Genelia, Riteish open up on parenting, division of chores

The couple, who have two sons Riaan and Rahyl, feel bringing up children is a collaborative effort

New Delhi: Bollywood duo Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh say that they often spend time discussing how progressive they should be as parents, and what thoughts their children should be brought up with. “We try to imbibe in the importance of religion and not just our religion, but every religion out there. We try to instill the importance of God in them,” the couple says.

The couple tied the knot in 2012 after dating for almost a decade, and have two sons — Riaan and Rahyl. Riteish Deshmukh shares: “It’s important for every parent to think about what is best for their children, we cannot judge our upbringing based on how others bring up their children.

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Having said that, society today poses a lot of questions, situations and points that were looked down upon 20 years ago which only goes to show that we cannot be focused on thinking of today but about what society will be 20 years in the future when our kids are adults.”

He adds that the “one thing” that they focus on is “giving our children the freedom to think for themselves”.

Asked if it’s high time that people move beyond gender roles, Genelia answers in an affirmative. “Yeah, I definitely do. I think it’s typecast to a large extent, I mean like Ritiesh and myself, when we think about the division of chores, it’s just about who’s doing what at that point in time. If he’s shooting, it would be difficult for him to handle online school, but if I am shooting, he would have to.”

She adds: “According to me, that kind of camaraderie and compatibility is important in a relationship. Often, it’s about women not being able to say no, it’s a societal assumption that there are certain things a woman has to do. Men too assume these things sometimes or expect things to be done in a certain way and we have to move past that.”

“In today’s world a majority of the women work, they have their own careers and when you’re a couple you have to work together constantly to fit your lives into each other’s,” concludes Genelia.