to absolutely shite myself when there's a power cut

[bigfam]

It's happened twice now, only for seconds each time. The kids were awake for the first one, second they're all asleep and I shit myself... Butterflies in my stomach the lot. I'm 25 ffs. Just want oh home now

bigfam seriously it's just a power cut, why does it make you so anxious. We have are prone to power cuts so have two emergency light torches, one down stairs and one up stairs. Night light in the evening but as soon as there is a power cut the powerful LED torch lights up, handy in the dark.

I hate them too, and when you look outside and it's just pitch black. No street lights, all the neighbours houses in darkness...shudder!

Don't ever move to the country OP.

A couple of Christmases ago we lost power on Christmas Eve Eve and it didn't come back until Christmas morning. That was hellish.

I find it quite exciting [saddo emoticon]

We lost power on boxing day, didn't come back until the 30th Dec.

Don't move here.

I quite like a well-ruined power cut. It has to be a dark evening, with all the family home, and last longer than 30 minutes but less than, say, 2.5 hours, so we have a fun candle-lit night with board games.

If all the kids were awake it would be ok, but when it's eerily silent I get the heebie-jeebies!

I just go to bed. I keep torches around, so have an early night and read a book.

Get yourself organised...candles, matches, torches. Know how to check if your fuse box has tripped so when the power does come back you are not left literally in the dark.

We often have them.

I hate them, as long as everyone else's are out in ok. But if it just might I reallly panic, doesnt help I'm scared of the dark

Great for stargazing though...

I hate them. It's ridiculous but last time we had one about 11pm (so we just went to bed as normal) I had a major panic attack and couldn't sleep until the power came on a couple of hours later. Even though we sleep with lights off etc I couldn't settle and felt like the darkness was closing in on me. We have torches etc so are as prepared as you can be and I'm not scared of the dark like that normally.

I live in a country where power cuts happen fairly regularly. The worst thing about them is the freezer-full of food that ends up getting thrown out. It's wasteful and annoying, and whenever we go away on holiday we have to make sure our fridge and freezer and empty, because when we come back we don't know if there's been a power cut or not.

Yes to the star gazing - we bought a telescope and spend our power cuts playing with that. And yes to being prepared in advance.

It's not just you Nayville

I find them exciting too. Not just exciting but "really exciting"

I may occasionally worry about the freezer etc if it's a long one but no TV, wifi, computers... It's amazing! No ability to cook here either as we're an electric only building but I don't care, I LOVE it! I love the dark and of we're starving and want something hot then we'll go for a drive and eventually come across a grid where the power's not down. It's an adventure!!!

I really want a power cut now.

In my last house, which was in the centre of a largish town, we used to get power cuts about once a month.
It was quite nice, we were a terrace and when the power went off we would all stick stand on our doorsteps and have a chat.
My folks live out in the sticks and their power goes out every time there is a strong breeze.

Keep a torch somewhere easy to find. Get one that you charge up manually (very cheap at Wilkos) so you don't need to worry about batteries.
Get a big bag of tea lights while you are in Wilkos too. Keep them and a lighter somewhere easy to find.

I also get excited! As soon as the lights flicker I am fussing about for the lantern and tea lights etc.

Smart phones and laptops take the fun out of it though!

I grew up living off grid with no electricity, and even when we did get hydro, we can still get power outages that last a week or more

makes you really appreciate a good oil lamp

Always

Sorry i meant to say always keep candles about

OP - yanbu, it's horrible.

I was once plunged into pitch black whilst brushing the dc's teeth. I had to say to the kids 'stay where you are' and grope my way downstairs for a torch. We're semi rural and powers cuts are fairly frequent - I try to keep a candle burning in the main room now and we have a torch down the side of our bed.

It turns quite fun when all the candles are lit though!

Oh, and now, having been here years, the dc run to window to check it's 'them' and not 'us' ie. not our electrics - which is always a possibility, we live in an old house. So far it's always been them.

We had a power cut a few years ago. I panicked!!! Didn't know how long it was going to be off for. Had a young baby drinking formula milk, no hot water, cooker runs on electric. Mobile fone ran out of battery. House phone was digital, couldn't even ring mother in law up to see if she could help out with the hot water situation (she lives 15 mins walk away). Luckily it came back on a few hours later. The very next day I went and bought a camping stove, gas, proper torches and an analogue phone.

We get them quite a bit where my holiday house is. I love it. The place is already practically pitch black at night (only one street light in the entire place) so it's great for stargazing, but when the power is out, there's just something amazing about it, like you're the only person on earth. The house is so silent, all you can hear is waves and the wind, not that steady hum of electricity that always seems to be in the background of life.

mrsdarcy please never use that stove indoors. They release co2 and it can kill you. When Montreal had massive power cuts during an ice storm more people died or were injured due to using stoves indoors than from falling trees etc!