Why I hate YouTube for my toddler

For the past couple of days, our home is like a war zone. I have been keeping Mateo away from the cellphone. He's been insisting to get hold of the cellphone through screaming and crying.

I have previously allowed him limited use of my phone. Then I got weak and allowed YouTube as well. Then things started to go bad.



He keeps on wanting to watch YouTube. "Baby shark." Then proceeds to watch something else. "No more monkeys jumping on the bed." Then watches "Johnny, Johnny." Oh, Johnny, Johnny. It tops my list of why I hate YouTube.

Why I abhor YouTube for my toddler:

1. It plays "Johnny, Johnny," who's mischievous about eating sugar and lying. My toddler does not yet get the implicit message it sends. Fortunately, he thinks "ha ha ha" should be "ah ah ah," which pertains to opening one's mouth. For now.
2. Those "educational" videos are mostly about colors and numbers, which Mateo already knows by now. He needs to level up his learning.
3. Those videos introduce him to unneccessary toys. I hate unneccessary toys.
4. Those videos introduce him to candies. I try to teach him healthy eating habits.
5. He now thinks it is his right to use the phone and watch YouTube. He gets cranky, grumpy, and unreasonable when he doesn't get it.

I just hate YouTube for a toddler. True, sometimes he learns from it. He learned a lot of songs from watching YouTube. He got introduced to alphabet sounds by watching YouTube (but still doesn't get that "a" is for "a-a-apple", and not "a-a-ball").

Also true that it keeps me sane sometimes. But the effects of watching YouTube is far worse than getting some little quiet time. I just don't want to go that route of using YouTube as a fallback of parenting.

I have to stop this YouTube craze right now. I'm going the hard way of hiding all the extra gadgets and refraining from using the phone when he's around. It may mean a lot of crying and screaming for now, but I will stand my ground.  I'm more stubborn than my little kid.