Why My Kids Are Paying for Netflix
After cutting the cord with cable, we have a LOT of streaming services.
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We cut the cord with cable more than 10 years ago. At the time, we were new parents looking to save money (babies are expensive!). Cable seemed like an obvious choice because we were not big tv watchers anyway. Netflix became our streaming service of choice.
Over the years, streaming services have expanded — a lot. Our Amazon Prime membership began to include content. We would go in and out of subscriptions to Hulu and YouTube TV (so my husband could watch live sports).
Then last November, Verizon offered us a free subscription to Disney+ for a year. When the pandemic hit in March, Disney+ became one of our most-watched services, especially for the three-year-old.
When it came time for us to begin paying for Disney+, keeping it was not a question. We decided to bundle it with Hulu and ESPN, but now it felt like we had a lot of services. Especially for people that don’t watch a ton of tv.
My husband suggested that we drop Netflix. It felt a bit like the end of an era. We have had a Netflix subscription since the days that DVDs were shipped to my college apartment. I was a little hesitant because my older kids liked some of the original shows.
Then Netflix informed us that they would be raising the price on our premium plan by $2 per month. I was mad. It had nothing to do with the cost, but we already considered Netflix to be our least-watched service.
Upon a friend’s suggestion, I instead dropped us down to the standard plan: one device, standard definition, $8.99/month. I figured that was a decent compromise to keeping the service to watch occasionally and offsetting the increase we saw when we picked up the Hulu/Disney/ESPN bundle.
I hurried up and finished watching The Queen’s Gambit. We watched The Great British Baking Show as a marathon the week of Thanksgiving. I knew that we would still have access to the service. Still, it felt like preparation for the change in our subscription and only accessing Netflix from one device.
Last night, I informed my kids that our Netflix account was changing in a few days. They howled. We have designated…
