Ahead of his first Indianapolis 500 broadcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. stopped by The Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday and shared a hilarious story that sheds a little light on what kind of parent he is.
Earnhardt and his wife, Amy, have a 1-year-old daughter named Isla, who just celebrated her first birthday on April 30. But like any new parents, they’re still figuring out what they’re doing and how to do it.
And according to a story Dale Jr. shared with Patrick, that includes struggling to keep his daughter from eating rocks because it sounds like she’s at that age where she just wants to put everything in her mouth.
As he explained on The Dan Patrick Show:
“I think it’s super important not to let an opportunity to learn go by when she makes a mistake. Like the other day, we were hanging out, and she’s eating rocks. And I’m Googling on my phone — like I know this ain’t good. … I’m Googling like, what’s the protocol here? Do I need to be really aggressive? Obviously, I don’t want her eating rocks. I’m getting the rocks out, she’s trying to put the rocks in. I’m just trying to make sure — I don’t know — I’m just trying to find out whether I need to be super concerned. How critical is this situation? If she were to accidentally swallow a small pebble, is this something we need to rush to the hospital immediately (for)?”
Understandably, Patrick followed up by asking where is Amy in all this? Earnhardt continued:
“She’s there. She’s not as concerned as me, obviously, because she’s not on her phone Googling. But I’m that parent. I’m paranoid, worried to death. Mom’s like, this is not a big deal.”
This all sounds about right, considering Dale Jr. recently told For The Win a story about how his daughter gets mad when she tries to put sticks in her mouth but her parents, obviously, won’t let her.
Here’s Earnhardt’s full appearance on the show:
