The week my dad's 28.8k modem finally got me online and my mom wanted it gone by Friday
In 1996 I begged for a second phone line for a month so I could dial into a local BBS in Akron without my mom picking up the phone and killing my connection. She finally gave in, and that first week I spent almost every night reading posts and trading WAV files, but by Friday she was mad about the $22 charge on the phone bill and said it had to go. Was the net back then worth the fight with your parents over the phone line, or did you just wait until you moved out?
I hate to be that person but the 28.8k speed thing is a bit off for 1996. Most people I knew were still on 14.4k that year and 28.8 was like the fancy upgrade you saved up for. The real killer back then was that per minute charge for dialing long distance, which sounds like what happened with your mom's $22 phone bill. My parents hit the roof over the same thing and made me keep a log of every minute I was online so I could pay them back from my paper route money. To answer your question, yeah the net was worth the fight but you had to pick your battles, and stuff like getting a second line was a huge deal because it meant nobody could pick up and boot you off.