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What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.

218: When children scare parents

What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.

Scott Johnson & Glassbox Media

True Crime, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.61.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2025

⏱️ 103 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If there’s one thing children are good at, it’s their ability to give their parents a good scare.   When our son David was about 2 years old, we were at home, just a regular day, not much going on. At some point, either my wife or I, I don’t remember which one of us saw it – but we noticed he had some kind of liquid all around his mouth. Like he had been drinking a smoothie or something. But there were no smoothies sitting around. So what was it?   Then we saw the open bottle nearby – it was calamine lotion. You know, the stuff you put on itchy skin for some relief. And it’s for external use only. So of course we had no idea how dangerous this was. And back then, there was no Google or WebMD to get answers immediately.   We called 911 – and oh wouldn’t I love to hear the audio of that call today. The 911 dispatcher either called Poison Control, or connected us to them. And they told us, thankfully, that calamine lotion is generally non-toxic. So it wasn’t a big deal. But for a few minutes, to two scared parents, it was a very big deal.   Recently in the Facebook group, one of our Tuesday questions was this: Parents – what was the scariest moment with your child? And you should see all those stories in the comments. And I thought – hey, this should be a podcast episode. So I asked some of the commenters there to just give a short version of their story by audio, and that’s what we have here today.   And this is the kind of thing we talk about in the Facebook group all the time. At the moment there are 8,862 What Was That Like listeners in that group – and we’d love to have you come over and join us in the conversations. WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook   And now – some stories of when children gave their parents a big scare.   Full show notes and transcript for this episode are here: https://WhatWasThatLike.com/218   Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai.   Want to discuss this episode and other things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well)   Get every episode ad-free, AND get all the Raw Audio exclusive episodes to binge, by joining the other listeners at What Was That Like PLUS.   Try What Was That Like PLUS free: iPhone: at the top of the What Was That Like podcast feed, click on “Try free” Android: on your phone, go to WhatWasThatLike.com/PLUS and click to try it free on any app   Sponsor deals: Head to http://Lumen.me/WWTL for 20% off your purchase.   Sign up today at https://www.butcherbox.com/whatwas and use code whatwas to get chicken breast, salmon or ground beef FREE in every order for a year, plus $20 off your first order.   Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/WHAT   Go to Quince.com/whatwas for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns!   Get 15% off OneSkin with the code [WHATWAS] at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If there's one thing children are good at, it's their ability to give their parents a good scare.

0:11.0

When our son David was about two years old, we were at home just a regular day, not much going on.

0:19.0

At some point, either my wife or I, I don't remember which one of us saw it, but we noticed

0:24.6

he had some kind of liquid all around his mouth, like he'd been drinking a smoothie or something,

0:30.9

but there were no smoothies sitting around.

0:33.9

So what was it?

0:36.0

Then we saw the open bottle nearby.

0:39.3

It was calamine lotion.

0:41.3

You know, the stuff you put on itchy skin for some relief.

0:45.3

And it's for external use only.

0:49.3

So of course we had no idea how dangerous this was.

0:53.3

And back then there was no Google or WebMD

0:55.9

to get answers immediately. We called 911. Oh, wouldn't I love to hear the audio of that call

1:03.4

today? The 911 dispatcher either called poison control or connected us to them and they told us thankfully that

1:12.1

Kalamine lotion is generally non-toxic so it wasn't a big deal but for a few

1:19.2

minutes to two scared parents it was a very big deal recently in the Facebook

1:26.9

group one of our Tuesday questions was this.

1:30.3

Parents, what was the scariest moment with your child?

1:35.3

And you should see all those stories in the comments.

1:38.3

And I thought, hey, this should be a podcast episode.

1:42.3

So I asked some of the commenters there to just give a short version

1:45.7

of their story by audio. And that's what we have here today. And this is the kind of thing we talk

...

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