) is already expecting her eighth child, we learned in an unusual way - from Sibmama's blogs, where her pregnancy became the subject of a lively discussion.

Is it not difficult to give birth for several years in a row, is it possible to pay attention to so many babies at once and still work, and indeed “why so much?”, We decided to find out from the mother of many children.

- Zinaida, is a big family your old dream? Was your husband immediately your like-minded person?

Of course, there was no such dream. Even just to think about this 15 years ago, I could not, I thought that there would be three. I myself am from a large family: there were just three of us, and I am the third, so for me it was the norm. The husband also did not think about such a large number of children ... but it's hard to think about it in advance!

” - We never planned the number of children, we were just always ready for the results of married life. Now we have seven children: Pasha is 11 years old, Sonya is 10, Vova is 8, Dasha is 4, Sasha is 3, Zakhar is 2, and Nadia is only 11 months old.

They are all different, - says Zina. - The eldest Pasha is kind and sympathetic, my assistant, very caring. Sonya is wayward, with a strong character, but lazy! Vova is very responsible and meticulous, Dasha is a kind, sweetest girl, Sasha ... well, he just collected the whole emotional spectrum in himself! Zakhar is direct, stubborn, even treacherous, but Nadya is still the queen for everyone.

- Zina, did you feel the difference between a “one-child” and, say, a “five-child” mother?

The feeling of motherhood changed, of course. Experience comes, and then wisdom! Here's maternal wisdom, if you're lucky, sometimes it comes both with age and with children. It gradually began to come to me from the fourth child, at least I believe in it. But with every child you learn something new: to show love, patience, care, indulgence somewhere, you don’t escalate, you don’t invent problems, but you solve real ones, as they come, you don’t look into the future, but live here and now.

Many sibms are surprised that your children have such a small difference in age, but, nevertheless, you are in excellent physical shape. How do you do it?

My health allows me, I don’t understand why this should surprise anyone at all! I don’t do anything specifically for health and figure, I don’t go in for sports, I don’t adhere to a certain nutrition system, but I don’t eat everything in a row, it’s definitely harmful.

Mothers of many children communicate on our forum, but, as a rule, the difference in children is greater: the youngest is a newborn, and the eldest is already a student. Your children are close in age and have similar needs. Is it possible to give each individual attention?

It turns out! Of course, taking into account their characters: someone needs more attention, someone less ... I balance. Similar needs rather make my task easier, it turns out to please everyone.

“When I look at Nadia, and she always smiles at me, when Dasha can kiss my hand for no reason and say that she loves, when Vovchik hugged me today, when I coughed hard, when Pasha can kiss me in the morning when I sleep , thinking that I don’t feel, but I feel when Sasha can bring a blanket and cover my legs, just like that, when Zakharik is impregnable, he can come up from behind and hug my neck, and Sonya constantly comes up for a kiss, when her in her opinion, “the battery is dead” ... It seems that she didn’t forget anyone? In general, whatever one may say, I know - this is love! (from instagram @zinaiost)

You have a creative profession. Do you arrange a “vacation to care for a child”, or immediately get involved in work? How difficult is it for a mother of many children to be creative - is her head full of household chores, or, on the contrary, are you happy to break away from your children and family and completely immerse yourself in shooting?

My head is never full of household chores! These are trifles that are solved simply, without global deliberations. There was never a vacation, a maximum of the first month. I calmly plunge into work. Of course, there are difficulties, especially in photo processing. I can allocate time for this only at night, when everyone is sleeping, so I changed the types of filming a bit to make it easier for me and the client is satisfied. Experience helps to do everything quickly, although sometimes there is no time even for this “quickly”. But I always try to optimize the process.

A large family is associated with a housewife mother, the keeper of the family hearth. You are a modern working woman. Do you have family traditions, such as New Year's?

For me, a modern working mother may well be at the same time the keeper of the hearth. And there is! I worked, I came, and let's host, then I cooked a meal, here's a cozy hearth for you.

” - Everything can be combined, it would be for someone! Children stimulate a lot, otherwise I would definitely be a lazy mistress, there is a weakness ...

We celebrate the New Year at home, and there is always red caviar on bread and butter ... This is definitely our tradition, even mine, from my childhood.

How do you manage to take care of children, housework and work? Is someone helping you? What do you consider obligatory, and what is desirable, if you have enough time and energy?

We do not have assistants and nannies, my husband and I manage on our own. Of course, I don’t do much around the house (and I would like to!), But the world has not yet collapsed from the fact that I don’t hang wet linen on time or don’t make my bed. The main thing is to correctly prioritize: husband, children, and then everything else. And it's easier, easier to deal with difficulties!

“Starting from the third child, I teach my children to fall asleep immediately in the crib after eating. I breastfeed until about three months old and have been bottle training since then! Next, we begin to train the habit: a crib, a bottle, that means sleep! Let's create a tradition. But this is all taking into account the fact that the child is healthy and nothing bothers him: he ate, played, should sleep. Now Nadia will play enough, I take her to bed. If she ate before, then just with a pacifier, if she ate for a long time, then I bring the bottle, she holds it herself and falls asleep. I don’t sit next to me, give the bottle and say “that’s it, go to sleep” and it works. The pacifier is always for sleeping. And why only with the third child? Because before that we lived with my mother, and for her rocking the crib is her favorite pastime, even when the child does not want to sleep. (from instagram @zinaiost)

Many women, having become mothers, complain that they seem to have been "turned off" from life - now interests are too different with former friends, there is too little mobility. Don't you have that feeling?

I'm not complaining about anything, everything suits me! Real friends are not going anywhere, no one has taken away my mobility yet, and I don’t want to get out somewhere at all. On the contrary, all the time pulls home.

In families with several children, the elders often help the parents. How do you organize the life of older children in the family? What are their household responsibilities?

Help is normal, even in a large family, even in a small family. Helping someone who needs your help is the foundation of the foundations of whom we will educate, if we do not lay down the main thing - to be kind and sympathetic. The elders help, and they also divide the younger ones who will play with whom. The main thing we teach is to at least clean up after ourselves: things, dishes from the table ... No excessive labor, as, by the way, in Soviet times: cooking, washing, cleaning, ironing - I do everything myself. Maximum, I can ask things to pull out of the washing machine, vacuum. Collecting toys is a duty for everyone, the quality, however, is still suffering ... But it's okay, they will learn!

Do your children go to school, kindergartens? How are relations with educational institutions developing - do you have to do lessons with children, for example?

They go to kindergartens, to school too, we help to do lessons from time to time, but we don’t stand over our souls. We teach responsibility! Not all of them have been successful so far, but we are trying to set an example.

- You are very famous as an insta mom. What is your brand on a social network for you?

From the very beginning, I created a page to show our life. When there were only three more children, someone asked, “Zina, show more kids!”. And I, without any special plans for the future, just filmed how my children live, because why take pictures if you don’t want to show it? Gradually, the blog became more saturated, new readers began to appear, who said that my page gives them strength and confidence. Someone decides on the first, someone on the fourth, someone refuses to have an abortion, seeing our life ... I think it was already worth creating a blog for this, wasting time and effort. And I like it, for me it's a pleasure. A blog is definitely not a replenishment of the lack of communication, not an escape from the routine - it is a part of real life.

- Do you have a thought now: “Well, the 8th (10th, 15th) child is the limit, no more”?

I don't put the question that way, I never have. We don't know anything about tomorrow at all. If I think about the future, then only about the good, no fears.

” - 11 years ago, before the birth of my first child, I could not imagine that I could love so many children at the same time and at the same time they would all be mine. So the 8th, 9th ... there is no limit to motherly love!

Interviewed by Irina Ilyina

Title photo by Elena Berezhneva (edited by Z. Iost)

SR: How many children do you have, what are their names, what do they do, what age are they?

Svetlana: I have four children:
Daughter Alina, almost 21 years old, graduated from a technical school, works. Studying part-time at SSAU.
Son Alex, 14 years old. 9th grade high school student. At school, he is a good and talented artist.
Son Alexander, 4 years old. Kindergartener. Shustrik.
Son Gregory, 2.5 years old. Kindergarten beginner. Little prankster.

SR: How did you decide on the third and fourth?) It is known that in Russia in one family, on average, one and a half children.
Svetlana: As I like to say, I don't have four children, but rather two and two. The two eldest from the first marriage, they are closer to each other and in age as well. And two younger ones from the second marriage, pogodki. My husband and I decided on the third, because he had no children in his life, and my first two at that time were “grown up” and already somewhat independent. The fourth child was born by accident, but I am convinced that there are no accidents, especially of this kind. My husband was very happy when he found out about my pregnancy, and I was glad that he was happy. So here, to everyone's surprise (including children), Grisha was born.

SR: What difference between children seems to you the most optimal, did you plan this difference, or how will God send?
Svetlana: Optimal for both mother and children, I think the difference is three years. But in our family there are no such ideal differences. After the daughter, they wanted a second husband with their first husband, but God judged otherwise. For six and a half years. Then seven years of loneliness, when I raised children alone. Then there was no time for replenishment of the family, and, of course, one had to soberly weigh one's opportunities and obligations to children. Then my kids. And there was no time to keep the differences. The youngest was born three days after my 40th birthday.

SR: What needs to be done so that when raising more than one child, not to lose sanity, adequacy, not to go crazy, and not turn into a tyrant?
Svetlana: Here on the forum I met a signature that turned out to be close: Two children are 3 times more than one. What can we say about three or four ... I think, in order not to turn into a tyrant, you just need to love them and thank God for entrusting you with raising children. Especially three or four. And, of course, take time for yourself. Find it for rest, work, reading, shopping.

SR: Do you have any tricks, secrets, tricks, tricks to help you cope with so many people in the kitchen, bathroom and other rooms?
Svetlana: Our problem is not to "dissolve" a large number of people in the premises, but to organize them. Organize a general rise, when necessary, a joint breakfast (lunch, dinner), send the kids in an organized way with dad to swim and put them together so that there is time to work. Those. avoid randomness in the mode. Sometimes with a game, sometimes with a strict word. This is with a toddler. While we're doing it. If one of the elders does not want to fulfill the assignment given to him, I always provide a choice. Do what I ask, or do something else that is also necessary (but I know for sure that the child will not do this). The choice is that he does one, I do the other. As a result, the child, happy, realizing himself as a small person, does what I want from him. And I do what I would have done. More or less like this.

SR: By nature, are you more of a balanced person, or more of a quick-tempered one?
Do you show character with children, or do you try to control yourself?
Svetlana: By nature, rather balanced, with a quiet voice. Therefore, if I have to scream (alas, sometimes I have to), I experience severe stress and even fear from my own "second self". Of course, I try to control myself, because. For children, this is doubly stressful. I break down, unless the situation threatens life or health and for me there is no hope of being quickly heard in another way. Recently, at work, they admitted that they are secretly called the "Iron Lady". I dare to hope that this still speaks of balance.

SR: About food. Do you cook the same thing for everyone (do you have a routine and discipline?) or for everyone - his favorite pie?
Svetlana: No, I don't cook the same. For the kids, there is a separate table and menu. For adults, it’s different, and often different, because there are things that I love, but my husband or son doesn’t eat. So sometimes 4 burners are missing. Warmed we also do not respect. In general, here I probably spoiled them a little.

SR: About love. Do you love any of their children more? Do children feel "deficiency" of their mother, what do they consider your relationship to be?
Svetlana: I love equally. But I treat it differently. Children of different ages and characters naturally have different requirements and by default a different type of communication is applied. In terms of sympathy (not love, of course), there is probably a secret preference for the younger one. He is the only one similar to me both in appearance, and in the sign of the zodiac, and in character. But other children have their own unique character traits, abilities and "zest". Probably all parents have a different degree of mutual understanding with different children.
Mom's "deficiency" is probably felt by the eldest son. He was the youngest in the family for 10 years, he was nursed, including his sister, he was not denied anything. And suddenly he turned out to be the eldest (the daughter now lives separately) and he has 2 younger brothers! And I still want to be small. At this time, the mother is all in the baby, in the household, in washing and ironing. But, nevertheless, we find time with him to talk, and check the lessons, and relax.

SR: How does your dad cope with his role as the father of the family? Do you find time to be outside of parental roles?
Svetlana: Dad became a dad perhaps deliberately. He assumed this role even in the maternity hospital, being present at the birth of both sons and fulfills it in full throughout life. His sons love him. And the older one too. He is their second mother. Being outside of parental roles is difficult for us. We don't have nannies besides us. But we are used to it. The lives of husband and wife, mother and father are intertwined.

SR: Do you have free time and how do you spend it?
Svetlana: There is no free time. But, if you do not do something, it appears. It is impossible without this. We spend it either in nature, or watching movies together, or just having a picnic on the loggia. We started on a small balcony, still in the odnushka. Cramped, but cozy and fun. We try to take our children to parks, to the embankment, to the square.

SR: Do you work, and how do you manage to combine all your incarnations?
Svetlana: She worked all her life. There was not a single decree with older children. This permanent decree with the third and fourth child is the first. Now I work part-time in my specialty at home. Mostly late in the evening and at night. This is necessary not only financially, but also to maintain professional fitness. Once I graduated from a technical university with honors. I have worked all my life in my specialty and I love my job very much. Therefore, I want to stay "in the know." For this reason, the laptop went with me to all hospitals and maternity hospitals.

SR: Question about money. If you do not want to answer it is not necessary (as well as to any other). Approximate family budget, and how do you cope with it?
Svetlana: I can’t name an approximate budget, because it is different. We tried to keep track of finances, but at the end of the month we were convinced that all expenses were justified. As a result, they stopped. As for every family, there is probably a certain range of products and a range of shops that we can afford. I grew up in an era of general shortages, coupons and the dashing 90s. Therefore, I keep at home a small, but strategic supply of food, which allows me to bake bread, put the dough, and make kefir. Preparations for the winter are a must. Children are shod, dressed, they have everything. We pay a mortgage, a car loan, like many others. Always want more. But this means only one thing: there is something to strive for. But happiness is not in this.

SR: And what is happiness?
Svetlana: What moment of your life do you consider the happiest? Or a few moments? Happiness in love. Happiness is when you love, when you are loved. In my opinion, only children can love unconditionally and faithfully. Happy moments are the birth of children.