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Comment by bombcar | Hacker News Reader

Bluey may have done more for fathers (and families) than anything in recent history. So many are dealing with fatherhood without having a role model themselves, and everything on TV being "fat dumb lovable idiot" sitcom-types.

The episode "The Sign" is an incredibly deep story from multiple angles.

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I like bandit, but for a role model he spoils his children a bit too much I think. He allmost always does what the kid wants and not what he actually wanted to do. Well, he is also good at integrating it, like when he is doing exercises with the kids instead of weights.

But sometimes he is literally fleeing the kids, to not have to play with them, instead of saying no.

(But from the avaiable alternatives, he is indeed the best role model that comes to mind)

Speaking for myself, that's exactly what makes it relatable. My kid consumes all my time if I let him. And, I often have to remind myself, this age is special and very short - my hobbies and 'rest' will be available again soon. I think the hard job of being a mom is well understood, documented, portrayed in media, etc. But, as a dad, I'm expected (by my kid) to be a tireless playmate matching his energy levels, playing his games, being imaginative and creative in my play, etc. and I don't think that type of parenting is well portrayed in media. My wife and I have spoken about it several time as we've fallen into pretty traditional gender roles and she's "cool with cooking and cleaning every evening, because [she] can't play the way [I] do" and it's equally exhausting after a long day of work/life/adulting.

I hear & see a bunch of my friends who have an only child struggling with this. My sister has four kids now (which is crazy). She says that in many ways it’s easier with more kids, because they play with each other. She barely ever plays with them at all (which is a bit sad). But because they have each other, she gets to spend all her time being the adult in the room. It seems to be working out - her kids are doing great.

She said it also really helps that they’re a bit older now. A 2 and a 4 year old have a much bigger age gap than a 6 and 8 year old.

All that said, she still doesn’t get much time pursuing her hobbies. She says it’s the after school activities that do her in now.

Her hobby is raising kids, she just might not realize it.

And yes, after a certain point more becomes easier - after all, one teacher can handle a class of 20+ students.

The hardest is when the oldest are too young to help with the youngest.

Yeah I realized that a while go that some people just like raising kids. Can't compete with those. One kid is well enough for me.

For the record of everyone, having multiple kids (3 in my case) is a thrill, and it helps much that they can play with each other instead of having the parents as a sole source of attention. Go have kids, they’re awesome :).

Watch carefully. There are many times he says no and the kids just listen - often outright. But many times he gets his way with a distraction - the “game” the episode is named after.

It’s also somewhat told from Bandit’s perspective (understandable given the author).

The episode “Burger Shop” is a good example of him not getting his way at the same time he does, even though he ends up admitting his experiment was a failure.

Oh, I didn't mean to imply he never says no and I like his elaborate educational games, they are truly inspiring. Just that quite often I get the feeling, I would just say no and that's it. I love playing with my kids, but not always. And I also don't like to fight with them sonthey accept it, but bandit often seems to avoid the fight by saying yes.

He's still more real than the parental figure puppet in Bing! (no relation to the MS product), who has no wants or needs and has infinite patience.

In any case I don't think either of those shows tries to portray the average - more of an ideal we should strive for on good days.

He also normalizes farting in your kids’ faces. More seriously, Bluey is so enjoyable because the characters have dimensions and seem way more real than just about anything else on TV.. at least that you’d watch with kids.

The dad is who you want to aspire to be when you see his relationship with his kids. Definitely sighup’d my idea of parenting after watching a few episodes

I think it sets a high bar, which is ok because they also show the parents at low points without making them look pitiful or less worthy of love.

They also show them busy cleaning a lot, which is like half of parenthood at that age.

Yup. Makes me think of that episode where they were racing and Bandit just blatantly cheated to win. A low point for him, but only makes him more relatable.

Some times you need to use your adult skills to teach your kids how to cope! Some time you let them win, some times you bring down hellfire.

Absolutely.

Bandit is a fantastic role model and I have learned a lot from this pretend dog dad lol.

My father is deceased. I feel like a lot of the advice he would have given me, I picked up from watching Bluey.

In the Flatpak episode, he rolls his eyes and states, "I'm not taking advice from a cartoon dog!" The episode is mostly about how Bluey takes after the parents in a game where she's raising Bingo through adulthood while they also go from fishes through dinosaurs to modern humans, er, dogs.

This show is so good on so many levels.

The writing in that episode is insane when you consider how much they managed to pack into such a short run time. The entire evolution of life and the building of society complete with religion, the story a parent raising Bingo before seeing her head off as an adult and then dying, and also two parents fighting over cheap furniture assembly and then making up. It all happens in just a few minutes and much of the story will certainly go over the heads of many young children watching the episode, but it ends up being perfectly enjoyable to everyone anyway.

> He also normalizes farting in your kids’ faces.

ALLEGABLY!

How on earth does this gets downvoted???? That (too) was an amazing episode!!!

It was really great… it’s so dumb that Disney waited to air it. My family still uses “On the morning of This morning”

Spent a bunch of time in a hospital looking after a relative recently. It has a big maternity ward.

The number of young men I saw come in and out of the lobby wearing Bluey t-shirts...

The kids are gonna be alright.

Took me a year or two to realize I was benchmarking Bandit as an optimal dad of two kids. It is a powerful influence.

One of the best episodes of any show I’ve ever seen.

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