Lessons From A Grieving 'Dragon Mom'

March 11, 2013 Subscribe · Forward 'He Was Just A Beautiful Boy' Lessons From A Grieving Mom Three days after Emily Rapp's son Ronan was diagnosed with a terminal illness, she started blogging about the experience. He was 9 months old and had Tay-Sachs disease, a fatal, degenerative condition. At first, she posted to tell friends and family. "I felt really raw. The writing gave me a shield. It was a way to feel connected to my people without being on the phone all the time," she told me in an interview this week. Rapp's audience grew beyond her immediate circles though. Many visitors came to her site after reading "Notes from a Dragon Mom," The New York Times op-ed she wrote about parenting a sick child. They joined the community around Emily and Ronan, and stayed until the end. On Feb. 15, Ronan died, and we all grieved. Now, less than a month after his death, Rapp's memoir about her experience "The Still Point of the Turning World" has been released. Continue reading... 14 Quirky Boys' Names That Are About To Be Popular The Perfect Moments That Make The Toddler Stage Worthwhile Awesome Reason Dad Hacked 'Donkey Kong' For Daughter The Funniest Tweets From Parents This Week Author Of 'Notes from a Dragon Mom' On Her Son Ronan, Her Memoir And Grief The Disturbing Discovery I Made In An Old Photo Of Myself Mom Creates Dolls For Kids With Down Syndrome 5 Things Not To Say To A Woman After A Miscarriage The Shocking Note One Mom Found On Her Daughter's 'Diyet' EMILY RAPP Ronan's Diagnosis On January 10, 2011, my husband, Rick, and I received the worst possible news: that our son, Ronan, then nine months old, had Tay-Sachs disease, a rare, progressive and always fatal condition with no treatment and no cure. Continue reading... LESLIE LAGERSTROM Meeting Sam's Teachers As I shake the science instructor's calloused hand I hope he really understands. Did he take it to heart when I described how gut wrenching it is for Sam to hear the words, "Pick a lab partner"? How hard it is to be put in that position? The odd man out because nobody wants to be paired with that kid who "...used to be a girl." Continue reading... JANE BUCKINGHAM Four Seconds of Fame Here's the story of how over two weeks, a "nobody" went from 10 to 100 to 10,000 followers on Instagram, having two fan pages, and a social media stalker. And I'm not proud to admit that the story is about my nine-year-old daughter. Continue reading... REV. AMY ZIETTLOW Lessons from American Girl Dolls, Gen X, and Divorce I was reading the bios out loud, enjoying a warm mother-daughter moment, when my daughter's face fell. Continue reading... MELISSA T. SHULTZ The 30 Seconds Of Advice I Gave New Parents This week, on my way out of a restaurant after lunch with a coworker -- a restaurant filled with moms in their 20s and children under three, one that uses paper plates in the event a food fight erupts -- I smiled and waved at a baby in a car seat perched on a table between both her parents. Continue reading... Received this from a friend? Sign up for alerts from The Huffington Post here. Unsubscribe here.