Bluey!

[chemistk]

See title.

We came across this show on D+ (you aussies probably have known about it for much longer). It may be the best kids' show I've watched (and I grew up on some classics).

Just creating this post to 1) urge anyone who has Disney+ and has kids to watch it (it will make you, as a parent, laugh and cry) and 2) share you favorite episodes - my and my wife's is "Sleepytime".

[WSUCoug1994]

Agreed - just came out with a new season - we were thrilled.  Best line ever is the dad was bribing the kids with money and the mother was like "this is not good parenting" - I couldn't help but relate/laugh.

[JJ-]

I hadn't heard of this until you mention it. We turned it on and our 4 year old wanted to watch kids music videos after the first episode.  However, about a week later she asked to watch it again and it's been her go to every day.

I only catch a few of them but they are great. The episode where they're playing keep the ballon in the air and play in the house, the kids runs into the house plant and knocked out dirt but kept playing. The mom saying nothing just goes and picked up the dirt without a weird and moved on I just laughed to myself. Good stuff.

She watched the copy cat episode yesterday. At bedtime she started imitating all of us unexpectedly, a because she's never done it before and b it's kind of still unexpected from her given the age but I guess not. We were all laughing without stop for probably 30 minutes.

Thanks for the tip @chemistk

[JJ-]

This show i swear is made for the parents. We watched sticky gecko and watched the mom struggle to get the kids out the door to the park on time. There was always something that distracted the kids.

At the end, the playdate was running late. Didn't matter anyway.

[LaineyAZ]

Bluey is a new favorite of my pre-school granddaughters, too.  It's a close second with Daniel Tiger.

[midweststache]

So... I have a mixed relationship with Bluey. It's on heavy rotation with us when the kids get screen time (along with Sesame Street, Curious George, and Daniel Tiger).

1) It's great. It really is. It's sweet, it's fun, it's wholesome. (And, MMM-related, they teach kids about 'dollarbucks' to understand that things cost money - something we're working on with our 5 year old!) Some of the episodes are PHENOMENAL at teaching kids: Bob Bilby is a favorite, as is Yoga Ball (our kids are three years apart and the youngest thinks they can do everything the eldest can), Wagon Ride, Mums and Dads, etc.

2) There is very little understanding that parents cannot have the kids' full attention and play ALL of the time. For instance, in Trampoline Bandit needs to leave for work and that's simply not happening; in Featherwand, Bingo 'prevents' Bluey and Chili from leaving so Bluey can go to a birthday party. It all works out in the end, but it gives kids unrealistic expectations of obligations outside their experience. (Our eldest expects us to drop everything for Magic Xylophone, even when I'm in the middle of a work project or changing a diaper - and then flips out when we don't immediately participate like Bandit and Chili). It reminds me of the A/V Club list that talks about terrible children's TV impacting children's behavior (see: a lot of live-action Disney Channel programming from the 2000s).

So I'm, like, 96% on board the Bluey train. We watch it and love it - 'tactical wee' has been a LIFE-SAVER during the potty training years. But it does raise some issues re: behavior (at least with our kids) that we've had to reorganize around and talk about. (But you better believe I will Dance Mode anywhere, anytime!)

[JJ-]

So... I have a mixed relationship with Bluey. It's on heavy rotation with us when the kids get screen time (along with Sesame Street, Curious George, and Daniel Tiger).

1) It's great. It really is. It's sweet, it's fun, it's wholesome. (And, MMM-related, they teach kids about 'dollarbucks' to understand that things cost money - something we're working on with our 5 year old!) Some of the episodes are PHENOMENAL at teaching kids: Bob Bilby is a favorite, as is Yoga Ball (our kids are three years apart and the youngest thinks they can do everything the eldest can), Wagon Ride, Mums and Dads, etc.

2) There is very little understanding that parents cannot have the kids' full attention and play ALL of the time. For instance, in Trampoline Bandit needs to leave for work and that's simply not happening; in Featherwand, Bingo 'prevents' Bluey and Chili from leaving so Bluey can go to a birthday party. It all works out in the end, but it gives kids unrealistic expectations of obligations outside their experience. (Our eldest expects us to drop everything for Magic Xylophone, even when I'm in the middle of a work project or changing a diaper - and then flips out when we don't immediately participate like Bandit and Chili). It reminds me of the A/V Club list that talks about terrible children's TV impacting children's behavior (see: a lot of live-action Disney Channel programming from the 2000s).

So I'm, like, 96% on board the Bluey train. We watch it and love it - 'tactical wee' has been a LIFE-SAVER during the potty training years. But it does raise some issues re: behavior (at least with our kids) that we've had to reorganize around and talk about. (But you better believe I will Dance Mode anywhere, anytime!)

Good point on parental expectations. We're fortunately young enough in the house that these expectations aren't quite there yet, but they're likely being subconsciously engrained. We do have a set rotation of shows for screen time so fortunately this isn't the only exposure.

I still like to think that they are writing this to give parents something to laugh at that they can relate to while keeping kids entertained.

[StarBright]

This show i swear is made for the parents. We watched sticky gecko and watched the mom struggle to get the kids out the door to the park on time. There was always something that distracted the kids.

At the end, the playdate was running late. Didn't matter anyway.

My daughter turned this episode on yesterday to, in her words, "help get ready for school". I laughed.

[JJ-]

This show i swear is made for the parents. We watched sticky gecko and watched the mom struggle to get the kids out the door to the park on time. There was always something that distracted the kids.

At the end, the playdate was running late. Didn't matter anyway.

My daughter turned this episode on yesterday to, in her words, "help get ready for school". I laughed.

Oh God help us all

[chemistk]

So... I have a mixed relationship with Bluey. It's on heavy rotation with us when the kids get screen time (along with Sesame Street, Curious George, and Daniel Tiger).

1) It's great. It really is. It's sweet, it's fun, it's wholesome. (And, MMM-related, they teach kids about 'dollarbucks' to understand that things cost money - something we're working on with our 5 year old!) Some of the episodes are PHENOMENAL at teaching kids: Bob Bilby is a favorite, as is Yoga Ball (our kids are three years apart and the youngest thinks they can do everything the eldest can), Wagon Ride, Mums and Dads, etc.

2) There is very little understanding that parents cannot have the kids' full attention and play ALL of the time. For instance, in Trampoline Bandit needs to leave for work and that's simply not happening; in Featherwand, Bingo 'prevents' Bluey and Chili from leaving so Bluey can go to a birthday party. It all works out in the end, but it gives kids unrealistic expectations of obligations outside their experience. (Our eldest expects us to drop everything for Magic Xylophone, even when I'm in the middle of a work project or changing a diaper - and then flips out when we don't immediately participate like Bandit and Chili). It reminds me of the A/V Club list that talks about terrible children's TV impacting children's behavior (see: a lot of live-action Disney Channel programming from the 2000s).

So I'm, like, 96% on board the Bluey train. We watch it and love it - 'tactical wee' has been a LIFE-SAVER during the potty training years. But it does raise some issues re: behavior (at least with our kids) that we've had to reorganize around and talk about. (But you better believe I will Dance Mode anywhere, anytime!)

Totally agree with you - I do get the sense from my kids after they watch a couple episodes that they want me to be available a lot more than maybe I can be. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because these years are passing quickly, but the show leans very heavily on Bandit's relationship with his kids and thus Bandit is in most of the episodes.

I do love that the father figure is arguably more central in the kids' life as opposed to the mother - you get the feeling that Chili does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to finances which is pretty cool.

But given the other content that's on, I'd rather my kids expect to spend more time with me, not less. There is a ton of good independent (free from parents) depicted on the show, and when a lot of other shows (especially the less than desirable ones) don't always have the parental figures around it's preferential to have kids expect that their parents are going to be there to interact with them. I think it also gives them some sense of 'place' to watch something like "Featherwand" and to identify with Bingo - she gets to be in charge of the family for a bit which is something that kids always want, never get, and become bitter about.

[midweststache]

So... I have a mixed relationship with Bluey. It's on heavy rotation with us when the kids get screen time (along with Sesame Street, Curious George, and Daniel Tiger).

1) It's great. It really is. It's sweet, it's fun, it's wholesome. (And, MMM-related, they teach kids about 'dollarbucks' to understand that things cost money - something we're working on with our 5 year old!) Some of the episodes are PHENOMENAL at teaching kids: Bob Bilby is a favorite, as is Yoga Ball (our kids are three years apart and the youngest thinks they can do everything the eldest can), Wagon Ride, Mums and Dads, etc.

2) There is very little understanding that parents cannot have the kids' full attention and play ALL of the time. For instance, in Trampoline Bandit needs to leave for work and that's simply not happening; in Featherwand, Bingo 'prevents' Bluey and Chili from leaving so Bluey can go to a birthday party. It all works out in the end, but it gives kids unrealistic expectations of obligations outside their experience. (Our eldest expects us to drop everything for Magic Xylophone, even when I'm in the middle of a work project or changing a diaper - and then flips out when we don't immediately participate like Bandit and Chili). It reminds me of the A/V Club list that talks about terrible children's TV impacting children's behavior (see: a lot of live-action Disney Channel programming from the 2000s).

So I'm, like, 96% on board the Bluey train. We watch it and love it - 'tactical wee' has been a LIFE-SAVER during the potty training years. But it does raise some issues re: behavior (at least with our kids) that we've had to reorganize around and talk about. (But you better believe I will Dance Mode anywhere, anytime!)

Totally agree with you - I do get the sense from my kids after they watch a couple episodes that they want me to be available a lot more than maybe I can be. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because these years are passing quickly, but the show leans very heavily on Bandit's relationship with his kids and thus Bandit is in most of the episodes.

I do love that the father figure is arguably more central in the kids' life as opposed to the mother - you get the feeling that Chili does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to finances which is pretty cool.

But given the other content that's on, I'd rather my kids expect to spend more time with me, not less. There is a ton of good independent (free from parents) depicted on the show, and when a lot of other shows (especially the less than desirable ones) don't always have the parental figures around it's preferential to have kids expect that their parents are going to be there to interact with them. I think it also gives them some sense of 'place' to watch something like "Featherwand" and to identify with Bingo - she gets to be in charge of the family for a bit which is something that kids always want, never get, and become bitter about.

These are great points about kids wanting to play with "Mum & Dad" more and the positive implications therein, and I do love the focus on Bandit - my husband tends to be our kids favorite and the more physical, rough and tumble playmate, so to see this reflected is awesome. I just wanted to point out the potential impact on behavior, as I've seen with my kids. (I was REALLY impacted by this article pre-children, and find elements of these in more contemporary children's media: https://www.avclub.com/life-beyond-barney-8-kids-shows-to-avoid-at-all-costs-1798279713)

Sesame Street continues to be my gold standard for children's TV - especially the 'vintage' episodes, rather than the more recent stuff after HBO took over production.