📱 My 7 year old niece only watches kids on YouTube now

My niece is 7 and I can't remember the last time I saw her watch a real cartoon. She's on YouTube all evening, watching other kids open toys, play games and talk to the camera. I asked her once why she likes it. She shrugged and said, they're just like me. I didn't have an answer for that. I stood in the doorway with my chai getting cold. I mentioned it to my sister last weekend. She said it just happened slowly. There was no day when she decided to allow it. The cartoons got boring and the channels took over. My sister has 2 other kids and is too tired to argue about it every evening. I understood that completely. I also felt a bit sad, which I can't explain properly. When I was 7 we had a fixed cartoon slot after school, and that was it. If I missed it, I missed it. I'd sit on the floor 10 minutes early with my plate. My niece never waits for anything. She taps and the next video starts before the last one ends. I don't think I'm better for having waited, though, so I'm trying not to preach. I don't have kids so I know I'm not the one who has to deal with it. My parents probably worried about me and my TV in the same way. They just didn't say it out loud. Still, it feels strange to watch it happen. For parents, how do you handle this? Do you let it go, set a time, or sit and watch together with them?

It still feels strange to me that this is a thing. Watching someone else's kid do ordinary stuff on camera. But I suppose every generation has something the last one couldn't understand.

I've read a few articles about this and, from what I remember, some of it sounded calmer than the panic online. Others said the opposite, so I wouldn't take any single one as the final word. What helped in my family was watching a few of those channels ourselves, so we knew what the kids were seeing. Might be worth sitting with your niece for a bit, rather than judging from the doorway.

My own daughter went through this exact same phase at around that age. She cycled back to regular cartoons on her own after a few months, once the novelty wore off. I never forced the switch. It just happened quietly when something else caught her attention. So I'd try not to worry too much yet, and maybe just keep sitting nearby while she watches.