It is absolutely natural for spouses to be closer to each other than to their parents.

Well, we have briefly examined the situation from the parents' point of view; now, a few words about how the younger generation sees it. They, of course, have their “right”. In the Holy Scripture, it is written: “A man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). People mature, leave their parental home, and start their own family.

For them, at the moment, this is the most important thing. Husband and wife are even closer than children and parents – although, of course, no one can abolish respect and love for father and mother. The older generation should remember that now it is more important for children to build harmonious family relationships with their other half, because in relation to them they will still remain loving children.

Sometimes it seems to parents that young people will never manage without them, and, guided by blind love, they begin to babysit them and interfere in every way in the life of the young family. Young spouses must build their own family, their relationship, and without the interference of parents, they will do this much better and faster, and parents are obliged to “strengthen the foundations of their homes” with their children’s prayers, as the Matrimonial Order says.

Mothers and fathers must shed light on their feelings: what we take for immeasurable love for children can turn out to be jealousy, selfishness, and self-pity. Have more faith in God and in your children, who have grown up! Do not pester them with advice and teachings, but do not refuse to help them either!

Both parents and young spouses must remember that husband and wife are no longer two separate people, but a single whole, and that between parents and children there is only the first degree of kinship. Naturally, spouses should be more closely related to each other than to their parents. This is the law of Creation.

Father Pavel Gumerov