Scary moment for one NJ dad most parents can relate to

To anyone who's a parent, I know you've been in a place like this before. When our kids scare the daylights out of us, even when there's nothing seriously wrong.

This particular kind of situation played out for me over the weekend on what was just a typical everyday Saturday. Again, this was one of those scenarios when the scare was much worse than the incident itself.

I was out with one of my sons food shopping when he started to experience what he described as pains around the chest. At the time I didn't think much of it.

But then he started sitting on the floor, so I took him to the front of the store to sit on the bench while I try to finish shopping. This no doubt made the shopping take longer since I kept passing by the front to keep an eye on him.

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Eventually he said he was OK and came to join me again, only to say the pain came back. Fast forward to checkout and it got to the point he started tearing when we were leaving the store. He also started saying he needed a doctor.

Now I'm getting concerned and beginning to wonder what the heck is going on. Fortunately, there was an urgent care in our network that was only around three miles up the road, so I decided to take him there.

New Jersey nonsense, amplified

Even though we weren't far from the urgent care, the drive felt like an eternity with how New Jersey traffic is in this particular area. There was one person who decided to start crossing the road in a non-crosswalk area, only to stop midway to check his phone.

There was also a car that decided to stop and throw it in reverse because they missed their turn. And as luck would have it, we got stopped by the train crossing. It just seemed like all the kinds of things that get in our way on New Jersey roads suddenly came out in full force.

Looking back, I know it was probably just the situation we were in that made it seem worse than it really was. All the nonsense we come across in this state just seemed to amplify in that moment.

Just a scare

After what felt like an eternity, we finally arrived at the urgent care. Again, it was only a few miles from the supermarket, but boy did it feel so much longer than that.

My sons chest was still causing him a lot of pain, and with heart issues being more common in one part of my family, there was no doubt a sense of urgency. Fortunately, the doctor was able to see us right away.

After a full examination, along with an EKG, all his vitals were normal and there was nothing wrong with his heart. As it turned out, he had a sudden surge of heartburn that caused a heavy sensation with burning in his chest.

Our kids scare the daylights out of us

When they say our kids age us prematurely, it's things like this that do that to us. Although it was only bad heartburn, the way my son was reacting to it was enough to give me a scare that something was seriously wrong with him.

And with heart complications in the family tree, that only made the situation worse. It also doesn't help when time suddenly seems to shift into slow motion when you're in a scramble to figure out what the heck is going on.

To anyone who's a parent, I know you've been in a place like this before. When our kids scare the daylights out of us, even when there's nothing seriously wrong.

The above post reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host & content contributor Mike Brant. Any opinions expressed are his own.