Bollywood actor shares parenting struggles with daughter, highlighting Gen Z challenges
Bollywood actor Kajol recently opened up about generational differences and her three-year-long parenting struggles with her daughter Nysa Devgan, while appearing on YouTuber Lily Singh’s podcast.
Known for speaking candidly about her personal life, Kajol spoke to Singh about parenthood and the “irrational” and “illogical” challenges she faced while raising her daughter.
The actor began by highlighting generational changes, suggesting that Gen Z is growing up in a technology-driven era with overwhelming access to information. “I feel Gen Z today somehow has too much information, that they’re swimming and they just keep swimming and they are not able to make a decision about what these things are. They know what is right or wrong but not what they want,” she said.
When asked whether Nysa approaches decision-making in the same way, Kajol admitted that it took them a long time to truly connect. “My daughter and son process things differently, mainly because she’s a girl and he’s a boy. I think boys lead a slightly simpler life and girls have a lot of trust in them,” she stated.
The actor added, “It’s a relationship that we had to build and we built it because of the simple fact that hormones hit and she was 12 and we were all over the place. We were fighting and we were both irrational and illogical at times.”
Further, Kajol reflected on parenting and setting boundaries, saying “ I stood up and said I should be a bit more rational. I need to be an adult over here.”
“We both struggled for nearly three years, we both were like I don’t want to talk to you,” the actor said, adding that she then realised that it was more about her just sitting down and listening to her daughter. “It was not about talking so much. It was just about giving her space to talk and to be heard. That made the biggest difference. That was my biggest learning,” she shared.
Kajol concluded by emphasising that guidance doesn’t always mean instruction. “It was not about telling her how to do things, she would figure it out on her own. She just needed me to sit there and listen to her as much as I could so that was my biggest learning as a parent.”
Kajol married actor Ajay Devgan in 1999. The couple has two children, Nysa and Yug.
