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?

What were you worried about?

I heard that phone providers were down so wouldn't have tried to contact as what would be the point? I'd assume an adult child would get in touch when they were able to.

I saw one news report that didn't make it sound like anything more than a simple power cut, like we had in our area at the weekend

We have also had a city wide power cut a couple of years ago with traffic lights out, places having to close early etc

I work with a largely spanish overseas team but ai am based in the UK, noone seemed bothered or really mentioned it today at work. Had a couple of brief conversations.

and from my perspecrive from the uk news it just seemed like a slightly longer power cut. We get short power cuts in the uk all the time. Had two that lasted a couple of hours each in the last 1 year.

If they lived close by they would probably text asking if I wanted to use their toilet or shower just like I would do for them and did do for my friends.

I wouldn’t text someone who lived in a different country if they wanted to come over and use my shower though.

Losing power is also less of a reason to text because they’d presumably know that OP was not able to receive messages and she’d be trying to save her battery for emergencies.

I would assume that someone would text me if they needed anything.

My messages all came through when the power and internet came back on. They could’ve texted today too

Just a tiny little multi country power cut 🙄

Most of our county had power out after Storm Eowyn in January, some areas for weeks. We didn't because we are not on the grid but most of our village was out for at least several days. My parents didn't phone or message me, I messaged the family whatsapp group with some photos of the storm aftermath. If I hadn't, I doubt they would have contacted me about it, and we would just have talked about it when we caught up on our monthly phone call.

I cannot believe how many people can't show a bit of empathy and imagine how scary a complete power and information blackout would be.

I do not blame you at all for feeling hurt that your parents didn't contact you. I would absolutely try and contact my kids no matter their age in similar circumstances.

I hope you are ok, it sounds like an awful experience.

Never heard about blackout? I’m uk ! Doesn’t seem big news here.

I’ve not seen it on the British news so they may not have been aware.

It was on top news yesterday on quite a few news here. I clocked it mainly because it mentioned atmospheric event ot something like that. Tbf it wasn't there too long but they had maps etc

There has been a huge amount of coverage due to impact on Spain, Portugal and parts of France & the multiple theories about why it happened. Those claiming that it hadn't registered must be living in a strange parallel universe or perhaps they get their news from influencers and TikTok.

I would expect my parents to get in touch under the circumstances.

Well what was it? I hardly heard anything about it. Was it a cyber attack? And why are such swathes of Europe attached to the same light switch? I know nothing about power, clearly, but is this not a bit silly? Shouldn’t it be impossible to power off so much of an area?

edited to actually address the question - my parents would text me because they love to catastrophise and get the gossip. I’m assuming your parents tell you they love you but their actions regularly don’t match up, otherwise why would you be asking this? It helps to figure out their motivation. Covert Narcissism is the one I get the sharp side of. Not fun and takes a lot of processing but suddenly you know where you stand and why. No matter why your parents are the way they are, it’s not anything about you.

Fiy...

newsworks.org.uk/news-and-opinion/front-pages/

Why is it so important? Power down is nothing to be worried about ? Happens often and I’d never expect my parents to check on me cos lekki was off and WiFi down 999 still works so all is fine. #dramatic

I’m afraid this is all very dramatic.

My parents will have gone without power in Spain. I assume that they read a book and had a sandwich for dinner.

I have discussed other things with them today but by chance haven’t mentioned the power cut. I certainly didn’t feel the need to check on them. They’re adults and have a basic level of resilience.

Thank you 🙏

we have simple power cuts and no water on a fairly regular basis, this was not the same thing at all

I'm in Portugal and I can see why people in the UK, or watching the news from elsewhere, wouldn't be too concerned or interested about it. Power cuts do happen all the time, as pps said.

Dealing with the actual power cut wasn't that big a deal, and I was listening to the radio the whole time—nothing hugely dramatic was going on, people were calm and the hospitals etc kept running. It was amazing seeing everywhere properly pitch dark once the sun went down too.

What was unsettling about it was that it was two entire countries losing all power, internet and phone communication at the same time, for twelve hours. Obviously a lot of people assumed cyber attack, because nothing like it has ever happened before. It was like being in the first 30 minutes of an apocalyptic sci fi film. Hard to explain how it felt—no actual imminent danger, but for a lot of people no way of communicating with the outside world, and a sense of dread for the first few hours until they confirmed no cyber attack.

Edited to add: and of course it came out of nowhere, which was the other thing that made it feel menacing. There was no storm or weather warning to anticipate any kind of disruption, let alone entire countries abruptly switching off.

I had an almost 6 day power cut after storm Éowyn in January. I live alone and am in an electrically heated house in a remote area and the temperature in my living room was was 8C centigrade for the whole 6 days. However, I didn't expect my family to be constantly checking on me! Why would you be miffed about this - what exactly would have happened to you? They might not even know about it. Think you need to lighten up!

I also cannot believe the number of people who haven't seen it all across the UK media.

I am by no means a news hound, but it has been a big story on BBC, Sky, all the major papers' websites. My Google feed was full of it.

I don't watch TV news - can anyone confirm if it was on the evening bulletins yesterday?

Yes exactly..it had covid vibes about it also

That's sounds scary. I've just had to Google to see what happened. I didn't know anything about it as I just listen to music on Alexa and don't watch any live TV. (Currently binge watching Ransom Canyon in Netflix)
Maybe everyone messages are taking a while to come through. I remember when sending a 'happy new year' message on new year's even 15/20 years ago took a while as everyone was texting at the same time.

Fucking hell.
School, intenet, shops, bank, water, electricity, news.

ALL OFF.
It was frightening. I thought it was a war!

It was not a "powercut"

It's ok. I totally hear what you are saying. It's nothing like a loss of water and/power with a logical reason. Not saying that some of the examples upthread weren't really stressful and even traumatic, but this was definitely something beyond that.

I think it would be the internet going down that would scare the shit out of me. If shit goes wrong but you know what the problem is, you can work out how you're going to cope. With no info, people come up with their own theories which is really scary.

I really hope you can tell your parents how you feel and that they take it on board