impossible to check the condition of the room. You have to take my word for it. I think every child dreams of such a secret room. And not at all because they have a bad life. It’s just a normal youthful desire – to have your own territory, where adults, if they can get in, only with your permission. As a child, I also imagined something similar, having read Alice in Wonderland. I imagined that if I moved one of the tiles in the bathroom, a passage would open into a fairy-tale space that only I knew about. Although I didn’t live in cramped conditions, I had my own room. But this did not cancel the dream of a fairy tale, a cave, a mysterious grotto hidden from prying eyes. Therefore, Amina and I decided to give our children such a wonderful room, so that they would be interested in it.
Finance manages wife
I can’t say that Domostroy reigns heretraditions. I think that my wife and I share the functions of the head of the family quite well. Amina has taken on many household issues. She is a good administrator, she deals with our financial affairs and expenses. But still, we make most decisions together. And my wife and I also have the same basic principles for raising children. We try not to punish them if possible, not to forbid what can be allowed. And if we veto something, then explain in detail why it was done. Telling children “You can’t and that’s it! Because I decided so” without explaining the reasons is not worth it. Although we keep them in a certain strictness, they are not allowed to do everything. Moreover, during educational work, Musya (Amina. - Antenna's note) plays the role of an evil policeman. After all, she is a coach, and a children's coach at that, so she is used to giving orders, stamping her feet, shouting and banging her hands on the table. I mostly communicate with adults, reasonable people, so I work with my own children using persuasion. However, the most effective punishment for them is a ban on doing what they love. For example, for Senka there is no more terrible punishment than being deprived of golf lessons. He does it seriously, fanatically. And if the son brings bad grades from school, he is forbidden to play golf until he improves them. For Fantik (Afanasy. - Note from "Antenna"), it is a real tragedy if you take away his tablet. And he does not play there, but looks for secret signs in cartoons, studies dinosaurs and other creatures, even writes some kind of mystical diary with his brother. In general, he lives in a fairy-tale world, practically without contact with us. Therefore, depriving him of his tablet greatly affects his behavior. My parents never spanked me or put me in the corner either. But if they became stern, talked to me with their eyes rolled up and through their lips, it worked without fail. In our family, tender love with caresses and kisses always reigned. And it was terrible when I was deprived of the usual spiritual comfort. Although this did not happen often. I was an obedient child, an excellent student, secretary of the school Komsomol committee. During my entire education, there were only a couple of scandals at school: once I was badly beaten, the second time I responded strongly to the offender.
