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 was only slightly all over the news. Mostly about traffic lights, too. No mention, e.g. of lack water. One assurance hospitals had power. Most prominent point was that airports were down and people's holidays might be ruined.
Actually, it was a major wake-up call that infrastructure needs careful monitoring and that we should not be so reliant on unreliable sources of energy.

Seriously, whatever.

It reflected THEIR reality. They had no power and no water.
They weren't the only ones.

How are you so confused by this?

Is that an apology?

Do you behave like this normally?

Do you tell people they are wrong? You are right?

Maybe they have confidence in your ability to look after yourself? It took a while for the news to filter through, and I got the impression of massive inconvenience but no actual danger, why would they assume your are not ok?

@Alondra are you a teenager

I think for some people, they didn't or don't realise how serious it was. My Nan is in Benidorm and I tried to get hold of her to see if she was ok. Maybe your parents didn't realise how scary it was x

So you were born in the early 70s but you're not in your 50s?!?!

Ok then😂

I think that's probably it - your parents didn't go through it, so don't understand themselves. I also would have expected a text but it sounds like they also thought it wasn't that serious. I think it passed a lot of people in the UK by really, not all but a lot.

I do know the feeling a bit, i travel for work/lived abroad, have been close to a few incidents (riots, nearby bombs etc) which seemed huge in the country i was in and barely seemed to register in the UK.

It was not only slightly all over the news.

BBC news site featured it as their main story and had a live update on it as did Sky. The BBC news live updates consisted of 7 pages. There are multiple reports from other UK news sources also.

It was a power cut not nuclear war, get over it. Had power cuts every other week when I was a kid, world kept spinning.

My parents are in their early 70’s…jesus christ.

I've worked full time pretty my whole life, brought up my children to adulthood and still managed to keep up with the news without being glued to anything

Are you not aware of radios, news websites, conversations? I actually rarely watch the TV news, it's not a requirement to be well informed

You absolutely don't have to care but it's nonsense to make out it's a hard thing to so

Both me and my sibling were working in London on the 7/7 bombings

my mother was on holiday in Canada

She didn’t text us, but individually we texted her to tell her we were both ok, she never texted back. Eventually it turns out “well we knew you we ok, so didn’t need to”

what about a bit of fucking support?

tbh, that was the beginning of the realisation that she really didn’t care that much about me/us. It was the beginning of a lot of revelations.

YANBU @Stopeatingcrispsanddips it costs nothing to touch base. To check on you and be sympathetic.

i think you should tell them that you’re disappointed that they didn’t acknowledge this

I mean - I wouldn't expect mine to text for a black out, and if it was a cyber attack - im not sure what you wanted them to do/ask about? I was in a country that had been bombed many years ago - we actually felt it (was a few doors down) - my parents texted me then. Maybe your parents saw the news, confirmed it was just a power cut and so didnt feel the need to check with you? I dont know - i mean, are you feeling ok now op?

Sounds odd to me - Do you ever message them or just wait for them to send their 1-2 weekly message?
maybe drop them a line letting them know all is ok with you and how are they?

“Jesus Christ”, you said you were a child of the 70s. You can’t be a child of the 70s if you’re not basically 50.

The majority of posts on this thread are seriously concerning.

Lack of basic reading comprehension, lack of empathy, lack of any desire to understand a situation not experienced first hand, rudeness, attempts to assert superiority......honestly if this is a microcosm of society, we're fucked.

I despair of the tone deaf, deliberately unempathetic responses on this thread. I think I might follow some of the goady posters onto other threads in case they post about them not coping with their child not sleeping (so I can tell them to toughen up, I just told my child to sleep and everything was fine) or someone close to them dying (so I can tell them they are being dramatic, everyone dies eventually).

Jeez. It's putting me right off Mumsnet.

I'm reading this shocked at how insular the British have become.

"I didn't know there was a power cut, it wasn't on the news I saw"
It was all over the news and in the news papers. If you didn't see it you are obviously thinking that scrolling through your little bubble on social media constitutes watching the news.

And how scathing:

"We get them all the time in Scotland...and for longer"
Yes, but you've probably looked at the weather forecast and are probably half expecting it and you're prepared. Depending on where you are you might even still be able to get a phone signal.

"Only a few people died near me, and one old lady got stuck in a lift"
Just translates as 'no one I knew died and I'm not old so I don't care'

Personally, I've had two power cuts recently and it was fine. But we could still use our phones to report them and track the progress. Could even pop down the road where the power was still on and get food etc.

I think pretty much two entire first world countries losing power for several hours is actually quite a significant event, especially given they still don't actually seem to know why. No, it wasn't the end of the world. Yes, most people were only inconvenienced for a few hours. But still...

This thread is insane.

It was headline news, loads of news websites had live blogs with updates.

I'm stunned by how thick some people are.

It wasn't planned, water supplies were disrupted and a lot of people were put in tricky situations.

No doubt OP will say "well I was born in 1978/9 so I am a child of the 70s" - not really, if you were only 1 during the decade. I was born in 1975 and I would say i was a child of the 80s really, that was my defining decade.

Did it happen to you, i’m not saying that in an arsey way, but unless you were going through it, you can’t properly understand

So why do you expect your parents to "properly understand"?

Honestly this is exactly what I was thinking.

The op said she was born in the 70s so if she was born between 1976 & 1980, she is not yet in her 50s

The op was asked how old her parents are & replied '70s'

None of this is hard to understand or to follow. If people concentrated more on paying attention to what they're reading than tripping over themselves to 'catch the op out' we'd all have a nicer time here!