I was in blackout and parents haven’t even texted me

[Stopeatingcrispsanddips]

I live in one of the countries where there was a power cut, it was frightening at the time and still feels a bit unsettling. My parents haven’t even WhatsApped us to see how we are (they still live in the U.K.)

Is this normal?

Seriously its barely caught attention here
Also I've lived through 3 day powercuts - my parents grew up in the 70s, power cuts just aren't a big deal

I've added a few examples of current headlines in pictures - when they load. But it's all politics or the royals right now. Nicely, let it go and if it's a big deal to you then just call your parents and talk to them

Most parents would message I imagine but maybe they didn’t think you’d be at any risk and it would just be inconvenient more than anything? Maybe they didn’t want you using your phone battery up unnecessarily.

On the front pages and all over the news media

You're setting yourself up for a fall here. They've failed a test that they were unaware they were taking part in.

Lower. your.expectations.

You're insulted by a slight that you've conjured up yourself.

You're an adult. Be grown up.

Why didn't you message them ? Say your situation? Then they may well have responded! I should imagine that you probably set a test , 'I'm not going to text them, I'm going to see if they'll text me ' and grow angrier and more angsty as the hours roll by.

This kind of behaviour is unhealthy. It'll damage your mental health. Meet people where they meet you ,effort wise. If there's a massive backstory with your parents that may be a wise move.

To be fair it was the geographical extent of the power cut that was news worthy not the fact that there was a 12 hour power cut.

we had a power cut for 5 days a couple of years ago, didn’t make the news and we were away for 4 days. Lost the freezer food and was put up in a hotel.

To be fair to your parents they probably didn’t want to run your mobile down unnecessarily and unless you have medical equipment for survival I assume they would expect that you could cope with it.

mine would probably send a text to check in if they knew but I wouldn’t expect it.

After one of the storms earlier this year(can't remember it's name) our whole area was cut off with no power and no phone coverage for 24hrs. It feels pretty eerie to not know what's going on and when things will go back to normal. Until then though I had never really thought about what a proper blackout would be like. I suppose my point is that unless you've experienced it you don't really think about what it might be like to have no idea what's happening and have everyone around you have no idea of what's happening. Prior to then I wouldn't have thought 12hrs without power would be a big deal and worth checking up on people.

If I heard my parents area had no power, it would not occur to me to check on them, it happens often enough. We had no power for 3 days recently after a storm. Or Internet or phone coverage.

What was so bad about it? Lack of transport / access? Were comms down? Are generators unheard of so no shops open etc?

Can you clarify if you are a child or an adult?

There was A LOT about it on the news. Constant live updates, headline news on the radio and interviews with experts from those in energy supplies, meteorologists and cyber security.
The blackout affected huge amounts of Spain and Portugal.
Think a major cities here: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh etc - sudden loss of power, so no traffic lights (chaos in major towns and cities), tubes and trains suddenly stop mid route/mid tunnel, no banks, no ATMs, no contactless, people stuck in lifts but lift phones don’t work without power so no-one knows you were stuck in a lift, children stuck at school with parents unable to physically commute to them or call the school and so on.

Our government are closely watching how Spain and Portugal handle it so we can prepare if it happens here.

That is exactly what I thought when I saw the thread title! 😂

Some of us were kids in the 70s. Evening by candle light during the strikes, queued all day for bread with babies in prams, no heating. Powercuts were pretty normal weekly occurrence during the strikes. And we survived.

It’s not like a raging forest fire, floods or war, is it? It’s a bloody power cut not the apolocalypse.

And no, it barely registered on the news here because there’s stuff like wars, Trump, 15yo girls being arrested for attempted stabbings, all of which are far more worrying than whether you could charge up whichever device you are using to post here.

Given how massive the power outage was, rather than just a localised one, I would have thought they would send a text on the off chance OP still had some battery life or the power would come back up and she could update them.

Exactly, thank you. It wasn’t just simply oh no tv for a bit, it was actually v worrying. Petrol stations closed immediately, shops, restaurants. We had no access to internet, all lines went down, car radios didn’t work etc

I’d think it odd for parents not to text their adult child who lives in an affected country, yes. Even just to say ‘heard about the blackout, what a pain!’ as opposed to ‘omg are you ok?!’ That’s if you have a ‘normal’ relationship where you generally know what’s going on in each other’s lives. If you only speak to them once in a blue moon then it wouldn’t be odd.

What’s your relationship like with your parents generally OP?

With no access to outside information (only various rumours about it being all of Europe etc) we had no idea what was happening and many people thought it was a cyber attack

Some of us were kids in the 70s. Evening by candle light during the strikes, queued all day for bread with babies in prams, no heating. Powercuts were pretty normal weekly occurrence during the strikes. And we survive

Sure that was normal then but it isn’t now.

All messages came through when we were connected

It was the top story on the BBC website, yesterday.

Oh sod off

True, cities would be a lot more affected. Did they definitely not message, were texts getting through?

😁

But you dont have nation wide power cuts. It is news because there was 'questions' as to what it caused it, thoughts initially that it could possibly have been a cyber attack.

I'm pretty sure this was the norm growing up in the 70's .
Its not a big deal . Candles were often lighted when I was small. We just went to bed

We did get news and were told quite early on that it was widespread and chaotic but not thought to be down to anything sinister.

I'm not sure it would cross my mind to message someone who had a power cut as I would be assuming they didn't want to waste their battery?