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?

Are you quite finished? Not sure what within my post prompted your response. Maybe try some deep breaths...

No. Some of us are on or own with children and this thread is bloody ridiculous.

Im sorry it's been a tough time. I agreed with op. What's your issue here?

It was just a 12hr blackout, we used to have blackouts lasting for days at a time. It was only an issue in winter ( Canada) as we had to all live in the room with the fireplace and cook over the fire or freeze to death.

Sorry. It was not aimed at you. I am just at my wits end with mumsnet. It is not your fault. I apologise. I did not ean to tag you.

You had them in the whole country, with no identifiable cause and with politicians speculating that it was a cyber attack?

Whole provinces. Cause doesn’t really matter the impact to your life is the same as you don’t find out the cause until after the power comes back on.

Im just saying some of us who are older grew up with blackouts as a regular occurrence and so wouldn’t think of it as terrifying like an earthquake or flood or forest fire where you’d feel a need to check in on someone.

Local college had power cut the other day, did not go down well on FB. Can't imagine the reaction if whole country had. power cut!

I'm genuinely sorry it's been rough. Please don't apologise, I understand.

Tbh we didn't message BIL & SIL as didn't want to use any of their phones power to deal with a message.

We assumed, correctly as it happened as we've spoken to them now, they'd get in touch if they needed us to do anything for them.

@LoremIpsumCici but I assume you were slightly prepared for them, if they happened on a regular basis. What do people do in flats with no fireplaces?

I am completely with the OP about this, but I must say that I am really wondering if she has now contacted her family in the UK to reassure them that she is OK and find out whether there has been something wrong their end which meant that they didn’t think to contact her to be sure she was all right. Or maybe they just thought a national emergency (in 2 countries) wasn’t particularly worrisome, like many others on this thread.

I think the point is though that if it’s a regular occurrence you’re a) somewhat prepared and b) not unduly concerned when it happens, because it happens a lot. This was completely unprecedented, across 2 whole countries, no one had any idea of the cause, an national emergency was declared and no one was prepared because it’s not something they have to deal with on a regular basis. Bound to be a bit disconcerting.

I was in Spain. What made it scary was that we did not know it was a simple power outage which would be fixed within a certain period of time. No-one knew what was going on. We heard various rumours that other countries had been affected. No TV, no internet, mobile network down, no traffic lights working, one person working in the hotel said “we could be at war”. Sounds melodramatic now but there were no government announcements. A few people tried to find battery powered radios but if you are a tourist and don’t speak the language you feel fairly vulnerable.

Oh, yes we were prepared. My eldest was actually born at home during a 3 day power blackout due to a really wicked ice storm (we could see the storm happening and presumed it was the cause, and once power returned that was confirmed). That power blackout also affected all of upstate New York the other side of the lake from us. There was no way for me to get to a hospital. The midwife managed to arrive on a snowmobile about a half hour before she popped out. I had registered at the local hospital with an OB/GYN and also a rural certified homebirth midwife just in case as my eldest came the end of November.

People in rural areas like we were are usually prepared and have at least one working fireplace. We would also check in with neighbours and invite anyone over who didn’t have heat or food to share. In more urban areas, they’d open Red Cross shelters at schools that had back up generators and stores of food.

I agree with your point, and my point dovetails with it. From perspective of someone who grew up with it as a child and even dealt with them as an adult, a 12hr blackout is just not going to register as an incident that causes undue worry. You’re not even to the point where you have to take measures to keep refrigerated food from spoiling.

When something isn’t a big deal to you based on your life, you’re not likely to proactively notice it as a big deal to someone who’s never encountered it before.

This is as a way to explain why OP’s parents didn’t text her. Why they probably just didn’t think she’d need that reassurance.

@LoremIpsumCici I think this is the difference, you are prepared for such power outages and have measures in place, as you also know you won't be able to access other areas, and obviously you are prepared for that even if you have power.

People in Spain and Portugal are not prepared for the whole of their country to not have power, and of course it was the unknown, why this had happened (no massive ice storm) and when it would be sorted

We were only prepared for them because they kept happening without warning, and could last anywhere from minutes to over a week. You never knew and so it made sense to be prepared. Even today in the UK, I have basic preparations for a power blackout just in case. I feel it’s a lost skill.

No one should be taking power being on 24/7 as a given. It’s kind of an adult skill to know what to do and how to cope if/when one happens.

editing that Spain & Portugal are not very big when compared to Canadian provinces.

Some people on this thread are seriously lacking in empathy or reading comprehension! Maybe both. We had a 5 day powercut after storm Arwen and I can safely say I would choose that over the 12 hour blackout OP had. Sounds scary and stressful.

But OP unless this is part of a wider pattern of feeling like your parents don't bother with you, I'm confused as to why you haven't just contacted them.

Keep calm and eat crisps and dip!

Cause doesn’t really matter the impact to your life is the same as you don’t find out the cause until after the power comes back on.

Hmmm. Knowing that the cause is extremely cold weather or a worse than usual storm is surely less frightening than not having a clue what has happened, not knowing if it's an attack or not having any idea when power will be restored.

Twelve hours doesn't sound so terrible after the event but they didn't know that at the start.

@LoremIpsumCici the number of people impacted was more than Canada population

I don’t think it is less frightening, because again you can guess at the cause but you don’t know until after it ends. I have been in both sorts- ones where you could kind of guess and others where there was no info to make a guess from. I didn’t find one any more scary than the other.

Yes, you never know at the start or during it how long a blackout will last. We would leave one light switch to on so it coming on would be the cue that the power was back. We would have to unplug and turn off everything else as with power blackouts you can get surges so it’s not safe to leave everything plugged in and on waiting for power to come back.

Different then - I was there too - but we are so reliant on electricity now, back then phone lines and radio would have worked. Not so this time.

Power cuts are also more common in some parts of the world (Africa/SA e.g.) but really not like this in Europe where everything stops.

Hi all, so mum WhatsApp’s around lunchtime with a typical message ‘Hi, what are you doing, is Dd ok, we did the food shop this morning, dad doing the garden’

🙈

And also, if you’re in certain parts of Canada or the USA, or elsewhere that are known for their cold climate, you know there’s a strong likelihood of power being knocked out by a bad storm during the winter, and are prepared for the eventuality. That’s completely different from most of Spain or Portugal in spring time, surely? Nobody Expects the Spanish Indisposition..