To NOT get WIFI??

[loveitorleaveit]

Me and my DP have a phone each with more than enough data to use when we are at home for internet etc. We have 3 TVs throughout the house with more than enough channels, a DVD player and a PS4 with mass amounts of dvds and games. We have never felt the need to pay an addition cost for sky/virgin/WiFi

My DP has an 11 year old son who comes to ours every other weekend and twice each week on week nights. Since he got his own phone and iPad for his birthday we allow him to connect to our data so he can use them to play on games and access the internet.

I am just about fed up of hearing his comments about us not having WiFi or sky ‘you’re like old people’ ‘it’s just stupid’ ‘I guess I’ll have to waste my mobile data AGAIN’ ‘oh great we have to watch NORMAL tv’ ‘god sake I can’t play online here on PS4’

Really!!?? I’ve told him to doesn’t know how lucky he is! He just roles his eyes at me. My DP doesn’t say anything to his comments, and tells me that’s kids nowadays!

Maybe it is but it still frustrates me!

AIBU???

There are plently of high/ unlimited data plans out there at £15 to £20 - I don't particularly want to advertise any of the companies but they are really easy to find with a quick search.

All your super wifi/ broadband super speediness will find them easily - I've just done it on a a 3g connection on an old semi-smartphone!!!

It is also possible to have secure connections using mobile data with the right apps/ set up/ VPNs etc. Its whatever works for you.

Broadband is great but there are scenarios when 4g can be plenty good enough for some people. (and where we are is as fast as hardwired broadband)

So many PPs sound very defensive just because the OP is doing something a bit different!

LonginesPrime

You are correct that Op doesnt need to have it for themselves. The point is that they are making the decision to not have it for their child. Which in the age of online learning, education, entertainment and general connectedness is putting a barrier up in front of their child. No just various entertainment options but social ones as well.

It was probably sustainable up to now but in an age where on the continent of Africa, there are multiple examples of community wifi in remote villages, it seems odd to tell a child in this country they dont need it when others in those villages do.

No wifi?

My parents live abroad. I only visit them a couple of times a year, usually for a week or so. A few years back they decided against wifi because supposedly they didn't need it. It took me one visit to convince them otherwise. I mean..it 21st century. Unless you can't afford it, why would you not have it?!

Really!!?? I’ve told him to doesn’t know how lucky he is!

Not as lucky as these people on this Congolese island it seems. www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/07/mesh-wi-fi-the-pioneering-network-linking-scotland-with-a-congolese-island

I can't imagine life without WIFI!

I pay £18 a month for my home internet - which includes line rental and my landline with free weekend/evening calls (which I never use as I have my mobile) - £30 a month for my phone with 4GB data and £7.50 a month for a portable wifi router with 10GB of data (as it works out cheaper to pay that than the data add ons for when I run out but need the data for something and I can use it in places where there is wifi signal but isn't necessarily any data coverage, and i live in the Lakes so that's a lot of places!) and I pay £5 a month for NowTV with the Entertainment package. So I pay less for internet & TV than I do for my phone package and it gives me far more options. Everything runs on wifi these days and being limited to only using a phone (as opposed to a laptop or tablet - unless they are specifically tethered) is really debilitating for most people.

Also you should start thinking about the future - your DSS is 11 so either he's in Yr6 and will be going to secondary next year or is already in Yr 7 ... they use internet daily and tend to assume every student has internet access as standard. If your DSS needs to do homework that requires internet access then if you refuse to get wifi in your home, he's going to be disadvantaged whenever he has to come to your house. Even though you have mobile data available, it's limited when compared to wifi and he may end up not visiting (especially when he gets a few years older and starts GCSEs where there's a lot of homework and a lot of internet based work etc)

My nephew's secondary uses the internet for everything - they set homework via the student portal, they send information home via the parent portal, homework is submitted online and any support documents are somewhere on the VLE and rarely in print form. Even when it's written homework, if it's project based it more often than not requires some form of research online or gathering of information etc. They also have digital copies of pretty much all of their textbooks so that their textbooks can stay at school and they don't have to carry them home and then forget to bring them back to school and there's no excuses for homework not being done because they forgot their book. Even if my nephew's French homework is "Complete the 10 questions at the end of Chapter 3" he needs internet access to know what the questions are.

Gosh I bet he thinks his life has ended

How would it really impact on your life to have WiFi?

TBH three TVs sounds excessive

YABU-he probably doesn't really feel at home which is more of the issue for me I think. I'd hate to be somewhere without wifi

Haven't had tv for over 18 months, but we'd be fucked without wifi. For me & work, kids & PS4, minecraft, youtube, iplayer, podcasts, updates, all sorts of stuff. It costs less than my monthly phone contract, gives me unlimited data, and is so much faster than even my 4G.

My kids don't miss having tv at all, because they just don't watch telly in the way we used to. They'll catch up on things via the PS4 here or on Netflix when they're at their dad's. And wifi is pretty much essential for that.

Some of these replies definitely made me chuckle. We don’t have Sky, or a TV aerial, or Netflix, or Amazon Prime, or central heating - and we’re definitely not missing out! We do have wifi though :)

My Dad is 71 and even he has WIFI!!!

This modern world literally kills me. Like kids have a complete breakdown if they are disconnected for 30 seconds.
I took my dd7 to McDonald's last week and sat next to a table of about 8 teens... maybe 13/14
They were ALL on their phones and not talking to each other.
Wtf kind of generation are we raising?? They can't even look at each other and converse.
My dd is already asking when she can have a phone 😳
I was 18 before I had a mobile!
Technology is too advanced, it scares me. And I'm not old, im 35!!!

I'm 25 and I'll be moaning too if I had no wifi it's like electricity or water I can't not have it! I'm moving house later today (which is why I'm up at stupid o'clock packing) and the first thing I arranged to get installed was broadband they're coming this Monday and I can't wait. Serouisly though your stepson is right get some wifi in your life!

Last time we moved house dd and I had no internet for6 weeks.Best thing that happened to us because my just 13 yr old and I talked and spent time together.Our dependency on being connected decreased.Our TV was limited too(minimal freebies) and we still watch less now,have dropped all soaps.
We spend time together now with agreements to put our phones down if we're together.
Your stepson may moan but family life is not just isolating yourself on a screen .You carry on running your household as you are happy with and if you ever do get WiFi never let your stepson think it was for him.

To me it seems unusual to not have a fixed broadband connection, but then I do 90% of my entertainment on my PC and typically use over 100 GB of data every month, which would cost an absolute fortune on mobile. I don't have Netflix or Prime, but there's tons to watch on Youtube and iPlayer. (And Twitch, that's a huge data hog.) I also wouldn't be able to do my job as effectively without broadband at home.

By not having it, I'd say you severly restrict use of all online video: Netflix, Youtube, iPlayer, etc. As well as most online gaming, and even affecting non-online gaming because modern consoles demand to download updates. It might affect schoolwork, thought I doubt many teachers expect their pupils to regularly watch long videos for homework. I will say YANBU to decide not to have it. Just understand that's what you're stopping DSD from doing.

Depending on your phone tariffs, there might be a risk of a big bill if anyone uses a lot of data unexpectedly, or else your mobile data gets shut off until you make an extra payment. Also, using 'tethering' or 'hotspot' on your phone might be against the phone company's terms of service, meaning they could shut your phone number off altogether if they decide to.

If you don't already have a landline phone, it'll probably cost about £25-30 a month for line rental and regular broadband. If you do have a landline, then £10-15 a month for broadband because you're already paying the line rental.

Yes yabu

But it's not just about kids staring at a screen and not interacting, it's about life and tech moving on and them growing up in a tech based world where you are disadvantaged if you don't have access to tech.

I'm 28 so I have grown up with the advancement of tech - when I was at school nobody had mobiles or laptops etc and the closest we got to googling something was looking it up on Encarta. My DD9 on the other hand doesn't know a time before you could Google everything or ask Siri or Alexa to look it up for you. that is not because I'm a terrible parent who let's my DD live in front of a screen but because I accept that she has to grow up developing different skills to the ones I learnt because the way information is accessed/shared and used has changed hugely in recent years.

Now everything is done online - I haven't received a paper bill or a bank statement for years as I have gone to paperless billing and get email reminders. I get email or text reminders for dentist and doctors appointments or vet check ups for the cats. I don't get reams of letters home from DDs school as everything is done through their Parent mail platform and I can even make payments for school events using the same portal, none of the old "money in a sealed, named envelope" my mum used to do. All of my banking is done online and everything is paid for using PayPal or AndroidPay or contactless payments ... you can run your life using the Internet and when you're used to having that tech available it is easy to notice when it is absent.

And I feel hard done by as I can't get fibre where I moved to! Just bog standard, pretty crap broadband. To be honest from the OP I thought you literally meant no wifi, not no internet at all! I guess I can't equate mobile data to real internet as for me it's so slow, so crap to only be able to access email etc on a phone not on a laptop.

I haven't paid a tv licence or watched live tv in many years but I can't be without net. PS4 would just be unusable without it, even though I mainly play single player games there are many updates to the games and the console itself. Having no PS+ means never ever playing with friends, I know to many the image this brings is hardcore gun shooting fighty sweary kids but I know for me at least it's been hours spent crafting with friends in FFxiv or building things in minecraft.

I do think there is a point where having adequate internet access on a proper PC will be a necessity as homework now seems to be 100% online, being set online and use online resources. But even now I'd loathe being stuck on slow data, worrying about costs (probably less of an issue at 11!) and buffering and everything. And at least for me this would feel stifling, not having easy access to net, I don't know it seems a little controlling. And not sure how having friends over would work if they also want access, I've never done hotspot but would it give greater access to your devices? Not sure on that but surely a dataplan couldn't cover the usage of teens.

YABU. Poor boy [shocked].

Firstly, he's 11.

Secondly, it's cheap. That's relative, of course, but you have mobile data so obviously aren't scrimping to afford the next meal.

Thirdly, even 11 year olds I know would need the internet for certain tasks such as completing homework.

Finally, a gentle intoduction to the internet and social media is important. I think that little, under supervision, from a younger age, is the best way to teach them. Like alcohol. The ones who were never allowed to touch a drop until their 18th birthday are the ones having stomach pumps at fresher's week!

I agree with you in principle re. the TV - I've just realised how much we spend on our package(s) and we aren't a big TV-watching family.

You will find once he goes to secondary school, that the school expects every student to have constant and unlimited access to the Internet.

I would give up central heating before wifi.

Mobile data just won't really cut it if he is at secondary school and homework is set and often submitted online. Mobile data is too limited and not secure enough.

Are you intending to tell his school that he hasn't been able to do his homework for the weekends he is with you because you don't believe in getting Wi-Fi?

I regularly work from home. DD1 sometimes does too. Mobile data wouldn't work for that. Wi-Fi is essential for it. It certainly isn't just for gaming and TV.

Move with the times more. You'll be seen as a pair of dinosaurs otherwise, and not just by your stepson.

Wow talk about kicking up a bunch of fuss for no reason. Just get him bloody wifi!
I'm sure you will find yourself using it within no time

The PS4 is pretty much useless without internet access, all games have downloadable content which make them up to date. He won’t be able to access certain areas of the games without it. And won’t be able to play against other people which makes life quite boring.
As he gets older it will impact more, I guess towards him not wanting to come over as these things are important for teenagers! My DSS is 15 and is either Xbox one’ing, watching Netflix / now tv.. or has friends over using our WiFi 🙈😂