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?

That's fine maybe I don't, but I repeat, how does this affect you? Are you always so fearfull?

I would assume my kids would be fine in a short outage like that but we've lived through hurricanes where the power was out for prolonged periods so it wouldn't really be a big deal. Last one was 8 days no power.

Get a BBQ and fire up those perishable foods for the neighborhood cook-off and get to know your neighbors.

Maybe they thought you wouldn’t have power to use your phones?

Also, a powercut isn’t really dangerous. And even if you were in trouble, what could they do about it a) from the UK and b) during a power outage?

Yes i am wondering if this is a one off or do you greater needs than your parents can handle

I would welcome a mumsnet thread if this happened to them.

Their banks, their savings, their DCs at home, their DHs stuck in the middle of a motorway, no flights, no trains, no Amazon no shops, no way, of not knowing what was going onm freezers and fridges off, no power, no water. NONE.

Mainly because our kettles wouldn’t work and we don’t do crises without tea.

They text every week or fortnight

OP - totally understand where you're coming from. This isn't a run-of-the-mill powercut. The cause still isn't fully known, but whatever it is an event (or series of events in quick succession) managed to take out the power for entire countries and that lack of resilience in the system is concerning.

For those saying they had days long powercuts after storms - well yes - storms cause powercuts. That's not hugely surprising. They're often forecast in advance so you can prepare. The powercuts due to strikes etc. in the 70s were known about in advance.

Power loss for whole countries isn't unprecedented, but it's much more common in countries with less stable power grids. Given the chaos that that cyberattacks on M&S are causing them, would it be completely unreasonable to think that the systems controlling the power network could have been attacked?

At some point this will happen and it will be an inconvenience but the world won’t fall in. I certainly won’t need emotional support if Morrisons is shut.

No Amazon? So what.

Again, gobsmacked.

OP, I hope you have felt heard on this thread despite all the infuriating stupid and empathy free replies.

It's not too much to expect loving parents to check in with their child of any age when something like this happens.

@UniqueRedSquid and if you don’t know why it has happened?

Yes, we had no idea at all.

Plenty of people are without power for longer periods than that. Why do you need your parents to text you, surely you are capable of coping with a power outage? It's a bit dramatic.

It was all over the news yesterday and came through as a BBC Breaking News alert so if they have the news on they would have seen it.

People making out you're overreacting on here are likely the same ones that can't cope with a centimetre of snow or lose their shit on Bonfire Night OP. If it had happened in London it would have been the end of the world with weeks of "AIBU to think they aren't telling us everything about last week's powercut" threads.

When Heathrow shut down recently it sparked multiple threads but obviously that happened in the UK so its totally different.

I give up 😂 jesus

This is a strange thread. I get the strong impression that there are several posters bending over backwards to minimise a major (and so far unexplained) event which has affected millions of people. Fifty million in Spain, ten million in Portugal, never mind thousands of travellers trying to get in and out of those countries.
But never mind, it's only a power cut, just brace up and stop being dramatic, eh?
Weird.

A power cut can be dangerous. Especially if it goes on unplanned for the best part of a day and the cause is unloen

people stuck in lifts
stuck on tubes
stuck in traffic
unable to feed babies formula safely as so boiling water
no traffic lights - more accidents
no street lights - more accidents
no comms - no ambulances when you need them. People’s home breathing machines may switch off.
how do you pick up your kids if you rely on the tube network to get across town to nursery?

Without comms how do you know if worse is not coming? Iran China Russia other dark states - launching attacks
perhaps you start to wonder whether your ££& is safe in the bank…..

the only people who make such a statement have not thought this through
it’s said from a place of privilege and I’m surprised not to see more enlightened individuals on MN.

her parents could have sent a text or WhatsApp to check in and ask her to confirm she is ok when the power returned.

It is strange

I’d assume that lots of people were working to fix it. The government has resources at its disposal. The power will come back eventually. I’ll eat the food from the fridge first.

But I would know because people have wind up radios. We’ve been being warned to have such equipment for decades. If it dragged on for days then there are methods for informing people.

Ok.

I absolutely understand why the power outage was frightening when you were in it because you didn't have much information. I think it's perfectly valid to want to feel that sense of concern and comfort from your family.

I also understand why your family didn't text. Based on the much more extensive top-level information we had available to us this was the type of thing I would have texted people I was in close, regular contact with and considered myself one of their main supports. I don't think it was alarming enough from our perspective to urgently check on someone I text every week or two. As I said above, I think your family and you had very different perceptions of this event and how emotionally charged or frightening it was just because of the nature of the event.

Hopefully your parents offer more of the support and care you need when you tell them how the outage impacted you.

It also showed the reliance we have on all things electric and internet based. People couldn’t pay for anything as most people don’t use cash nowadays. Couldn’t use their phones.

I don’t understand how some people are responding like OP is overreacting over a brief power cut, I suspect if it had happened in this country they would have terrified.

We’ve been advised more then once about keeping a stockpile in case of an emergency in Europe, we’ve had an emergency alert developed for phones and cypher attacks are a real threat and could lead to a catastrophe and then there is the threat of retaliation and things escalating to war.

I bet some of the people making scathing comments were the same people who panicked over Covid and lockdown when the evidence was there that the majority of people were not at risk. There was a thread the other day about the crazy things people posted on mumsnet during Covid and lots of people admitted to being irrational.

@Stopeatingcrispsanddips I would have been extremely hurt and upset if I hadn’t heard from loved ones in what must have been a fraught and worrying time. With no way of knowing what was happening I can’t imagine how those hours must have felt with all sorts of scenarios going through your head.

I think some people lack empathy and can’t put themselves in another person’s shoes when it doesn’t affect them directly, despite this it was unfair to downplay what you went through when you have clearly stated how you were feeling. I think people have lost the art of showing sympathy and compassion, I just hope that if a real threat occurs that the majority of people will react differently but seeing how Covid divided people I suspect that might not be the case.

You're joking aren't you? It's 12 hours! You'd hate living in Australia, we lost power for 4 days recently due to a weather event. It happens all the time. My parents wouldn't care (and yes they love me 🤣)

I didn’t respond to you??? Your chewy replies were to other people who didn’t agree with you…I just wondered why you posed a question if you weren’t going to take on board the replies 🤫