You can self-host their code. I don't think there is any official definition of "self hosted" that this violates.
For example - if a "self hosted" service supports off-site backups is it self hosted or just well designed?
For example - if a "self hosted" service supports off-site backups is it self hosted or just well designed?
There is a big difference between communicating with external services (your example) vs REQUIRING external services (what parent is complaining about).
If in your example the system can run correctly with just local backups I would consider it self-hosted.