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?

Exactly, and in times when we now rely so much on technology to do the most basic things - how many people carry cash with them (I do but most people I know pay with their phones and cards)?

People in the UK become irrational when a small amount of snow is predicted, I can’t believe the people on here saying that it was nothing! 😂 There was no warning whatsoever!

Did you message them to say you were ok?

What a drama llama! We have frequent power cuts. 12 hours really is not that long.

Exactly. To me this is the normal response - just to check in as, it would be natural to be concerned about a loved one even if you can’t do anything.

It’s not about being an adult or not - actually, I would argue that being an adult, you would be able to show some empathy for someone in a potentially difficult situation.

Yes, you and everyone else that doesn’t seem to follow the news
www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6jenl581vo.amp

People on Mumsnet must live under a rock. It was very much headline fucking news! Most of Spain, Portugal and the South of France had zero power. Literally everything went down from traffic lights to airports and cities descended into chaos. There was panic buying with no food or water to be found. It affected thousands of tourists too. There was no explanation, no rationale, no storms, no nothing. Major European countries completely blacked out and some posters either knew nothing about it or don't even think it's just a teeny tiny bit worrying? Jesus.

Your aggression is totally uncalled for. And you are projecting rather, too. At no point did I call anyone "thick". That's your word and one I never use. "Willing ignorance", however, is something that crops up here a lot, as shown by this thread. It's not clever or admirable to admit not taking an interest in our surroundings and events such as this. I also don't have much time to sit around watching/listening to/reading the news, and I'm nearly always doing something else as well if I do, but I make sure I'm informed about stuff. I see it as self preservation to know what's happening around me.
My main argument was with the statement someone made (don't know if it was you or not) that it wasn't on the news here. It was. That was an untrue claim. It was all over the news.

If she was born between 1976 and 1979, she will still be in her 40s but can still describe herself as a child of the 70s as that's when she was born.

What, where your whole country blacks out simultaneously and no one knows the cause?

i’m pretty sure those on here saying ‘FFS it’s just a power cut’ wouldn’t have been saying the same if it had happened here.

We really really are! Hopefully it's only a small number of prolific posters on Mumsnet who behave like this. The poster insisting that the water supply hadn't been affected, even doubling down when posters in Spain and Portugal posted to say that they didn't have any water during the blackout was a particularly egregious example.

Yup. They would be arguing if it's Putin (I mean this site is full of stuff like that), if it's war and if chocolate is essential shopping.

@ContraryNoodle

"What a drama llama! We have frequent power cuts. 12 hours really is not that long."

Drama llama? Dear god, three European countries lost all power without explanation. Everything stopped suddenly from traffic control systems, railways, air traffic control, mobile phones, banks, restaurants, hospitals and the internet (which pretty much means nothing worked). Not to mention the fact that nuclear reactors went into standby. You might want to pause for a moment and wonder who or what was behind this because, trust me, it really should worry you.

I thought OP must have been on a school trip or something.
However, at 46 and 3/4s minimum, I think mummy-didn't-care-tantrums are a bit OTT.

LOL at those saying ohhh we have frequent power cuts blah blah blah, so funny. I lived through this in Madrid on Monday and NOTHING NOTHING had power. Communications down. No trains, no metro, not being able to pay for anything not even with cash in many places, no internet, no phones. It took me 4 and half hours to get home, and I was one of the lucky ones. Hospitals on back up power, no surgeries only emergencies. Supermarkets and banks closed. At home everything is electric, so forget warm food. No traffic lights anywhere. All transport hubs closed. 5 people died. A woman whose house burned down because of a candle, 3 died because their boiler was affected by the power cut and they inhaled carbon monoxide and a lady suffocated to death when her oxygen tank failed.

Are you a small child?

Many of the posts on this thread are embarrassing to read. This was massive, and affected nearly every aspect of life. it wasn't like cuts in power after a bad storm, difficult though that can be.

It's an illustration of the insularity that still seems to prevail here. If the whole of the UK plus Ireland had been affected the attitude would be very different.

We are in the south of France. We have adapted and have generators and candles, water etc on the ready. This really is a massive overreaction. Plus the OP could have contacted her parents. Pathetic!

We've had power cuts locally and it wouldn't cross my mind to check the family were okay. You just get on with it until it comes back on, right? It's not life threatening, just annoying.

My elderly dad lives out there and was caught up in it. I didn't message until I'd heard from him as I knew he'd have wanted to reply and might not have had much phone battery. I wrestled with the decision. You might want to send a message to your parents saying you're okay and seeing what they say before feeling rejected - it could have been that they didn't connect it with you, or even that they didn't realise it had hit mobiles and expected you to message if it was affecting you.

Sounds like a very primitive and undeveloped place. Where I am most transports, hospitals, banks, supermarkets and even pubs and restaurants have generators that kick in within a minute of the power going out. They'd all go broke if they didn't. Trains go on generators in a power strike so would not be affected. And don't forget many/most businesses still have landlines (which do not run on power), as do some families, and there are still landline public phone boxes in towns.

All of this sounds very farfetched and very unbelievable to me and like it's not a developed country.

I honestly think it could have passed them by. I watched the news and heard it but it kinda didn't register, I guess? There's too much Trump and China and benefits and stock markets, everything is so over the top that somehow, until I read your post, it hadn't occurred to me that this was an actual thing.

And it's only writing this that I wonder whether my guest, arriving tomorrow from the impacted region, has been affected (I imagine yes!).

OMG, the ignorance.

Classic example of 'I'm all right, Jack". Rude and uncalled for.

This. And given her parents are elderly, she should be calling them and checking on them, not the other way around. What the OP has described is bog standard normal black outs. No fucking big deal.