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?

🙄

It has literally been all over the news. Just because you missed it didn’t mean that it hardly made the news as 7 pages of live updates from BBC news and live updates from Sky News, among other sources, will attest.

It was a massive power cut affecting most of Spain and Portugal and part of France , top item on the News

@Alondra It is possiible water supply was affected for indivual buildings that had electric water pumps to maintain water pressure. We used to live in a block of flats in London that had a small electric water pump and in power cuts water supply woild drop to a trickle.

We now live in an older block that utilises the much more low tech gravity tank solution!

I check the news everyday but I only knew about the powercuts becuase of MN and by the time I saw it, it was back on.

I think I probably would have checked in with anyone I knew who had been affected, but only out of interest, not particularly concern.

You obviously have a reason to feel your parents are disengaged though 😪

DK t think people needed heating this week tbh. Surely everyone has torches and candles in case of power cuts anyway

People on this thread who live in Spain or Portugal have said that their water supply was cut off. Are you saying that they are lying?

Hi OP.

I'm sorry to hear that you've had such a bad time there.

I don't think it would be usual for parents to contact even adult children every day, and if they don't do that then that is probably what you want to look at. It shouldn't need a catastrophic power cut to make you wonder why your parents are not keeping in contact really.

Some parents only contact adult children once a week or fortnight, especially if they are abroad, but I would still expect them to text if they saw this on the news.

I did see it on the news and had no idea it was so scary for you. I thought it was just a big powercut and kind of imagined all the office workers having a well earned day off while the electricity company fixed it. I had no idea that it was such a big problem.

So they may just have no idea. I mean possibly they still have no idea. Is it possible that you could contact them yourself? I wouldn't hesitate to pick up the phone to my parents, and definitely would not start a MN thread to ask why they had not contacted me. I think you should just go ahead and ring them. If that is not possible with your family dynamics then that is probably a thing to look into further and a clinical psychologist would help you do that. You would need to pay privately but it would probably really help. I have done this myself in the past.

Even I know that the likelihood of people not having water is likely in some places if their water needs to be obtained via a pump. Many homes will have low water pressure that requires a pump to be able to access it - no electricity, no pump, no water. The water may still be being supplied, but residents can’t access it.

We have lots of family in Spain. We were worried because we didn’t know why it was such a huge widespread power cut. Reading the news our first thought was terrorism.

I’m glad that you are ok.

I think the posts on here probably show that a lot of people might not have really understood how worrying it was and I wonder if your parents were the same? Maybe they assumed it was nothing serious so didn’t think to try to make contact.

So people who didn't know anything about the power blackout are actually better people than those who did get the information from some online or TV news source?

I can understand that ignorance is bliss but not that ignorance is morally superior.

There was danger in that for example traffic lights stopped working so you had to take your life into your own hands rather to get across the road. And it was scary because of not knowing how long it would go on for and it felt like it could be a long time as it was so widespread.
I immediately felt worried about being able to feed my children in the following days. All the main supermarkets closed, we didn't know whether we should buy bottled water or food that wouldn't have to be heated but didn't want to engage in panic buying. There were only corner shops still open but we had very limited cash, cash machines and card machines in businesses not working.
There was no public transport apart from buses which were completely rammed so I had to walk home across the city which took about 3 and a half hours. Mostly no internet or phone connections. Sirens everywhere and people getting quite nervous.
I'm sure it's hard to imagine if you didn't experience it and I wouldn't like to guess at why PPs parents didn't contact her but it was an alarming experience.
Life in the 70's was vastly different. We rely so heavily now on electricity and the internet for almost every aspect of our lives so the disruption is just not comparable.

No, I didn't think that people needed heating this week. But people did need heating during the power cuts in the 1970s powercuts but had options that didn't rely on electricity.

I think given the amount of people on this thread who don’t realise what a major event it was, I’d say that your parents didn’t either.

As for the “50 years ago we had power cuts and we just got on with it” brigade…yes I remember it too. But we are much MUCH more reliant on electricity now for everything than we were then. And we knew then why it was happening then. To have two whole countries go dark with no apparent reason must’ve been very discombobulating.

How is your relationship with them in general? If generally good/mutually considerate I wouldn’t dwell on it. They’re probably busy with their own lives and just thought it was an extended power cut. IE, Freak occurrence but no big deal and no danger. If your relationship with them isn’t great, then obviously you’ve stuff to work through.

I heard on the radio - can I join your morally superior club? 🙄

I’m here too and it WAS scary OP. Also it was all over every main UK news source.
i went to the shop for water and people
were panic buying quickly before the shutters came down and all shops shut. Initially the news was saying up to a week to restore and that was really unsettling. What do you do with no power for a week? I felt lucky that I had water and cash (because I’m on holiday) but I don’t have much food in. We were trying to think ahead about cooking on the beach and the freezer fully defrosted so we could have lost that too.

my family all immediately got in touch and told me to turn off devices to preserve them, they were worried and then the network went down entirely anyway.

like most we thought cyber attack and THAT was scary.

YANBU OP!

I saw it on my iPad. Possibly slightly lower down the ladder of acceptable news sources than a radio, but definitely higher up than a … a … television. Good God.

Have you checked upon them to make sure they are okay? If it is out of character for them not to check up on you at a time like this are you worried they might not be okay?

Because there was mayhem; trains stuck in tunnels, people stuck in lifts, widespread looting, gridlocked streets, etc etc.

Pretty sure most parents would check up on their loved ones in that scenario.

She couldn't have messaged them if she was in one of the areas where there was a complete mobile network outage. A family member who is frail and vulnerable was in one of those areas. Landline and mobile not working. He'd had a fall the day before and as it transpired, had another fall during the blackout. Roads were virtually gridlocked because of the failed traffic lights and trains/metro were out so more people in their cars, I guess. For most of the day it was a shit show. And we couldn't get in touch with him or his neighbours. The whole day, wondering if he was lying on the ground again.

Please don't minimalist this.

I do agree her parents might not have known how bad it was and to check in with her (if they could even get through) but I'd certainly expect my own family to notice this was happening in the news (they're not ostriches, they regularly watch or listen to the news) and try to check in with me.

This! I said something similar in my slightly rambling post further upthread. But this is much more clearly expressed!

I watch the news frequently. I picked up the blackouts on MN, I think, and then went to look at the news. Small item mostly about traffic lights not working. No specific places mentioned apart from Madrid. Your DPs may not realise you were affected but also are expecting a text from you saying all is well. My late DB was in Athens during a major earthquake. He did not bother to phone anyone (only phoning was possible at that time) to say he was safe. I had to ring the FO on my parents' behalf to get someone to check he was alive. People don't always immediately think 'oh, I must check X is ok, tell DM I am alive'. There was no mention of life-threatening events in the blackout so I daresay it does not occur to your DP that you need a metaphorical hug. Text them - better still, phone them - they may be unwell, in need of help which is why they have not messaged!

Ginmonkeyagain

I don't doubt your experience but in Spain, 99% of the population have residential water and electricity supply. There are people living off grid with electric water pumps but they'll also have manual pumps and electricity generators.

My post was to someone stating, "It was a 12 hour power cut where we had no contact with anyone that could tell us what was happening. No communication, no power, no water", which doesn't reflect the reality of what happened.

.

There was no water. Or it was shit brown. HTH.