Jess comes from a very strict Indian family where gender roles are clearly defined. Women are expected to learn to cook and care for their husbands, who are, of course, expected to be the sole breadwinners. But on the other hand, Jess sees herself as a female version of her hero, David Beckham, competing in soccer rather than cooking for an acceptable Indian man as tradition dictates.
However, although her parents tolerated her sports passion when she was younger, they now believe she should become serious about her life and prepare for the future. That means giving up "children's games" for cooking lessons, marriage, and university studies. They forbid her from playing any more. An Indian girl should not play soccer, since the game consists of "displaying your bare legs to complete strangers." The preparations for her sister's wedding only underscore the liabilities of Jess's unladylike behavior.
After watching this movie I realized that in parenting you have to be flexible, strict, and do some discipline. You teach, and talk to you child about rules, and if those rules are broken what the consequences will be. You explain to them what it was like when you grew up and how life is now, because times are changing and you must accommodate to those changes also. Always let your children know that they can always come to you know matter what and talk to you. By doing this you listen and you do not judge them by the things that they might say. Be there for your child no matter what he/she turns out to be in life. The way you raise your child, will be passed on through them to their children and so on.
The way that Jess had to secretly join Jules' competitive women's soccer team, and how she was forced to lead a double life in order to not disappoint her parents, shows that she cannot be honest with her parents, and to me, being able to come to your parents with anything is an important part of having a good and open relationship with your parents. In the Indian culture you are suppose to marry within your culture and when Jess finds herself falling for the coach who is white does not help the situation with her parents.
Jess and Jules develop a friendship, through which the film explores the differences in their respective backgrounds and the ways they navigate their parents' rather typical fears of other cultures and changing times. Jules mom is always worried about how her daughter is always dressing like a boy, and is scared that her daughter is a lesbian. Jess’s parents’ looks at Jules in a weird way because Jules’ has short hair like a boy instead of having long beautiful hair like Indian girls do. Jess's father regrets that he gave in to social demands when the British in Africa laughed at his regular use of a turban and refused to allow him to enter into their cricket competitions. Rather than use his resentment to fight for his daughter, he tries to pass on his disillusionment. But "things are different now," Jess tells him, and eventually he helps her mom change her mind about letting her go to the United States to play soccer and to let her live the life that she wants to live because they have been caught up in the typical dynamic of immigrant families, the traditional parents try to push their conventional expectations onto their children who have been born into a different cultural world.