TMI and Twitter, when is it more than enough?

[AmazingGrace]

So, there's this precious little girl dying a particularly horrible death from cancer. She's 8 years old and is suffering. I feel so bad for this family. However, I'm sitting here trying to wrap my mind around the fact that as this is happening, mom is tweeting blow by blow updates almost constantly. As well as updating the caring bridge with these long verbose updates.

It's starting to get to the point of amost TMI. Not to mention the fact that while the child is actively dying, she's taking time away to update the masses. It just seems so backwards to me. I mean this is all over Twitter. I'm not following this family, yet I know way more than I ought to because of all the followers retweeting. When did a child's death become such a public event?

 

[klj27]

I think that is unusual. I have prayed for some children and followed their carepages, but when the end was near you wouldn't hear anything for a few days. The parents were spending time with their child like during that time.

 

[LunaLovegood]

Oh, that's sad. Everyone deals with it differently. Maybe this is just the mom's way of getting support. It's hard losing a child.

 

[MzDiz]

While I've never been in that situation, I can't imagine that I would waste a second of time like that.

 

[powellrj]

While I have never been in that situation with a child, I have been with a family member and at the end, there is really nothing to do but wait so I can see where it is helpful to be able to vent and let it out.

 

[Magic Mom]

Maybe it's therapeutic for her. It might make her feel connected to all of their family and friends. As a PP mentioned there is a lot of waiting and watching. Updating family may make her feel like she is actually doing something instead of sitting there powerless.

Also the child may not be conscious, so taking some time to update her status would not be taking away from time with her. They are still next to her...still with her.

People deal with things in there own way. I don't think her actions are that extreme.

 

[jfoofj]

Everyone deals with grief and loss differently. Maybe she has a laptop and is sitting there holding her DD's hand and typing all that stuff out helps her deal with it. My heart breaks for her, and every parent in her position. Hearing about things like this puts life in perspective for me and makes me thankful for what I have and realize most of the stuff I get upset about isn't really worth it.