Tonya Harding may finally get her chance to go for gold. The shamed figure skater re-married last summer. Now she's reportedly pregnant with a baby boy, and ready to tackle the Mommy Olympics.
Yes, this is the same Tonya Harding convicted in the '90s of conspiring to have her figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan clubbed in the knee to take her out of the competition. She's now 40, and -- dare we say it? -- finally a grown-up. Good for her! She made it in the nick of time.
It's hard out there for ladies of "advanced maternal age" to get pregnant. But Tonya has had a particularly hard row to hoe since the Kerrigan clubbing debacle in 1994. First there was her legal trouble resulting from the Kerrigan thing, then she was back in court in 2002 for a DWI, and then there was that nasty Tonya Harding Wedding Night sex tape that made the world shudder.
Waiting to get pregnant -- this boy will be her first child -- may officially be the smartest decision that Harding has ever made. Despite the troubles of getting pregnant after age 35, raising a child in that environment would have been tough on her, but tougher still on a child. She will be a better mom for waiting.
In fact, Harding's is one of those cases that makes a good argument for delaying pregnancy rather than rushing it along to beat the biological clock. I've heard it said that women are playing with fire by putting off their childbearing years, that they're being selfish to put themselves first. But I commend a woman who knows her limits, who is aware that she just plain isn't ready for motherhood and who doesn't want to subject a child to being raised by a mom who isn't into it. A child needs a mother who is prepared for motherhood. How could it be selfish to be putting a child's needs first?
Now Harding and husband Joseph Jens Price, who was described to reporters as a "real nice, blue-collar type guy" when they wed in a quiet ceremony last summer, have a chance to raise a child quietly, out of the spotlight. Here's hoping this is the golden child she always wanted.
Are you happy to see her pregnant and settled?
Image via bobgo29/Flickr