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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel smug about all the idiots stuck in the snow...

332 replies

MayDayChild · 18/12/2010 14:20

It's my birthday tomo. Wanted to pop to shops alone (luxury!)to buy a new dress to wear for my meal out tonight.
But as I'm breastfeeding, I decided early this morning to forgoe the dress, incase I got stuck.
Have now decided to cancel meal as roads impassable
I'm hearing on news about gridlock all over London, car parks at bluewater, lakeside etc all jammed no one is going anywhere!
I feel smug for being home, warm, safe with my children!!!!

OP posts:
PocketMouse · 19/12/2010 00:25

I'll be paid if I can't get in, yes.

scottishmummy · 19/12/2010 00:25

i maintain contact,avail to all staff.have remote access to documents and reports.i am still working at home

gaelicsheep · 19/12/2010 00:28

Ah, well yes I do the same. If I know the snow's coming I take work home and monitor emails etc. as well if I can, until the internet goes down. But there's always the snowfall that comes out of nowhere, then the plough doesn't come up until midday, etc. etc. Then I take my leave.

No one in my work gets a snow day unless it's snowing at work. Not much help when you live up a hill 20 miles away.

lololizzy · 19/12/2010 00:28

ummmm.... i've already 'lost' a week's hol from the snow from this January, that i was forced to take! have no hol time left! (the rest was used up on having to move three times this year..not for luxuries such as hols!)
Never had bad snow this part of country till 2 yrs ago.
Will certainly consider all this in future, it's a good point!

ratspeaker · 19/12/2010 00:31

we went through it a couple of weeks ago

DD1 was an idiot going out in the snow or fail her course at uni - they ended up with students sleeping in the library with no food for the night
so maybe not essential to go out but life changing
Hubby was an idiot for going out in the snow
to the hospital where he works- they had staff sleeping in the tea rooms and canteen
again not essential but would have been life changing for those not treated

yeah much nicer to be smug and warm

ApocalypseCheeseToastie · 19/12/2010 00:32

Well i'm not smug.

I don't drive and literally have a packet of chicken in the freezer, a tin of beans and tin of kidney beans.

I MUST get out tomorrow to get some food but I don't know how.

I'm worried about my sister, she's running low too and both her dcs are disabled, have you ever tried pushing a wheelchair in the snow ??

Smug TWAT.

gaelicsheep · 19/12/2010 00:32

Your DD's university was idiotic for not making exceptions.

ILoveItWhenYouCallMeBoo · 19/12/2010 00:38

i left the house at 1pm (in NI) and it wasn't snowing. i intended to be no more than and hour at the shops (1 mile from my house) getting my children their santa presents. my Exp took the dcs so i could do this. teh snow started very suddenly and very heavily just before 2 pm. i was sat for 3 hours in my car trying to get the 1 mile home. my EXp's car got stuck on a hill and my children were sitting for 45 minutes in the car on a main road before someone towed them. eventually my dad was able to get to them and take them to his house a stehre was no way he could get them here. so I am without my children tonight. i know tehre are people in far worse situations than mine today but i think your attitude absoloutely stinks that you would see my children and your first thought would be "ha, well I'm ever so clever and I'm all warm"

what a nice 'warmhearted' person you must be Hmm

oneortwo · 19/12/2010 00:39

how vile and nasty!

I am RELIEVED that my family and I decided not to venture out this morning and stayed in the warm and were safe and together. NEVER NEVER once did this make me feel "smug", it did not cross my mind! I have been thinking of people who are stuck out there all day hoping they get somewhere safe and warm soon. I never thought those out there were less intelligent than us, just less lucky!

And you cannot call in to most jobs and say 'not comming in, bad weather is forcast so gonna stay at home just incase', in most cases the obstruction has to already have arrived. My DH has to at least attempt to get to work every day and only when he's tried and failed can he take a snow day

HORRIBLE HORRIBLE post! And so upsetting for anyone who's ever been scared and cold and not known when they'll be safe and warm again, or for anyone who's lost a loved on to bad weather - yes OP that DOES happen, every year!

gaelicsheep · 19/12/2010 00:43

oneortwo - if I know snow is coming and there's a real chance I won't get home, then I don't go in. If an employer expects people to do this (and I accept in some jobs it is necessary) then they should also be prepared to put them up for the night if required.

oneortwo · 19/12/2010 00:49

Not everyone works in nice cosy offices ready to be bunked down in.

gaelicsheep · 19/12/2010 00:50

They should pay for a hotel then. Or allow people to take leave.

ratspeaker · 19/12/2010 00:50

gaelic indeed the uni were idiotic, they even told DD there ws public transport even after LRT withdrew the buses
They "reviewed" the policy on the Tuesday, the day after everyone got stuck

ILoveItWhenYouCallMeBoo · 19/12/2010 00:51

and btw

the forecasts for my area for today was light snow showers, tomorrow and the next 9 days it forecasts sun! i bet that's not what we get!

gaelicsheep · 19/12/2010 00:52

This country gets snarled up because people who don't know how to drive in snow try to go to work in completely non essential jobs. It really annoys me.

I'm not the OP, I'm not smug, but I do get really irritated by these scenes year after year. We are not going to get the investment in winter maintenance that's required to keep the country moving in snow. Therefore employers and employees need to realise this and grow up.

oneortwo · 19/12/2010 00:56

FFS, if its taking peole hours to go a few miles miles what good would a hotel room paid up in their name be?

"well they should go to hotels" sounds so "let em eat cake". As if someone stuck for hours in a car with an infant in the cold would be looking out their window at a hotel right beside them and thinking "nah we'll just stay here indefinitely.

Everyone works in towns then beside a holiday inn? that's handy! why don't they just go there? idiots!

ILoveItWhenYouCallMeBoo · 19/12/2010 00:58

ha. if everyone that works in my local town (who doesn't live there) booked into the one hotel, they would be very warm indeed. infact there wouldn't be room to fart there would be that many to a room.

gaelicsheep · 19/12/2010 00:59

So if it's not possible to put people anywhere for the night, employers in non-essential industries should NOT expect people to go into work!! Or they should be responsible for the consequences. Or are you saying it is acceptable for a worker to be stuck in their car overnight in sub zero temperatures, just so their boss doesn't lose any money?

gaelicsheep · 19/12/2010 01:02

I'm assuming, of course, that the employees being referred to have been told they may not take leave under any circumstances. I for one would rather take unpaid leave rather than risk being stuck in my car overnight in minus temperatures.

oneortwo · 19/12/2010 01:07

So everyone who's not in front line services should stay home a "just in case" basis every time the forcast says snow? Even if it looks light and not sticking in the morning, or appears to be a no show?

really?

Of course employers should help employees who end up stuck at work if they can, but how can they in so many job, what about on the road based jobs? jobs that are not handily beside a hotel or in a building that's safe to sleep in?

Point is some people are unavoidably stuck

oneortwo · 19/12/2010 01:09

p.s. the forcast for here said the snow would come on Sunday. It came on friday. DH went to work that day! WHAT A NUMPTY!

ratspeaker · 19/12/2010 01:10

gaelic
in our case a couple of weeks ago in central Scotland many people got to their work by public transport
The buses withdrew the service before moday leaving many stranded at work , school or in town
so its not just a question of being able to drive in the snow its do unis, schools, hospitals, shops, offices have the provisions in place to cope with stranded people

the answer is NO

My daughters uni didnt have enough food to go round
My hubbys hospital didnt have enough in vending machines to feed all those left there,the canten wasn't getting supplies through
There were pupils and parents sleeping in Hamilton college on gym mats

expatinscotland · 19/12/2010 01:59

'We are not going to get the investment in winter maintenance that's required to keep the country moving in snow. Therefore employers and employees need to realise this and grow up.'

Why not? This isn't the tropics. It snows here. DUH. Look at the latitude.

Our buses were cut off. There was no money to pay the gritters in our council, though there was grit in stock and plows as well. Why?

This is the HIGHLANDS, FGS.

How dare you say we're nothing but idiots who don't know how to drive/handle snow so it's our fault things are how they are?! Many people here lived when it was thigh deep every year and their children and grandchildren do, too. These people pass on their knowledge. They can speak and show us.

We come out together, we help each other, to clear pavements, to make sure the elderly are alright. To walk the 3.5 miles into town to get things we can't make or give ourselves.

I wasn't even born here. I was born in a place where we wear shorts and tshirts at Christmas and it is winter. I was capable of learning how to drive and live with snow the 9 years I spent in Colorado. Anyone would show me. I didn't even have to ask.

It's not hard.

Is it so much to expect? When it's been happening two years in a row now?

expatinscotland · 19/12/2010 02:01

This is my childrens' home. I may be foreign, but they are not. I take exception to anyone who says they are eejits who are too reliant on cars who couldn't possibly figure out how to deal with snow, when even the older two girls' Lowland eyes saw it Edinburgh every year they were there.

blinks · 19/12/2010 02:27

i work for emergency services in scotland and the consequences of us not bothering to try to get to work are potentially life threatening.

i doubt OP gave it much thought before posting so flippantly.

bet she won't make THAT mistake again.

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