"I relate so hard." The many life lessons us parents can learn from Bluey.

Ask not what Bluey can teach your children, ask what Bluey can teach you.

Last week I posted a screenshot of the end of an episode of the ABC TV Kids show Bluey on Twitter.

There’s so much to love about Bluey. Post continues below.

It’s from the episode called ‘Camping’ and in it, the title character Bluey is on holiday with her family, little sister Bingo, Dad Bandit and Mum Chilli.

In the same park, across a dry riverbed, a French family is also holidaying with their son Jean Luc.

Despite not speaking the same language, the pair play together on those endless summer days, chasing a wild pig (aka Bluey’s eternally patient Dad) they plant a seed that they can’t wait to see grow into a tree and learn to figure each other out by drawing themselves on rocks and playing side by side.

On one of these mornings, Bluey wakes up and races to play with Jean Luc, only to find his family’s tent packed up and her new friend gone. Mum Chilli explains that the holiday is over and they had to go home.

Bluey mourns the loss of Jean Luc until the Heelers themselves have to pack up and return to life in their sunny Brisbane Queenslander.

But at the end of this episode, we jump forward in time to a slightly older Bluey returning to the same camping spot where she’d played with Jean Luc all those summers ago. She runs out to the tree that has now grown in the place where the friends had planted the seed and rests against its trunk.

Then, right before the credits play, an older Jean Luc steps into frame and simply says “Hello Bluey” in his gorgeous French accent.

I’m crying while writing this because that moment comes at the end of so much pureness, so much innocence and so much tolerance that you can’t help but open your heart.

The lesson in accepting people despite their differences, of learning to live and play alongside those who we may not share the same shade of fur with or speak the same language as.

In mourning the loss of friends from our lives, accepting that people will come and go and sometimes, like in Bluey and Jean Luc’s case, come back when you least expect it.

It is this sentiment that saw me post a shot of Jean Luc and Bluey reuniting with the words “ALL… THE… FEELS” and it struck a chord with my (very few) Twitter followers who felt the same.

Oh the end of the #Bluey ‘camping’ episode

ALL

THE

FEELS@ABCTV#ABCKids #cartoon #JeanLuc pic.twitter.com/RXM1H3iNqw

— Claire Murphy (@ClaireMurph) February 12, 2020

How is it that the Queensland-made cartoon can present so many life lessons from the very basic, very relatable day to day of Heeler family life?

It’s so simple, yet the lessons come at you hard and fast and sometimes with so much emotion attached you end up literally crying.

A trip to the park in the episode entitled ‘The Creek’ reminds us that taking your kid to the playground is great, but getting them in nature can be an experience that will stay with them for life.

Memories of hours spent digging in the mud, catching yabbies and tadpoles and generally just climbing on, jumping off or crawling over things came flooding back to me while watching this episode and I wondered why I hadn’t taken my daughter to do the same.

I also related so hard to Dad sitting on the end of the slide just waiting for the kids to do their thing. It’s hard to be enthralled with everything your kid does all day every day when all you want to do is go home and lie down on the couch unengaged with the whole world.

‘The Creek’ reminded me that run-ins with bugs, fish, birds and even the odd marsupial can be as enchanting as a fairytale for a tiny human.

In the episode called “Fairies” there’s a situation that made my heart hurt. Bandit Heeler is on his phone, and little Bingo is desperately trying to get his attention to show him the dominoes she’s set up in the shape of a heart for him to tip over.

But Bandit works from home and he’s on a work call so he can’t give all his attention to his daughter at that moment, a situation so many of us find ourselves in. How do you balance work life and parent life when there’s a phone with your emails and slack channels and social media constantly calling your name?

After telling Bingo he can’t talk to her, she wanders off, sad that her Dad hasn’t got time for her – OUCH, MY HEART.

My mum guilt kicked into top gear while at the same time reminding me that we’re all in the same boat. We’re all trying to get our jobs done while giving our families the time they need.

In the episode ‘Calypso’ we learn how important your child’s daycare worker is and how much they teach them and shape how they interact with the world around them.

This one is helped along by the amazingly soothing humming of singer Megan Washington as Calypso the daycare teacher.

There’s not just Aha moments for parents in Bluey, there’s plenty for the kids too. In the episode called ‘Fruit Bat’, Bluey wants to turn into one so she can go out at night. When she comes downstairs to talk about it, she finds Dad asleep on the floor, rugby ball in hand, dream twitching.

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She asks Mum Chilli about it and she explains that Dad is dreaming about playing touch football with his mates. He doesn’t get to play much anymore so he keeps having dreams about it. When Bluey asks why he doesn’t get to play it in real life, Chilli says,“Well he’s busy sweetheart, busy working and looking after you two.”

Ain’t that the truth parents. How many of your activities have been replaced with those of your kids? Watching this could be the moment your kid realises that you are more than their parent, that you also have aspirations and dreams that may be on hold.

By far my favourite episode is the one called ‘Grannies’, where Bluey and Bingo dress up as Janet and Rita, two cheeky elderly ladies who like to be a little bit cranky, a little bit hard of hearing but also, according to Bingo, they like to floss (the dance, not the tooth cleaning activity).

This leads to a fight between the two after they facetime Nanna, and after a hilarious and very relatable two minutes of trying to explain to her how to hold the camera, Bingo realises she was wrong and old people can’t floss.

When Chilli says to her daughter Bluey, who’s upset that Bingo doesn’t want to play anymore, “Do you want to be right or do you want Bingo to keep playing?” she realises that she has to come up with a solution because she can’t have both.

This teaches kids to think outside the box, how to be kind and how to think of others.

The creator of the Logie award winning show, which is racking up tens of millions of views each season on ABC iView, says he wanted to make an Australian version of Peppa Pig.

Director and creator Joe Brumm, who has also worked as an animator on other iconic kids shows like Charlie and Lola, admitted he wanted it to be as real to family life as possible while giving kids in the emotional social/learning phase of their life something to relate to, and so Bluey was born.

The carefully detailed, often funny storylines laid out in the simple, lazy days of life in Brisbane with a vision to cater to the perfect psychology of kids Bingo and Bluey’s ages, four and six, creates this perfect little world for Aussie kids to inhabit. And the parents of those kids are loving it too.

Thanks for the life lessons, Bluey!

Are you having the same feels about Bluey? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Feature Image: Instagram/@abctv/@claireski78