[chainwax]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but what you're describing is client-hosted Bedrock servers, not a persistent, always available, self-hosted server. AFAIK connecting to a friend's world in Bedrock is free, but they must also be online. Hosting a persistent Bedrock server is a paid feature (Realms).

Additionally, highlighting that Bedrock Minecraft is not supported on Mac.

There are surely other ways of enabling multiplayer Minecraft for a family than what I've described, but this is the way I'd recommend.

[mghackerlady]

Correct. There are ways to host bedrock servers, it just isn't as easy and most people are better served by realms.

Also, I thought you could play the iOS version on Mac. Doesn't apple let you run iPad apps on macOS?

[avarun]

Unfortunately, Apple made the decision to have that be an opt-in flag for developers, and so the vast, vast majority of iPad apps don't allow themselves to be used on macOS.

[mghackerlady]

That's absolutely idiotic