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<\/p>\nOn the work front, Sania Mirza has recently turned a podcaster with Serving It Up With Sania. <\/p>\n
Parenting is no cakewalk and when one is a celebrity parent, the challenges are manifold. Along with the scrutiny that comes with the paparazzi culture, the expectations put forth by the world on a child born to a successful parent are immense. Former tennis champion Sania Mirza understands this. Today, her and Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik\u2019s son Izhaan Mirza Malik maybe only seven but she has already had a conversation with him on how he can navigate the pressures of being born to \u2018high-achieving\u2019 parents.<\/p>\n
Speaking exclusively to News18, Sania says, \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. I 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.”<\/p>\n
While Izhaan plays football, Sania made sure that he doesn\u2019t feel the need to play a sport just because her parents are also players. \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,” she tells us.<\/p>\n
For Sania, the first step of parenting was to acknowledge that despite all her efforts, Izhaan won\u2019t be able to have a regular childhood. \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 that the set-up he\u2019s in isn\u2019t normal. I can\u2019t be in denial and say that he\u2019s a normal child. He isn\u2019t born into a normal family. If I\u2019m in denial about it, parenting will become even more challenging,” she states.<\/p>\n
It all began when her son asked her a question at the age of four and that\u2019s when Sania decided to address the elephant in the room. \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. But now he knows that things are different in our home. For instance, the parents of his friends in his school do a nine-to-five job. They go to work in the morning.”<\/p>\n
Sania further continues, \u201cBut he knows that his mother doesn\u2019t go to an office. There 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.” For the unversed, her son plays for the U-8 football team of Juventus.<\/p>\n
Titas Chowdhury is a Special Correspondent at News18 Showsha. She writes about cinema, music and gender in cinema. Interviewing actors and filmmakers, writing about latest trends in showbiz and bringing breakin…Read More<\/p>\n Titas Chowdhury is a Special Correspondent at News18 Showsha. She writes about cinema, music and gender in cinema. Interviewing actors and filmmakers, writing about latest trends in showbiz and bringing breakin… Read More<\/p>\n First Published:<\/p>\n November 13, 2025, 07:10 IST<\/p>\n News<\/a> sports<\/a> Sania Mirza Says She, Shoaib Malik Are Trying To Give Son Izhaan ‘Normal’ Life: ‘Before He Was Born\u2026’ | ExclusiveDisclaimer: Comments reflect users\u2019 views, not News18\u2019s. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Updated:November 13, 2025, 07:10 IST Sania Mirza calls out those who asked her a ‘ridiculous’ question –…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":375531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[17511,180697,180699,180700,180696,180698,180695,180694,62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-375530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sania-mirza","9":"tag-sania-mirza-shoaib-malik-divorce","10":"tag-sania-mirza-shoaib-malik-life-story","11":"tag-sania-mirza-shoaib-malik-love-story","12":"tag-sania-mirza-shoaib-malik-marriage","13":"tag-sania-mirza-shoaib-malik-son","14":"tag-sania-mirza-son","15":"tag-shoaib-malik","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tennis","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115541442177407056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Titas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/titas-2025-10-ad2a754a2169e08ab60b8b4076e53909.jpg\" "\\"Titas")
Titas Chowdhury<\/a><\/p>\n