# My petty gripe: why can’t I boot my freeloading kids off Netflix when I finally have time to watch?

In my few stolen moments of recreational screen time, I need a big red button that automatically restores primacy to me, the bill payer.

Netflix could solve this problem if it would just give me a big red button to nuke my kids. Like, not _actually_ nuke them. But, yeah, blow those freeloading teenagers off  whenever I choose.

Such a beautiful, all-powerful button should only be on the app of the primary account holder – you know, the person who pays the monthly bill. In my case, moi.

A Netflix bomb would bring a glorious end to those snatched moments where my wife and I get to sit and watch an incremental bit of whatever it is we’re watching. Parents don’t binge shows. You panhandle life and the streamers for uninterrupted minutes.

There’s a cruelty to the dance. My standard Netflix subscription allows access for two screens. But no matter, Netflix opens the door and lets you in. Our show shimmers in the carousel. I click on it, and up it boots, seductively. Then, the gut punch: “Screen limit. Too many people are using your account right now.”

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One of the teens is probably in their bedroom, FaceTiming while some show plays wastefully in the background. Another offender might be in the shower, phone in a ziplock plastic bag, “watching” Gossip Girl as she shampoos her hair.

In my Oppenheimer dreams I push the button and a mushroom cloud takes over their screens and cuts to a black Sopranos-inspired nothingness.

But I don’t have the button. Instead, I change the password of my Netflix account and I log back in, smiling, as confused teenaged shouts about something going wrong with the wifi come down the hall and ricochet off a closing door.
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