Keeping sweet even during an emergency?

[Guest LilaFowler]

I remember the Duggar episode where Jill or Jana called 911 when Josie had the seizure. She still talked in that "sweet" slow, unsure voice when talking to the 911 operator. There was no sense of urgency or fear in her voice whatsoever. I thought that was pretty weird. I guess they are never alowed to raise their voices?

[Juniper]

It might have been her natural reaction to keep steady. I know when I'm in emergency situations, my voice doesn't shake. It isn't until the situation is resolved that I break down. She might have had that sort of reaction to the emergency.

Or she might just not be allowed to stop being sweet.

ETA: riffle

[O Latin]

I don't know, I react pretty similarly in a crisis, just calmly doing whatever needs to be done, even if everyone else is running around freaking out. I don't do it intentionally. It's just my natural response.

[Kaylee]

I was gonna say this. My natural reaction to emergency situations is to slow down, come across as super calm through the whole incident, then fall apart later when the adrenaline wears off and I want to cry, puke, or shake.

[Deleted02]

I was gonna say this. My natural reaction to emergency situations is to slow down, come across as super calm through the whole incident, then fall apart later when the adrenaline wears off and I want to cry, puke, or shake.

Me too

[CynicMom]

I have called 911 during an emergency. I'm pretty sure I made the operator hold the headset a foot away from his ear. Then while he was trying to radio for help I interrupted by peppering him with questions about things I could maybe be doing to help.

They were at my front door in <5 mins, so kudos to them! I've sometimes wondered if I could find out who it was that answered the phone that day and apologize.

[Not That Kind of Dr]

I'm so relieved to read that so many of you react calmly to a crisis because I've always feared that in the event of an emergency (say, a plane crash), I'll be the lunatic running up and down the aisles screaming, "We're all going to die! We're all going to die!" until someone grabs me by the shoulders, slaps me, and says, "Get ahold of yourself, woman! You're hysterical!" I have no solid reason to think that I actually will behave in this humiliating fashion. I just worry about it.

[emmiedahl]

I was gonna say this. My natural reaction to emergency situations is to slow down, come across as super calm through the whole incident, then fall apart later when the adrenaline wears off and I want to cry, puke, or shake.

Ditto here. When my son had that seizure a few months ago, I calmly called 911 and joked with the EMT's as we were rushing to the hospital. I smiled at the doctors at the hospital and was very calm and cooperative. And then three days later when the tests came back clean, I cried hysterically until my eyes swelled up to the point that I could not open them completely.

Everyone deals with scary events in a different way. Acting out of control makes me feel out of control. Staying calm makes me feel like I have some control over the situation. I don't freak out until I feel safe in doing so. It's weird, but my mom was the same way. She passed at the hospital as they were putting the last stitch in my face. :)

[forever ago]

In such a situation, I don't know if I'd be freaking out or staying calm and trying to get things done.

I've been known to do both.

I think Jana/Jill did the right thing by staying calm.

[Grace]

Is the clip somewhere online?

[forever ago]

Is the clip somewhere online?

I found part of the episode surrounding Josie's troubles on Hulu, but that was ages ago.

[DamnPrecious]

When my mom had her heart attack, I went balls out hysterical. My dad wanted to drive her to the hospital and I called 911 anyway. THEY COULDN'T FIND MY HOUSE!!! MY BIL had to talk them through it.

After that incident I've kept my cool, then have a serious breakdown later.

[Jessica]

My son had a febrile seizure back in May and I had the same reaction. I freaked out for maybe 10 seconds when the seizure started. I called 911 and I thought I would have been a bumbling mess but I just calmly said "I need an ambulance to come to my house because my son is having a seizure". Weird, yes, but that was just my natural reaction.

[ophelia]

I also slow down in those situations. I remember a few years ago a friend of mine and I had a car accident. Nothing really bad happened and nobody was injured but the other car looked pretty nasty afterwards.. my friend, who was the driver, totally lost her nerves so I had to handle the other driver, the police, make the calls to the insurance and everything. After we were finished with that whole procedure we went back in the car and the moment after I closed the door I started crying.

Maybe Jill is that type of person too and maybe she is somehow prepared for things like that through that whole volunteer fire department thing!

[Witsec6]

I'm so relieved to read that so many of you react calmly to a crisis because I've always feared that in the event of an emergency (say, a plane crash), I'll be the lunatic running up and down the aisles screaming, "We're all going to die! We're all going to die!" until someone grabs me by the shoulders, slaps me, and says, "Get ahold of yourself, woman! You're hysterical!" I have no solid reason to think that I actually will behave in this humiliating fashion. I just worry about it.

I love that you appear to live in a 1920s melodrama.

[O Latin]

I'm so relieved to read that so many of you react calmly to a crisis because I've always feared that in the event of an emergency (say, a plane crash), I'll be the lunatic running up and down the aisles screaming, "We're all going to die! We're all going to die!" until someone grabs me by the shoulders, slaps me, and says, "Get ahold of yourself, woman! You're hysterical!" I have no solid reason to think that I actually will behave in this humiliating fashion. I just worry about it.

Oh, if there's a plane crash, then all bets are off. Just thinking about maybe possibly considering the idea of getting on a plane gives me an anxiety attack.

[Not That Kind of Dr]

I love that you appear to live in a 1920s melodrama.

If that setting entitles me to a gin martini to steady my nerves, so be it. Maybe someone can throw one in my face to shock me out of my hysteria and then mix me a fresh one, for medicinal purposes, of course. It would be the cat's pajamas. Or the bees' knees.

[emmiedahl]

Not a gin martini, for heaven's sake, have a drink from that era like a gimlet (they are delicious too!).

[mnb357]

I'm going to assume that poor girl was in shock. When my ex-husband phoned to tell me our son had died, I know he was holding the phone away from his ear in anticipation of my reaction. I was as cool as a cucumber, and remained so for hours. It was shock. Later the fits and shaking came...and utterly inappropriate comments. In fact, at one point in the hell that followed my husband had to poor me, (and my pastor) a stiff drink. (We received the ashes.) I remember saying, as I sipped it thankfully, "It's times like these I'm glad I'm not a Mormon."

[mnb357]

Did I really type "poor?" I meant "pour." Sorry.

[ladypuglover]

The few times I had to call 911 because of my kids, I was so not calm. When 2 men were breaking in my backdoor when #3 was a newborn, i had shoved him under the bed and 7-9 police cars were at my front door in under 2 minutes. I kept telling them they could find my baby under the bed and to tell my husband, other sons and mother that I loved them in a very shaky voice. When #3 did a baby's day out at 22 months I was fine with the 911 operator until I had to tell her what my reason of calling was. I think it hit right that moment that my baby wan't going to be found sleeping in a toy box or in a closet and he really was gone. He was found an hour and a half later though in some guy's house that refused to give him up until he found out the the police were making door to door searches.

All the other times not concerning my kids, I'm a rock until after its over.

[Patsy]

I kept telling them they could find my baby under the bed and to tell my husband, other sons and mother that I loved them in a very shaky voice.

That made me tear up. That's awful. What happened with the guy who HAD YOUR KID?!

[Caxpax]

ladypuglover- :shock:

sorry if you've posted about this before- but your son was kidnapped?? holy crap. i'm so sorry. if you've posted about that before and i missed it, i'm so sorry- and if this is totally out of bounds, please accept my apologies- but what happened? i presume he was found unharmed?

[Mommy22alyns]

I had complete placenta previa with my second daughter and a very severe bleed at 32 weeks. Somehow, I managed to call the doctor, tell DH to call his mom, beg DH to call 911 (he didn't, he wanted to get us to our chosen hospital), get myself out to the van under my own power, eat dinner, hold my older daughter's hand, and keep talking to reassure DH I hadn't passed out. Oh, and I also started to wheel myself into the hospital. I surprised myself. I didn't really "lose it" until I was told I was staying in the hospital for 4 more weeks!

[ladypuglover]

I think I worded it wrong.

I was in the backyard with the 3 boys, just watering the garden and stuff and talking on the phone with my mother. I had only been on the phone for about 5 minutes when I noticed #3 was missing. I asked my husband who was making dinner if #3 had come in the house. He didn't notice so I got off the phone. We searched the entire 2 bedroom house looking under beds, closets, laundry hampers... the whole 9 yards. My husband ran outside to ask the neighbors if they had seen #3. Several of the female neighbors came in and helped me relook everywhere, finally they had me call 911. By the time the police showed up 10 minutes later there were about 300 neighbors knocking door to door, checking at the park, walking ditches, walking the next road over where the speed limit was 50 mph. Well several people knocked on this one man's house asking if he had seen our baby and of course he said no. He also refused to help look and then threatened everyone off his property. My husband and my self were not there for that. After the umteenth person knocked on his door and told him that a 22 month old baby was missing and the police were doing door to door searches, he called 911 himself. He said he found a baby and brought him in the house only 2 minutes before and he wanted to press charges against the parents for allowing their baby out. Apolice woman grabbed me and we raced to the house but my husband had already gotten our son and headed home. The man insisted that I be arrested when the cops told him that the baby was missing over 90 minutes and he had him the whole time. He admitted he did and the cops were going to arrest him for unlawful detainment of a missing person, hindering the law and so forth if he insisted on pressing charges against me. They also told him that he would be footing the bill for search and rescue since he repetedly told people false information. It also turns out that he had a criminal history but I never found out what. When we got back home, #3 was happily slurping up his noodles, safe and sound. After much crying and kisses, the police, my husband and I had #3 show us how he got out of the backyard. Turns out he went under the deck and where the fence didn't meet the ground and escaped through our neighbors yard. Our house sat literaly on the property line, so we thought the fence went all the way to the ground but only went just past the deck level. Which left a nice gaping hole for toddlers to crawl through. Of course we fixed but never knew how close we came to lose all 3 of our sons at one time or another because the oldest was only 18 months old when we moved in.

We call it baby's day out because we had just watched the movie only a few hours before and we never let him watch it again for a very, very long time. Yes, #3 is going to be a high school senior and he still is my wild child but I haven't had to call the police to find him in about 8-9 years. Thank goodness kids calm down with age as I was for the longest time on a first name basis with the police, ambulence drivers, firemen, posion control and ER docs when all 5 were under the age of 16. Thankfully things have calmed down over the past few years and we don't call 911 every month anymore.

I am not a bad mother, quit judging me! :evil: