Bluey is a Parent-Centric Show

From the viewpoint of the children

Many Bluey fans have pointed out over the years that Bluey is a great kids show for parents too, but I disagree. While it is on Disney and Disney Junior, I don’t think it is a kids show. I think it is a show that is kids friendly but ultimately for parents. No other episode spoke to this idea as much as Season 3’s The Sign.

The Sign starts over with Bandit and Chilli (the parents) selling the house because Bandit found a higher paying job in a different city. They want to move to give the kids an even better life, which is wild considering we know how good their life is in their current city.

Chilli encourages Bluey that they will have new adventures, and this will be good. Bluey doesn’t want to move, but her sister Bingo is seemingly fine with selling the house.

In a parallel storyline, Bandit’s brother Rad is getting married to Frisky, and he has told people they will move to the city he is living in. Frisky doesn’t want to move and calls off the wedding.

The whole story follows the framework set out at the beginning by Bluey’s teacher about a horse and how we often don’t know if something is good or bad because time passes. As time passes, some times a good event will lead to a bad one or a bad one will lead to a good one. The short term assessment of an event ignores the effects down the stream in life. The entire episode bounces between seemingly small things that have big impacts positive and negative.

I’m going to spoil the episode, so if you haven’t seen it, you have been made away.

I first watched the last scene of the episode on Twitter before I got on the plane where I watched the full episode. I cried, I cried on the plane, and I broke down crying the next morning while making breakfast when my kids were watching that episode, and I could hear only the music. The scene and the episode struck a strong chord in me.

The last scene is an empty house, and the characters are leaving for the last time with only a song playing over the scene. The wedding ended up happening, but Rad moves to that city instead of Frisky leaving. As they get in the car to say goodbye to the house, Bandit gets a call from the realtor.

The realtor tells him that the buyers backed out of the deal. There was some foreshadowing to this, particularly that the buyers wanted a pool. In the sequence of events, they see a similar house for sale with a pool. So they change their minds.

Bandit walks to the sign, pulls off the sold sign, pulls the sign up with some struggle, and throws it into the street as his family watches. They all jump on him and hug him, and they move back into the house.

Even writing this summary makes me cry. I moved multiple times growing up, went to 5 different elementary schools, 2 different middle schools, and 2 different high schools. This continued even in my 20’s, but the past few years, I have had relative stability.

Each time we moved, it was because of my dad’s work. I’m not mad at him; the economic situation dictates that people move for jobs, and it is difficult to push against it. Even in high school, I was so sure I wouldn’t have to move again, and before I knew it, we moved to Paris, France.

I fell in love with Paris, and living there is so much a part of who I am now. I wished I had moved there sooner, but it was very emotional to move. Change is hard, and accepting not only death but the limited time we have with anyone is depressing at times. Plus, it isn’t easy to accept the death of most of your friendships and the ultimate idea that 99.9% of all time you ever will spend with those friends is now in the past.

So when I watch Bluey, I see versions of myself in the parents and the kids. I see a glimpse into understanding how I grew up as well as how I’d like to raise my children. I am proud that as of now, my kids have stayed in the same school. We have moved houses but just down the street. I feel like myself as a child would be happy for me as an adult.

That’s why Bluey is about the parents. The major plot lines are driven by choices the parents make, not the children. The kids then adapt to the situation presented to them, but they’re not driving the car.

Bandit and Chilli aren’t perfect, but they are a shining example of what might be possible. If we can’t have an example of what we would have liked as parents when we were kids, we can’t possibly move in that direction as parents ourselves.