Matrimonial Care Meaning in Elderly Families

The author, on the basis of sociological study data, conducted in Saratov in 2018, shows the characteristics of marital care in solving an elderly couple everyday problems. Care, in this context, is considered as a component of human life, accompanying a person from birth to death, as a response to questioning on life meaning, the essence of which is in complementary reciprocity, as a necessary tool for assembling the social and overcoming the “unhappy consciousness”, limiting individual existence. The increasing importance of marital care in the course of a person’s travel along the life path is emphasized: painful interruptions appearing in connection with the deterioration of certain body systems, reducing human resources and opportunities. The understanding of marital care as a special kind of phenomenon with its structure and dynamics is presented. It is shown that the meaning of matrimonial care in elderly families includes: moral construct, emotional relationship, sacral status, transsituational activity, rational principles and rules of behavior. It is justified the fact that marital care is not a reversible equivalence, but an alternating asymmetry. Asymmetrical practices of caring are manifested when the preference is given to one of the spouses, but it in no way conceals the suppression of the other spouse.