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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:
libelulle · 19/12/2010 04:17

Well my mum got home at 2am, 13 hours after first setting out in clear fine weather for what should've been a 90 minute drive. Phew! Thanks scottishmummy and others who showed kind concern!
OP, hope you can find it in your heart (thing beating in your chest, about level with middle of your ribs, slightly to one side) to be grateful rather than smug for your warm safe bed tonight.

mumoverseas · 19/12/2010 04:22

stupid stupid OP.
My two teenagers were two of the 'idiots' stranded in the snow for 7 hours yesterday when they had their bags offloaded from a plane on their way home for christmas and were ordered to leave the airport.
Really stupid of them to go to the airport the night before a booked flight.
It is looking like they will not be home for christmas. Be smug about that won't you

I do hope you realise how stupid your post was now

magicOC · 19/12/2010 05:00

MOS - I hope your children arrived safely with your ex-H.

Gutted for you that they probably wont be with you at christmas, but, I hope they are now tucked up safe.

GotArt · 19/12/2010 05:09

Ontario was hit with loads of snow too... bet the people that were found in their cars dead from hypothermia while hoping the army could rescue them are haunting all the people that are feeling smug about being home and warm.

mumoverseas · 19/12/2010 05:16

magicOC thanks for that. Despite a number of stupid posters around (OP being a prime example) there are also some lovely kind posters. Several (melty and funnyperson to name just two) actually offered to put up my DC when they were stranded. Lovely lovely people.

The bugger of it is that DC1 and 2 had a lot of DC3 and 4's christmas presents (and DH's) in their suitcases Sad

TyraG · 19/12/2010 06:46

OMG GotArt how horrible. Sad

gaelicsheep It's all well and good for you be able to go without pay for not going in to work, but not everyone has that luxury. Some people (amazing as it may sound) depend on their pay in order to survive. And as for putting employees up in hotels, smaller employers can't afford to do that and as has been pointed out in previous posts not every employer is parked right next to a hotel.

claig · 19/12/2010 08:15

Happy birthday OP

spongecakelover · 19/12/2010 08:52

This post's vile!

Just found out Heathrow's closed all day so DH who has been working abroad won't be home for the foreseeable. I'm at home, alone with two sick, miserable kids. I'm not feeling smug or cosy at all.

I think you can't be as selfish as this in RL so maybe this was just a big old mistake eh? Oh and many happy returns.

FairyTaleOfNewYork · 19/12/2010 08:57

the OP did sound nasty but i think she is regretting it now.

shortly, i will be hauling my 8.5 pregnant body outside, to walk to the local shop to see if they have any milk and bread, plus some vital chocolate of course. I have ice grips for my shoes, i will wrap up warm and take care. I dont have a car, and if i did, i'd still be walking. but if they dont have any in, then we'll survive. there is water to drink and canned goods in the cupboard.

claig · 19/12/2010 09:01

good luck FairyTaleOfNewyork.

I have never heard of ice grips for shoes. Sounds great. Do they sell them on the high street or is it only specialist stuff over the internet?

FairyTaleOfNewYork · 19/12/2010 09:02

here

i got mine from a website called grabitnow, during a non-snowy period for about £8.

Goblinchild · 19/12/2010 09:04

Our local shoe/re-heeling bar sells shoe grips.

claig · 19/12/2010 09:05

thanks FairyTaleOfNewYork and GoblinChild. Very useful info.

Chandon · 19/12/2010 09:08

I feel smug for not being as nasty minded, and feeding of other people's misery, as the OP.

TyraG · 19/12/2010 09:09

How do you know what size to get?

mumoverseas · 19/12/2010 10:30

Fairytale please be careful out there. Do you not have a neighbour who can go for you?

lololizzy · 19/12/2010 10:45

gaelicsheep, my job is not ESSENTIAL. It's 'only' retail (although based at a healing centre eg alternative therapies etc)..shallow to some, i'm sure inc you. However, totally 100% essential to me. My Christmas will be ruined if i don't get paid. Not just that but day to day survival. No money to put on the meters or eat. etc. I don't rely on benefits and there is no one to borrow money off. It's called being independant and self reliant.
My bosses have put me up at their house before and it's really good of them. However I did not want to stay last night i did not have my medication with me and don't feel entirely comfortable there. No point staying when no customers either. They have given me the choice to work tomorrow instead. If i don't...no pay. at all. not even for going in yesterday. If the snow doesnt melt, that's me buggered.
I realise my tale is one of the more trivial.. i hope everyone with stranded relatives has a happy ending and also glad the stranded lady got home safely at long last

Opinionatedfreak · 19/12/2010 10:55

Lucy.

As other posters have said essential workers are those needed to man hospitals, fire stations, drive the gritters etc.

Personally I work in Intensive Care. We are full at the moment. If I don't get there the patients either get looked after by someone working excessive hours or by a sub-optimal number of staff. Neither is a good/ safe option.

As you are posting this I guess you don't have the kind of job whereby your absence could cause other people to die.

I have to say I was pretty surprised to read that the trust policy is that staff should try to make it in at all costs even when the police have said not to drive.

edam · 19/12/2010 11:16

opinionated - hospitals in Wales have been asking for members of the public with proper 4x4s (i.e. landrovers, not show off things that can't actually go off road) to help staff get in to the hospital and back again. Shame your trust isn't doing the same.

I was going to go to our nearest big town to do Christmas shopping yesterday. Snow started falling again so I gave up - but I'm lucky enough to live in a small town so managed to do a lot of my shopping trudging through the snow with my shopping trolley (and help from the lovely guys in the shop where I get ds's shoes, who saw me with a big bag on the way to the main shopping street and took it from me saying I should leave it with them until I was heading home).

Feel nothing but sorry for people who are stuck. (Irony is was meant to be going to the snow centre in Milton Keynes with my sisters and ds's cousins today only we had to call off as the sister with tickets was snowed in and we weren't confident the rest of us would make it anyway.)

pawsnclaws · 19/12/2010 11:24

lololizzy and others I hope you've recovered from your ordeals. It's really scary how quickly things can change. DH went out at lunchtime for a 10 minute walk in light snow with the dog and to buy a loaf of bread - they got back an hour and a half later in blizzard conditions.

.

lololizzy · 19/12/2010 11:36

thanks paws' i will try! i was just saying i know how toddlers feel now!

FairyTaleOfNewYork · 19/12/2010 12:22

mumoverseas i took care. the walk was quite nice. i took dd4 in her big off-rod buggy and we checked out the snowy field on the way.

main road is slushy but passable. side streets arent.

but ice grips worked a treat.

gaelicsheep · 19/12/2010 21:32

Well I don't know the answer then. It sounds like everyone's happy with the status quo and risk being stuck overnight. Here the temperatures regularly go down close to minus 20 and being stuck overnight is not something I ever want to experience.

If it's apparently not acceptable to take leave, paid or unpaid, and no one thinks it's reasonable for employers to be responsible for the safety of their workers, well what is the answer? I agree there should most definitely be more investment, using the Highlands as a model, but I really can't see it happening.

I should add that I am lucky enough to live in one part of the UK that knows how to deal with winter, so despite being remote and very cold I can usually get to work and back with few problems.

gaelicsheep · 19/12/2010 21:34

Just to reiterate, once again, that I am not the OP and am not feeling smug. I simply urge everyone to please be prepared before setting out.

TyraG · 20/12/2010 06:31

DH is still stuck at the airport in Paris. They paid for one night in a hotel but last night he had to stay all nigh in the airport. DC's are upset that daddy isn't back yet and I'm feeling the strain.

BTW does anyone know how to figure out the sizing on the shoe grips?