{"id":280481,"date":"2025-11-13T13:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/280481\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T13:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:50:08","slug":"even-before-he-was-born-i-was-asked-sania-mirza-reveals-challenges-of-co-parenting-her-child-with-shoaib-malik-off-the-field-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/280481\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Even before he was born, I was asked… ‘: Sania Mirza reveals challenges of co-parenting her child with Shoaib Malik | Off the field News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'EvenSania Mirza opened up about the challenges that her son Izhaan will face as he grows up as the child of a successful sportsperson (Images via Instagram\/Screengrabs) Parenting as a celebrity – be it as an actor, successful sportsperson or any other pursuit, comes with its own set of challenges, and former tennis star Sania Mirza<\/a> is well aware of it. In an interview, Sania opened up about raising her son, Izhaan Mirza Malik, and how she is helping him understand the pressures that come with being the child of two successful sportspersons. \u201cIzhaan is born into a family of high achievers. The public eye is constantly on him. Even before he was born, I was being asked if he\u2019s going to be playing cricket or tennis,\u201d Sania told News18. \u201cI understand where that\u2019s coming from. I know that the intention isn\u2019t bad but it\u2019s just ridiculous that someone who isn\u2019t even on earth yet was expected to choose between two sports! And this question is going to be a part of his journey for a long time,\u201d she said. Sania said she wanted her son to grow up without feeling the weight of expectations. While Izhaan currently enjoys playing football, she has made it clear to him that he should pursue what he truly loves. \u201cI\u2019ve already sat him down and spoken to him about the pressure that the world is going to impose on him. I\u2019ve explained to him that it\u2019s okay to lose and that it\u2019s okay to not play a sport if he doesn\u2019t want to. Just because I\u2019m his mother, people expect him to play but the odds of that are very small,\u201d she said. The six-time Grand Slam winner admitted that parenting comes with unique challenges given her family\u2019s fame. \u201cAs parents, we\u2019ve to protect him and try to normalise his life as much as possible. Having said that, I\u2019ve to understand that I can\u2019t fully normalise it. I\u2019ve to accept that the set-up he\u2019s in isn\u2019t normal. I can\u2019t be in denial and say that he\u2019s a normal child,\u201d she told News18. Sania revealed that the realisation struck her when Izhaan was just four years old. \u201cI remember he had once asked me how everyone knows my name and why people come and ask me for a picture. He asked the same question to his father. For Izhaan, that\u2019s his normal,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

Poll<\/p>\n

Should children of famous parents be encouraged to pursue their own interests?<\/p>\n

Now seven, Izhaan is beginning to understand the difference between his life and that of his school friends. \u201cThe parents of his friends in his school do a nine-to-five job. They go to work in the morning,\u201d Sania said, adding that her flexible schedule comes with both advantages and drawbacks. \u201cThere are pros to it as well as I\u2019m always available to pick him up and drop him off to school. On the other hand, he also knows that I\u2019m often away from him for four-five days at a stretch for work.\u201d Izhaan, who currently plays for the U-8 football team of Italian club Juventus, continues to adapt to a life that\u2019s far from ordinary, and one his mother is determined to keep as balanced and grounded as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sania Mirza opened up about the challenges that her son Izhaan will face as he grows up as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,127786,127789,127790,127787,127794,127791,127793,127795,127792,127788,82,593],"class_list":["post-280481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sania-mirza","tag-sania-mirza-child","tag-sania-mirza-children","tag-sania-mirza-news","tag-sania-mirza-shoaib-izhaan","tag-sania-mirza-shoaib-malik","tag-sania-mirza-shoaib-malik-child","tag-sania-mirza-shoaib-malik-izhaan","tag-sania-mirza-shoaib-malik-split","tag-shoaib-malik-news","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}