Veteran actor Zeenat Aman, who recently debuted on Instagram, shared a throwback picture from when her sons were toddlers, accompanied by an insightful note on parenting. In the post she put up on Monday, April 10, she called the experience “exhilarating, overwhelming, joyous, and challenging,” adding that there is no guidebook to prepare a person for parenthood.
“As a single mother to two boys, I felt doubly responsible for my babies. More than anything, I wanted to protect them, and shape them to be kind and loving men,” she wrote. The picture shows a young Zeenat holding both her sons in her hands, in what looks like a candid moment of mother-children banter. “I pulled this picture out of a photo album today and had it scanned. It was made in 1990 when Zahaan was not yet one, and Azaan was all of three years old. It was taken by the late Gautam Rajadhyaksha, a legendary industry photographer, at the now demolished Searock Hotel in Bandra,” said the post.
In her short span of being on the social media platform itself, she has become a favourite of many with her posts that strip bare stereotypes on gender, women in films, ageing, and many such topics. In this post, she also mentioned how it fills her with sadness and anger when she hears of people rejecting their kids for their sexual orientation, choice of partner, or profession. “We must accept our children for the individuals they are and support them to meet life as they choose to,” she wrote.
Drawing from her experience of raising two boys who are adults now, Zeenat also penned some suggestions for new parents. “Here are some optional pearls of wisdom for any new parents. Enjoy every moment that you can with your babies, and don’t beat yourself up over the small things. A broken plate here or a teacher’s note there hardly signals the end of the world. We don’t owe our children perfection, we owe them love, support, and guidance," she wrote.