By REBECCA SPARROW
Oh shut up.
That’s what I feel like saying today.
Shut up. Shut your cake holes. Stop talking.
You see last night Channel Nine’s Sonia Kruger made an announcement that none of us saw coming.
She tweeted the following:
I read that announcement and fell off my chair.
And then once I’d, err, composed myself, I wanted to do a happy dance.
SONIA KRUGER IS PREGNANT! HOORAY!
It doesn’t matter that I don’t know Sonia. I don’t need to. What I do know is that like so many of my own girlfriends, Sonia Kruger has for years desperately longed to be a mum.
She’s endured countless cycles of failed IVF attempts and the devastation of miscarriages. And now Sonia Kruger is having a baby! And I couldn’t be more delighted.
But of course not everyone is happy because – get ready to clutch your pearls – Sonia turns 49 this week.
Apparently that makes her “too old”.
And social media is already at full throttle with snark and snide remarks.
“Forty-nine!” they sniff. “I wouldn’t want a baby at 49! She’ll be 71 at the child’s 21st birthday!”
“For Pete’s sake, where’s the cut-off for IVF? It shouldn’t be allowed past 45.”
“It’s selfish,” say others. “She’s not thinking of the poor baby.”
Poor baby?
Hang on, WHAT?
Can’t we just put the pitchforks down for once and be happy for someone who is sharing good news? At a time when the news cycle is so unbearably bleak, when life seems so utterly grim – can’t we grab these moments of joy and just be happy for someone else?
Apparently not.
So then let me say this to the naysayers and snarks who are currently bitching and moaning about Sonia Kruger: Stick a sock in it.
Being a good parent has nothing to do with age. NOTHING.
It’s irrelevant whether you are 19 or 49. It doesn’t matter if you have a university degree or dropped out of school at 15. It doesn’t matter if you’ve read all the books, babysat your whole life, live in a one-bedroom flat or have a king’s ransom at your disposal.
When push comes to shove that stuff counts for nothing.
A great parent is a parent who is prepared to show up. Show up to hospital emergency rooms at 11pm and soccer games at seven, to parent-teacher nights, award ceremonies and school plays that seem to go forever. A great parent is the one who is at their little one’s bedside at midnight when bad dreams come to call.
Top Comments
A friend of mine has parents who were always older than everyone elses. In primary school I remember everyone making comments. She was an only child and her parents struggled to conceive. We are now in our mid twenties and she has had to deal with both her parents having cancer and has had to take it all on herself. Yet, she wouldn't trade if for anything. She would rather be here, have amazing parents and have lived the life shes lived then not have been born because her parents were deemed as "old." Both her parents are in remission.
I think that i don't approach this so much from 'it's all about her' but rather how i would feel if i was that child. There is no doubt that she will love this child any less than any other mother but to me as someone who's mother had her a 40 even that seems to old for me because i know that i will have less time with her, so i couldn't even contemplate the idea of 50! my mother at 62 is already stating to show her age and i am hardly past 20!