Jyothika reveals Suriya handles all school responsibilities for their children: From tracking school emails to remembering sports days, the actor's hands-on parenting offers a glimpse of the invisible work that keeps family life running

Imagine it is 7 am on a school morning. A child suddenly remembers a sports event that needs a signed permission slip. There is a school email about a picnic, another about an assignment, and a message about an upcoming parent-teacher meeting. Someone has to read them, remember the dates, arrange the logistics and make sure nothing slips through the cracks.Now imagine that the parent keeping track of all this is one of Tamil cinema’s biggest stars, Suriya.It may not sound like the most glamorous part of a superstar’s life. But it is precisely this everyday detail that makes actor Jyothika’s recent revelation about her husband stand out. In a candid conversation with BehindWoods, she revealed that Suriya takes charge of their children’s school-related responsibilities, offering a glimpse into a side of celebrity family life that rarely makes headlines.“Their school sends at least two emails a day, something…related to sports or picnic or studies…all the responsibilities of the school are with Suriya,” Jyothika said, as quoted by The Indian Express.It is a small admission, but one that says more about parenting than another celebrity photograph of a family holiday ever could.The school emails tell a bigger storyFor parents, school rarely ends when the school bus pulls away. There are permission slips to sign, events to remember, homework to check, activities to coordinate and the occasional last-minute request that can disrupt an otherwise organised day.Much of this work is easy to overlook because it happens in the background. One parent may be the person who remembers that the child needs a costume for Friday, that a form has to be submitted by tomorrow or that a sports event begins earlier than usual. Even when both parents help, one can end up carrying the responsibility of remembering and organising everything.In Suriya and Jyothika’s household, at least the school-related responsibilities have a clear owner.The detail also challenges a familiar assumption: that mothers will naturally manage the school calendar while fathers step in when asked. Suriya, who has a demanding career of his own, is not being described as someone who occasionally attends a school event. According to Jyothika, the responsibility for school communication and related matters rests with him.Jyothika had offered a glimpse of their parenting style years agoThis is not the first time Jyothika has spoken about Suriya’s involvement in raising their children, Diya and Dev.In an earlier interview with ParentCircle, she described a household in which both parents had agreed on how they wanted to raise their children. The couple, she said, wanted to give them a sense of normalcy despite their careers in cinema.“We take the effort to give them a sense of normalcy at home,” she told the publication, adding that they had built close relationships with other parents at their children’s school. She said they wanted their children to understand that they were not fundamentally different from other families.She also described Suriya as a hands-on father. He made time for family life when he was not working, noted important school events and had not missed a sports day or annual day, she said in the interview.Jyothika even joked about their different parenting styles. She called herself the stricter parent, while Suriya was more likely to give the children what they wanted. From homework negotiations to bedtime stories, the picture she painted was of two parents with different temperaments but a shared commitment to their children.Her latest revelation adds another layer to that picture. The involvement is not limited to spending time together after work. It also includes the administrative work that keeps a child's school life running smoothly.At home, the superstars are just parentsIn a February 2025 interview with Screen, Jyothika spoke about the couple's efforts to keep their children's lives grounded.“I guess we leave the superstardom outside the door when we enter home. There, we are just parents of our kids,” she said.Why shared parenting is about more than dividing choresJyothika's comments also raise a question that extends far beyond celebrity homes: what does equal parenting actually look like?It is easy to describe a couple as sharing responsibilities because both parents cook, help with homework or attend family outings. But the less visible work can be harder to divide fairly. Someone must notice what needs to be done, remember it, plan ahead and follow through.Suriya's role in managing school responsibilities offers a practical example of what that ownership can look like. It does not mean every family needs to divide tasks in the same way. One parent may handle school communication while the other manages medical appointments or extracurricular activities. What matters is that the arrangement works for the family and does not leave one person responsible for managing everything.There is another reason these everyday arrangements matter. Children do not learn about family roles only through what their parents tell them. They also observe who makes the appointments, who remembers the deadlines, who changes plans when a child needs help and who takes responsibility when something goes wrong.When fathers are visibly involved in the ordinary work of raising children, caregiving becomes less closely tied to gender. Children can grow up seeing that responsibility is something both parents take on, rather than something that automatically belongs to their mother.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ testGet the latest Lifestyle News and more. Download the TOI app.