Broadband: The right to wi-fi? There’s a scene in one of my favourite movies, ‘This is 40’ where the parents say they don’t spend enough time together as a family so they’re going to “get rid of the wi-fi” and have a hard line in the kitchen that will be allowed daily from 8- 8.30pm. The teenager freaks out! “You can’t get rid of the wi-fi” she panics.
It’s a scene that parents of teens and tweens will relate to. These days our kids are being brought up in a world with social media all around – they don’t know any different. They see their right to wi-fi as a fundamental in the way they’d expect to be bought their school uniform and require dinner money. In fact, here’s a great tip for parents – if you want your children to do their chores or as a means of discipline, simply change the wi-fi password at the router and only give it to them when they’ve completed their jobs or homework!
There are many home broadband options to choose from but BT Infinity is worth a look. As a family our broadband is hugely important both for work (my husband and I are both self employed) and for our togetherness as a family. We love to have a family movie night where we’ll download a movie to enjoy together. Plus my daughter has been enjoying shows on Netflix like Orange is the New Black and Pretty Little Liars, through our home broadband connection.
It’s funny when I think back to how I consumed movies and entertainment when I was a teen. Our kids have the world at their fingertips – they can get books without going to a library or bookstore and can find out about any movie ever made and watch it or search by their favourite actor to see what film they might want to see.
On a boring Sunday afternoon when I was a teen, I used to have to get the bus into town to go to the nearest Blockbuster Video store where I’d spend at least half an hour browsing the racks of videos to rent. A lot of the latest releases would have a plastic marker over the sleeve of the box to signify that the movie was unavailable – all the copies had already been rented (do you remember that?!) Then when I finally made my selection I could rent the film for £2.50 for a 24 hour period – I’d get the bus home to watch the film and then I’d have to make the round trip on the bus the next day to return the movie!! This was the 1990’s – we had to be dedicated to see our movies back then – effort was involved.
So the next time anyone in the family complains of buffering or is impatient with the download speed – remember the 90’s! These days we can access what we want – when we want it, as long as no-one has changed the wi-fi password!
It’s funny how we have all got used to it isn’t it? I can remember my first time online going to an internet cafe at lunchtime from work. It was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, but things improved from there.
I remember when we didn’t have a phone in every room growing up and had dial up – oh that weird noise it used to make! My boys would freak if I suggested limiting the broadband!
My kids too!
haha I was laughing the other day with my J about the time we used to use dial up modems, the noise they’d make whilst dialling through and no one could phone the house LOL We’ve come a long way 😉
We certainly have!! 🙂
i can still hear the noise of the old dial up aahh I used to complain about the broadband speed but grateful for it really
I remember only having home phones and no mobiles and if we needed to get online to do homework we had to go upstairs and use the family shared computer (the only one in the house…..the horror)
I moan when the internet goes slow but its so much quicker than it ever used to be. I can still hear that dial up tone in my head
We have gotten used to things being fast haven’t we?!
I get really annoyed when my internet cuts out and I am straight on the phone x
Yep remembering the dial up tone here too back in 1999/2000 Took FOREVER! 😀
I remember going to the video shop too and those plastic tags, how annoying to see The Princess Bride on loan yet again 😉 I am like a teen when I don’t have wi-fi. This year on holiday when the dongle couldn’t pick up a decent signal I was practically hopping up and down with fury LOL
I was there at the beginning of the internet and broadband malarky. Things have changed so much and our expectations are much higher. Nobody seems to want to wait for anything nowadays.
I know, ours kids would not be able to comprehend how much easier their lives are compared to what we used to get at their age!xx
So true!
This is so true! If mine kick up over chores i’ll definitely be using this! my eldest was obsessed with Pretty little liars, boy did she bang on about finding out who A was!!! Is your daughter that far yet??!!
haha yes Gemma my daughter was on about it for ages, to the point where even though I have never seen the show I can hold a conversation about it as I have so much info!!
Ha! I have used the wi-fi password to great effect on my teen – was far more effective than grounding or loss of pocket money!
It’s definitely the way forward!!
I remember having Tiscali and the dial up was so slow! My 8 yr old was amazed we didn’t have internet as a child he said “how did you play minecraft!” lol
My son say “In the olden days” to me about my childhood! They honestly think we are ancient don’t they?!
It’s so funny how much times have changed isn’t it. I remember being in an office using cards for all my contacts rather than a database and a business card holder! We’ll have to think about wi-fi access when POD is a bit bigger. A lot bigger 🙂
Ah yes, I used to go to our local video shop too and spend ages looking for one to choose, I used to love it. Makes me feel a bit sad that my children won’t have that experience. Times have changed so much haven’t they!?
kids won’t understand the pain of going to the video shop for days on a row to get that latest realise. Its sad in a way, they just complain when its buffering. Its like you have no idea about the tapes we watched that were so fuzzy at times you would get your money back from the video store/
When I look back, we put up with a lot that we wouldn’t accept these days like fuzzy tapes!
We moved recently and our broadband speed was sooooo slow, it felt like being back in the 90’s! Today I am celebrating as my village now has fibre broadband and we’ve just got it installed! Hooray!
Hooray!