🖐️ Here’s Five Bluey Episodes That Made Me a Better Parent

This newsletter stans Bluey

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If you hadn’t realised by now, Bluey is not a kids show. It’s a show for parents that kids also happen to enjoy.

Ok, well maybe not—but there’s no doubt that it’s a lot of parents’ number one choice if there’s going to be screen time.

There’s some great parenting tips and tricks that I’ve picked up watching the show—the writers always seem to draw upon the latest schools of thought in childhood development, as well as fabled as old as time, to teach both kids and adults valuable life lessons in such a delightful, joyous way.

So to stop me going on and on about just how great Bluey is, let’s actually look at five episodes that taught me lessons that helped me in my own parenting—and might help you too.

Dance Mode

The core concept behind this episode is a great lesson for kids to learn, but it was also a really important reminder for me personally, as my natural tendency is to jump right to the next thing and hurry things along, meaning sometimes I’ve made decisions for my daughter without giving her time to give her input.

Essentially, Bandit eats Bingo’s last chip in a cafe, and as a way of making it up to her, she gets to use “Dance Mode” three times, meaning one of the others in her family has to dance to whatever music’s playing—but the first two get used by Bluey and Chilli, whilst Bandit buys the last one off her (which Bluey convinces her to). Bingo is sad because, even though she said yes to all of those people asking, she didn’t actually want to. Her outside voice said yes, but her inside voice said no.

Hidden behind what’s a really fun episode was a great lesson for me in looking out for when they want or don’t want something, but outside pressures are forcing their decision another way.

Pirates

This is a rare episode that Bandit actually appears to be embarrassed or self-conscious about the way he plays with Bluey and Bingo, which is very much an “all-in” approach.

Bandit’s playing pirates with the girls and their friend in the park, putting on silly voices and being loud, when another dad walks into the park with his kid. Bandit clocks him, and suddenly gets all shy and tones himself way down, much to the confusion of the kids. Eventually though, he’s brave enough to ignore the other dad there and go back to being completely enveloped in their game.

It spoke to me personally because I’m not a person who likes to be the centre of attention or put myself out there for the judgment of others. I knew though that as a dad, sometimes you’re going to end up dragged up on stage at the kid’s club on holiday or some other awkward situation.

It also reminded me that even though I might think I’m on show or exposed in a situation, most people probably aren’t thinking about me or even noticing me. Case in point; when the other dad sees Bandit launch back into his stride, he smiles.

Baby Race

Ah, Baby Race. If I could show one episode of Bluey to any parent having a tough time, this would be it.

I’ve written a lot—and will probably write a lot more in the future—about the pitfalls of comparisons when parenting, and this episode encapsulates it in such a meaningful, emotional way.

Chilli is desperately trying to get a baby Bluey to crawl, but she just isn’t getting it. Meanwhile, her friends’ babies are all pulling to stand and walking. One day, another mum at the group they go to notices Chilli isn’t there, so she goes over to her house. She tells Chilli that she has eight kids (no wait, nine!), and tells Chilli there’s something she needs to know.

“You’re doing great.”

I defy any parent not to shed a tear at that part.

The lesson of the episode is such a vital one for our mental wellbeing as parents, particularly in the age of social media and “competitive parenting”. Kids reach their developmental milestones at different ages all the time—but they all get there eventually.

Until then, run your own race.

Bike

You might know that I’m a bit of an obsessive parent—and part of that has been to interfere and intervene in situations with my kids that I really don’t need to get involved in. In the past, I’d see my daughter struggling to climb the slide’s ladder at the park and instead of coaching her through it, I’d just lift her up to the top.

Bandit could have gone over to Bingo as she tried to scale the water fountain and pressed the button down for her, or he could have helped Muffin get her backpack on. But he didn’t—he recognised that they were all going through a learning process, and that their frustration and tears were part and parcel of that. Eventually, they all got there on their own through the innate determination that toddlers and pre-schoolers have hard-wired into them.

Now, I try to take a similar approach. I’ll be nearby to offer the tiniest hints of advice, but I’ll let my daughter figure things out for herself. That way, it’s so much more satisfying for them—and they actually learn how to do the thing again and again.

Unicorse

On the face of it, Unicorse looks like one of those episodes where it’s just mad shit happening. A puppet called Unicorse is deployed and causes havoc at story time. What’s not to love?

I actually stumbled over the deeper meaning of this, and it blew my mind.

The story that Chilli (eventually) reads to Bluey is one about a queen who tries to cover the surface of her lands in leather, so no one ever steps on a prickle ever again. But when that proves to be too difficult, someone suggests that she makes leather shoes instead.

I didn’t really get it at first viewing (mainly because my daughter would laugh manically through the episode)—but then the very same night I’d watched Unicorse for the first time, my wife shared with me a reel on Instagram featuring Gabor Maté, in which he uses the story of a monk trying to cover the desert with burlap instead of just making burlap shoes as a metaphor: when your circumstances appear to be beyond your control or ability, focus on what you yourself can change.

I immediately understood what Unicorse was about, switched it on to show my wife, and it clicked into place. Bluey tries to correct Unicorse’s behaviour throughout the episode, but she can’t because he’s such a pain in the arse. Chilli can’t stop Unicorse from interrupting the story, because he’s such a pain in the arse. So instead, they both resolve to change how they react to him by ignoring him, and they finish the story.

I actually briefing mentioned that this was something I’d picked up from therapy in my Monday essay—which is true. What I didn’t mention was that Bluey taught it to me first!

Life as a parent is chaotic, and it can often seem like so many different factors are working against us, all at once. In those situations, remember how Bluey deals with Unicorse. Remember the leather shoes. Focus only on what you can change.

I could probably do this about every single episode of Bluey (yes, that is threat)! Let me know in the comments which episodes you learned something from—or if any other kids’ shows opened your eyes to a valuable parenting tip or trick!