Just a selection of the strangest beliefs that I heard from others. Even from school duty I remembered the phrase: “My baseboard is good, otherwise no one will marry you. Your husband will see that the baseboard is dirty, and that’s it... you’ll be left alone.” Many years later, I raised this topic on my blog, and it turned out that my virtual friends also heard this same phrase, in the same words... The second common phrase comes to mind every time I peel potatoes: “Cut the skin thinner...” and the legend that in ancient times, in this way the mother-in-law chose a potential daughter-in-law - the most skillful and economical. A casting was held with a competition for the longest and thinnest skin. How I know this, I just can’t remember. I once heard funny phrases from former colleagues: “The husband must pay his entire salary!” The oldest of the employees clarified that all three husbands gave her every penny of her salary: “They brought it and put it on the table.” Where does this custom come from? The first version is from Soviet working-class families, where the husband worked from dawn to dusk, while the wife ran the household (although she often also worked). Sometimes the man didn’t even know how much the groceries cost, since he never went to the store - all these were his wife’s responsibilities. The second version is more difficult to understand: this is a custom of drinking families, which also originated in Soviet times. The husband could bring home the pay, or not, leaving it in the nearest tavern, “celebrating” the salary. Another phrase heard from a friend: “And you make a scandal for him!” This was advice on how to get something you wanted from your husband. Like, he doesn’t buy a fur coat, so you make a scandal for him, let him earn money. He often goes for walks with friends - create a scandal so that he doesn’t go, and so on. The advice was completely sincere, tested in my own family life, and, apparently, bearing fruit for some time. One girl came to me in a state of severe anxiety. She was already 24, and she definitely had to give birth before she was 25. And she didn’t yet know her future husband. Even if you meet now, will a year be enough to get married, get pregnant and give birth? And after 25 it’s too late to give birth - they’ll call it an old-timer! Also a terrible story from the times of the USSR. Another girl puzzled me with a completely strange phrase, about one of her friends: “I thought he was a normal guy, but he irons his own shirt! What am I supposed to do then?!! These are my woman's duties! That’s it, I stopped respecting him after that - why is he like a woman!” The origin of this belief confuses me - rather, it is something familial. Such a strict division of gender roles. Here I would like to include such common and sometimes ugly phrases, presented as “folk wisdom”: “God gave a bunny, he will also give a lawn” (shifting responsibility), “Whoever gives a glass of water in old age” (using children for their own purposes), “The bitch doesn’t want it, the dog won’t jump up” (victim blaming), “The man is the head, the woman is the neck” (manipulation), “Beat the woman with a hammer, the woman will be golden” (family violence), “The woman with the cart is it’s easier for the mare (sexism), and others, which for some reason often guide people instead of common sense. In fact, all these phrases allow you to relieve yourself of responsibility for the situation and refer to some abstract “people” who invented this “wisdom”. What strange beliefs about family life have you come across??