Family Life
How close are you as a family? We usually see each other at least once a month, maybe more often. We have lunch together on Sunday if we haven't got anything special to do. We live in Chernihiv, which is about an hour and a half away from Kyiv where my grandmother lives. It's not so far. Usually my uncle and aunt are there too, we're quite a large family! Sometimes my brother and his girlfriend come over. They live nearby. The meal takes about four hours, we spend a lot of time chatting. There's no one we call the head of the family, although my father's opinion is very important in all decisions we take. My uncle Vova is older than my father, so I suppose he's the real head of the family. When my grandfather was alive, he liked to think that the whole family organized itself around him, but these days it's different. But we all try to discuss things together when we meet. In most families, it's a small family group who lives in the same house: mother, father and the children before they get married. But if one of the grandparents dies, the other usually sells their home and goes to live with their children. So it's quite common to have one grandparent living with you. Most children leave home when they get married. But there are some people who want to lead independent lives and they find a flat as soon as they start their first job, even before they get married. Of course, the main problem is that flats are so expensive to rent here, and we simply have to live with our parents.
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