Screen Time | Parents discuss the positive influence of Bluey

Our big Bluey episode! A one-sided rebuttal to the common criticism of screens with under 5s... This is the one where Emma and Elliot chat about their favourite Australian TV show with their toddler, top Bluey characters & episodes, and stories of how Bluey has had a positive impact on parenting with a 3  year old. Bandit being a great dad role model. Tangents. Plus TV shows Emma hates... And our approach to screen time! Do you agree with us?

Listen to our previous conversation on a similar theme:
The Streaming Generation | Parents discuss children's TV and films

As mentioned in the episode, a few related resources on this topic:
www.deanburnett.com
Phones and social media aren't necessarily bad for children

If you prefer to watch along on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/@dontwakethebaby_podcast

Engage with us on Instagram
Facebook Group Chat Community

Find resources, Elliot's faith & spirituality projects and more on our website:
www.kairosmovement.org.uk/dontwakethebaby/

Unwind on sleepless nights to a wholesome mix of parenting stories, quirky humour, and cosy crafting. We’re not here to provide answers but to share our experiences, explore how parenting has changed, and build an online community of parents for mutual support.

A fun, honest and unscripted conversation between Emma and Elliot on non-judgemental parenting and millennial-based topics, as we relax on an evening attempting an artistic or creative activity. 

We are a project in partnership with The Kairos Movement and supported by The Methodist Church, of which The Kairos Movement is a part

Transcript

So, Snuffly Emma, what are we talking about today?  Bluey, and how it's had quite a positive impact. Just a bit of an appreciation episode for Bluey. 

This episode is called Screen Time. 

Welcome back to Don't Wake the Baby. We are the titular parents who are trying not to wake up the sleeping baby while she has a nap. So, don't wake Join us in the imaginary home cinema to chat all about parenting, have a cosy time, just you know, uh, hear how life is going in the Crippin household. We have a four month year old and an almost four year old at the time of recording.

We're here in North Yorkshire in Harrogate. And if you're new here, I'm Elliot, the one who's still in his pyjamas because I work from home and haven't got any meetings today. And I'm Emma, and I'm actually dressed because I walked, uh, Lily to Nutter Street this morning, so one of us is looking respectable today. 

Emma, what's your favourite Pokemon? Ooh, didn't expect that question. You know you should know this. Should I? Oh dear, oh dear. It's always been the same.  Gonna lose husband points here. We, we discussed it early on in our relationship. And every time we talk about Pokemon, Lilino is my favourite. If she was here, she'd tell you.

It's Squirtle. Squirtle. Squirtle, Squirtle, Squirtle. Who's your favourite Pokemon? Um, as we're most He's gonna say he doesn't know now, isn't he? As we're most popular culture, I, like, a lot of it skirted me past when I was a kid. I actually preferred, like, Digimon. Digimon was big as well. I watched both and I didn't really I think I would say now at the moment Uh, probably Psyduck.

Because that's Lily's favourite. Because Lily's really into it. We watch, uh, Pokemon Concierge. Yeah. A lot on Netflix. That Pokemon was huge. 

Parenting achievement time.  Parenting achievement time. Do you like my song I made about it? Very, very nice. It's what I do with my head  when we talk about it. I just don't know how to sing it. Is it? Is that the song you always imagine? Yeah. Parenting achievement time. 

Well, um, as always with a baby and a toddler, we have lots of fail stories and hopefully relatable moments that we can share with you in this little segment at the beginning where we share how things are falling apart. Um, last week you teased last week. Well, whenever I know last episode, if you tuned in, um, you teased about having a story about a witch.

I don't know what you're talking about. I think you will once I start. Okay. Okay. Um, so  this was an achievement slash an insult I feel to me. Me and Lily, one of her favorite books is a book we got from the charity shop about Rapunzel. She always gets very like,  the witch steals baby Rapunzel.  Yeah, yeah. So afterwards we were sat there, and Lily was going, Now what would we do if the witch tried to come and steal baby Lola?

Oh! And I said, Oh no, they wouldn't steal baby Lola as she's in our house. And she got, No, no, the witch might come, but Baba would get the witch.  And then he was going, she was going, He'd kill it with my sword. So, you know, she's got a plastic sword we got when we're in Wales and go round a castle. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I thought you could borrow that sword and kill the witch. Oh, okay. That's very nice to know. I was, I had a thing, I was going, well, you know, women could kill witches. Yeah, yeah. I want it to be like, don't be sexist. Doesn't have to be the dad. Just because Baba's a man. And she said, oh no, a woman could kill a witch.

Just not you, mummy, because you're too short. Ha ha ha ha ha. Oh, poor mummy. Poor mummy, so mummy's too short to kill a witch. But she's told me, don't worry, I'll grow up into a big girl one day. Oh, well that's nice. At least you're gonna grow up. Yeah, I didn't know how to break it to her. I'm like, mommy's not gonna grow. 

Do we have any baby fail stories this week? Do you want to talk about her jabs? Oh, yeah.  Our baby's been given the wrong jabs. Um, for Americans, their vaccinations, they might not know what a jab is. Oh yeah, that's true.  So she's been given the same ones twice. So this was last week, I think. Yeah. And she was going, I took her in for her, is it like 16 weeks?

16 week jabs. Because they get them at, what is it, two weeks, eight weeks and 16 weeks or something? Yeah, something like that, yeah. Something like that. And then the next ones are at like a year. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right. And I thought when Elliot came home something wasn't right because he was like, oh the gate, he was talking about the one she has to have in her mouth.

And I was like, well she said that twice before, I didn't think she had it again. So the fail here was sending the man in to do this task. You were trying to delegate because you were like, it's a terrible job when they're screaming, when they get jabs. I don't like going. You did this first time around with Lily as well.

You're like, this time you're taking her. I can't deal with it. I was like, fine, I'll take her. Maybe though, the nurse just should have looked at her computer. Yeah, it was entirely her fault. Which, it was annoying because she was absolutely lovely. Yeah. But did a terrible job. But the point is, you're also meant to triple check any vaccination you get.

So clearly she didn't do that. Yeah, well something went wrong where she was given. Fortunately, the one she was given, there's no harm. No.  Just was very annoying to me. Because when she called me up, I wanted to be like, I knew something was wrong. Because she'd also booked you in to have some more jabs.

Yeah. And I was like, Of course, typical man, I had no idea what  the process was. So I didn't think. Oh that's odd that they're booking me in for more jabs. So literally as soon as the doctors rang and I saw it was the doctors, in my head I went they've given her the wrong jabs. The worst of it is of course we had the typical like two to three days afterwards where Lola was in a terrible mood.

Yeah, and that feels like she's been in a terrible mood for no reason. Yeah, she was kind of Not ill, but just really fussy and struggling and just a bit grouchy and it means now in a month We're gonna have to go through that and we have to go through again. Yeah, so it was all for nothing And we have to do it again.

Anyway, that was very very irritating. Can't express how irritated I was afterwards. Yeah Yeah, let us know what parenting fails, parenting achievements. What level of parenting have you unlocked? This week, share it with us. Um, and tune into the next episode where we'll share loads more things that are going on, um, different stories, little tidbits of moments.

Um, I've got a long list on my phone and stuff. So, uh, yeah, come back and we'll share some more funny things. I've got a good parenting fail. I want to tease again. Okay, okay. Library book. Library book. 

Right, don't think about how tired you are and let's uh dive into some conversation today all about everyone's favourite show, Bluey! Bluey! We have done some episodes in the past on TV shows and stuff like that. Um, film and TV. Uh, this stuff evolves so quickly. Oh it does. We could talk about it every week and it would be different.

Um, our almost four year old Lily, uh, her preferences change all the time. We're introducing her to new shows. But we always said we'd come back and do like a more of a deep dive on Bluey at some point. Yeah. This is Editing Elliot, just jumping in to say that episode we did was called The Streaming Generation.

I think it was like the third episode we ever recorded, almost two years ago now. Um, if you want to check that out, you might have to scroll back a bit, or I'll leave a link to the episode down in the show notes and description. That was it. We could talk about Bluey every week because it threads into like nearly all the topics we talk about.

There's some link and connection somewhere. So it's nice just to bring a lot of those conversations together in this episode and talk about some of the influence it has had on how we live our daily life. and how we navigate parenting, which is what our podcast is all about. True. How useful it is. Um, and you know, just like with screen time in general, at the moment, we're relying on it an awful lot.

Yeah. We're having a difficult time. I'd say leaning on it heavily. Yeah, yeah. Which we know isn't always great. But I think this episode, I want to be a bit of a rebuttal to that common  conception that  All TV and all screen time is bad. And we've talked about on the podcast before.  Some parents are quite strict with TV.

We started out being pretty strict. We started out quite strict. I mean, I know there's a lot of, uh, research that a lot of screen time isn't great for kids, but you know, as parents, you sometimes have to compromise and sometimes you can't do without it. Sometimes you just need downtime as well. Yeah. Um, but we always have this theory that a lot of these studies and things they don't really take into account what you watch.

Yeah. So our thing is we're Also the studies are very Sorry, this is a critical thing. I think a lot of the studies are very short sighted and they're not doing long term effects. We haven't had long enough studies to establish what the good or bad links are to a lot of these things. I think most of the studies are also pitting it against, like, engaging or outdoor activities.

Like, they're saying, like, screen time alone is not as stimulating. Oh, and that's fair. That's 100 percent true. But they're not taking into account children that are doing both. Yeah, so, like, with Lily, she would not sit and watch TV all morning. Or as much as sometimes I would like her to when we're trying to complete a task and I'm like, can you sit there and watch this for a bit?

She'll watch for 10 15 minutes and then she's kind of over it. Yeah, and because we do quite a lot with her, we're a bit more lax about how much screen time we have.  It really matters what you're engaging with? Yeah, and I think a lot of it's that you're engaging in it with a parent,  like that you're not sat just watching it alone.

Not mindlessly. Yeah. Why don't we kick off? I'm going to spring this on you out of the blue again, uh, what's your favourite episode of Bluey? I know this. Do you know? Yeah. Have a go too? It's a sleepy time. Ah, yes. Because I like that the, the mums like the sun. Yeah. And it gives you comfort. And it's a really nice little meaning.

So yes, I always like that one.  I feel like it's a favourite go to of a lot of mums.  Yes, um, if you're not, uh, familiar with a lot of bluey stuff If you're not familiar with bluey, just don't listen to this episode, I'm gonna be honest. Well, I was gonna say we could try and keep it vaguely Accessible. But, we will be glowy references.

They'll already be lost. Maybe, maybe. Because they won't know what the Sleepy Time episode is. They won't understand what I mean by the sun. Like, the whole thing is like the dream about being in space. Yeah. And there's a bunny and an egg. Okay, why, why, why is it that you like, do you like the episode because of its, artistic kind of, the metaphorical way it talks about the night time routine with children, or is it something about the relationships that you love?

I like that it means the relationship. Yeah. So like, in like, the universe of the child. Yeah. The son is the mum. Like and that's the thing that brings them light and comfort and kind of when they feel alone and dark and cold that's the person who helps them. So I do like the visuals but I like the overall meaning.

It makes you feel quite important as a mum that you're that figure in their life. I mean Bluey is a show for parents really. It is, yeah. You know, um, it's a show that knows, it's putting a lot of references and a lot of parenting help into it for parents. And I met some uh teenagers in the park once when I was Playing with Lilly, and they all knew what Bluey was, and they all said they watched tiktoks of it.

Mm. It's a big phenomenon. It's, yeah, isn't it? I'm pretty sure the, the statistic, it's the most watched show on Disney Plus, isn't it? Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. Is that right? Something like that. It's the most, it's the most watched. So I'm going to google it. I'm sure it's like the most bluey So not just disney plus actually so it's the most streamed tv show in uh, you the u.

s Because that's where they've got their statistics from stats from so it's not just disney but across all streaming platforms most watched show pretty impressive Yeah, also, this is a side note, but um It means Lily thinks Australia's a very important country. Yeah. Um, so yesterday she was telling me that Spider Man lives there. 

Yeah, I mean a lot of the things we watch do come from Australia. They do. Like the Wiggles. Yeah. Australian. It really made me laugh because she was going, You know Spider Man lives, and she calls it Australia. She was going, You know Spider Man lives in Australia. And I was going Spiderman lives in Australia.

Oh, yeah, friend of Bluey. I was like, oh. And I didn't have the heart to go, no, sweetie's American. So I went, sure, sure he does. Oh, uh, what's my favourite episode? Um, oh, it's a hard pick, isn't it? I have a few favourites. Yeah, like I didn't even ask you. I just talked about myself and how important mums are.

Yeah, yeah, that's it, yeah.  That's why I'm here to guide the conversation. Self centered.  I'm gonna be a co host in this conversation.  But you got distracted googling how important Blue is. Yeah, yeah. For a long time my favourite was Flat Pack episode. Oh yeah, it's a good one. Good one. I love the many layers to the story.

That talk about evolution, and the whole of life, and like, touching on like faith and stuff, you've got like references to heaven, and like just, oh, I love the way there's like two different storylines going on that you can read into. I mean they do that in a lot of episodes, but I particularly love And it's very clear in that one that two things are going on separately, that kind of join up.

He got the great, uh, great quote in that episode. It says, uh, about, I'm gonna butcher it now. Oh yeah. Something like, um, I'm not taking, uh, Advice from a cartoon dog. Yeah, that's it.  What was your new favourite then? New, oh, other favourites. Um, I'm a big, I don't know why, but I'm a big fan of Curry Quest. That is quite a fun one.

I don't, I, I really loved the music in that episode. Oh, you know the other one I really like? Yeah. Oh, I can't remember what it's called. It's the one about cricket. Oh yeah, I think it's Is it just called Cricket? I think it's called Cricket. That's a lovely one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Most recently I would say the, the long, uh, the long episode is my, probably one of my all time favourites.

So The long episode? Yeah, the, the big, the filmy one. What's it called? I can't The sign? The sign, there we go. There we go. My mind's really gone blank today. It's because it's, it's got a newborn still, everything's up in the air. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, it's also one of Lily's favourites actually, the sign. 

Because there's a wedding in it. Yeah, yeah,  yeah. I love that there's just like references galore to everything that's in there. They know what the fan favourite moments are, they've put references to all of it in it. It's great. I mean, if Disney needs an example of how to do Easter eggs properly, and like how to Like, release a film that's like an homage to, like, their past.

That is the way to do it. It's just excellence. Yeah, that's really good. Lily's favourite episode other than that one though is Holiday. Oh, he's gonna disagree with me. No, I agree with you. Uh, I just, I don't think it's called holiday. Is it not called holiday? I don't think it's called holiday. Is it? I'm gonna get my little friend Google up again. 

I think it might be called relax. No, it is called relax. Um, so this steers us into the conversation about how Bluey has such an impact on Lily, that this now is the definitive thing of how Lily views what holidays look like. Yeah.  Um, we have been on many holidays. Yeah. But because she's young,  like, I don't know if she can remember all of them.

Uh huh. Um, but this is what she thinks holiday is. Yep. If you've not been to the seaside, not a holiday. And there's a lot of stuff like this where Lily just picks up on so many things that happen in the show and it gives her a reference point  in life. We don't always notice that she's That's true. Aware of what's going on, but, um, will often then refer back to it.

And we find it very useful actually, because it's a means of her understanding the world. Yeah. And she just picks up great habits from it and things. And it's like a good way of explaining things. So at the minute with Lola, um,  She's got into a hair pulling phase. So like, she'll grab anything near you. So if Lily's hair's near her or her clothes, she'll just grab it and Lily'll go She's pulling my hair again.

And then we always go. Oh, well, you know, like Socks bites Bluey and Socks can't say sorry She doesn't really understand because she's a baby. Yeah, it's really handy for Lily to kind of understand Oh, yes, Socks gets upset when Bluey's mean because Socks can't understand. It's like a good point of reference to go Oh, do you remember in this episode this happens? 

And that's the same situation here, and like, we can't get upset, because she can't talk.  I think it's really helpful that obviously, Bluey, there's two sisters. Yeah. And in our family dynamic, we have two daughters. And so yeah, the adapting to the arrival of her little sister, I think, Lily was very excited about that and, you know, the whole time she was, like, referring back to, like, I'm Bluey and I'm gonna get a bingo.

And that was really helpful in her mind to be able to visualize what it meant. And it was interesting because her favorite used to be bingo. Yeah, yeah. But as soon as she found out she was gonna be a big sister, she was like, Oh, I'm, like, Bluey now. I'm the big sister. Yeah, yeah. So she, like, Diverted her kind of love to bluey to be like, oh no, i'm like bluey.

Yeah, and so we utilize this an awful lot Actually, we often try to Find things in bluey that help us with parenting true So if you don't know for a while, we thought we were going to be moving we had an offering on a house Um, we're still trying to move but things have ground to a standstill at the moment.

Things have got along pretty far and we were at the point of beginning to need to help Lily understand that we might be moving house. Yes, yeah. It was actually quite helpful that around that time the sign episode came out in which the whole plot revolves around the moving house. They don't end up moving in the end but It was still helpful for Lily to understand the concept.

Yes, yeah. And so we would sit and talk through what's happening in the episode with her. Yeah. And so, yeah, she got really excited, actually. She did, yeah. Which kind of then backfired. Yeah.  Because, of course Well, it's a bit like Bluey. Yeah. We then didn't move. It all fell through and we didn't move. Yeah.

Yeah, tricky, tricky, tricky. And it does make me worry, as good as Bluey is, that Lily might think that We'll just always get to live here because that's what happens in Blooey. Yeah, that is, uh, yeah, a worry if she takes everything too. Literally. But it was still useful as a concept. I think it's good for her to see, like, nice dad role models.

Yeah, definitely. Because most of them in a lot of films are quite, like Especially in Disney,  they're either dead or really bad parents.  We're a big Disney fan household. We watch a lot of Disney. Worse, often, like, the dad figures are presented as more of the, like, villains, or at least, you know, in opposition to the princess's goals.

Yeah. Um, so it's, yeah, it's lovely to have a show that, you know, really presents Bandit in a lovely way of life. Now, I know some people complain that Bandit's just an unattainable example, that he sets the bar too high. Mm. But as an involved dad myself, I want to defend Bandit and say Also, Bandit doesn't get everything right.

No, definitely not. I think it's quite realistic, I can't remember what episode it is, but you know, he's like, oh I'm the best driver, and he's kind of just like, teasing them and teasing them, and it goes too far. I think he's quite realistic in a lot of ways.  Also, one of the mini episodes that came out more recently, um, has Bingo cleaning her teeth.

Yes! Which is very useful  for us. And it means we can play along the fun game where she pretends to be Bingo the robot and not know how to do her teeth. Um, and it means it makes toothbrushing quite fun. I think this is all part of a, like, a bigger conversation about how the impact of screen time on children I mean, I would say this as someone who works in technology and is pro technology. 

It's not all bad, like, just because kids are watching screens. It's like saying all books are bad. Like, just because kids are reading books. Well, it depends on the content of how they're engaging with it. Yeah. As to what they get out of it, you know. And,  you know, we utilize You know, Lily has a tablet now.

She does. We got her when her sister was born. Oh, you mean Lola got her when she was born. Oh, that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A gift from her sister. Um, and so like, actually, that's been super helpful. Lily's been learning to write letters. She has, yeah. She's done really well with her letters on there. And she loves that game on the tablet.

Learning to write letters. And like, she's come on so well with that. She has, yeah. There's so many ways you can use technology in a positive way and screen time in a positive way. There is, yeah. Um, and it's nice because Lily likes kind of, she's like me, she likes chatting along with you as you watch the show.

Yeah. So she likes to go, oh, like look what happened now, and it's very good for her almost. Vocabulary and talking that she experiences all these different words. Yeah, and kind of learns what things are I mean, the only problem is a lot of it's Australian.  So for ages, I didn't know what a bubbler  was Yeah, which apparently is like a water fountain  like a drinking water.

Yeah drinking fountain I had no idea what that was. So when they were saying they threw something in the bubbler like no idea where that is It's like a lot of the shows are American, isn't it? Yeah. You've got the same problem. Like we, we do watch quite a bit of Miss Rachel do, um, which again, super great for a lot of learning, um, but equally does have American words in it.

Yeah. Often and American pronunciations often they say like a letter and then they say what the word is last, not how we say any of those  . Yeah. Yeah.  So then mommy has to loudly correct Ms. Rachel . Yes. Yeah. It's a crocodile. Which doesn't begin with A, like alligator.  Like,  I know this is now very confusing. 

Yeah. But on the whole, like, yeah. And like maybe, I don't know whether it's controversial or not, but like, we, we don't watch. Not that we don't watch, we don't allow Lily to watch Peppa Pig. We don't. Even though there's the big news that people think is a thing to try and get it more popular than Bluey. Oh really?

You think anything else is? They think that's a thing. Right. That Peppa's  mum, is she called Mummy Pig? Yeah. That she's pregnant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw this big news going around on social media.  Just, again, for us, it's like the really poor representation of the dad's character. I just think Pepper's a spoil brat.

I'm gonna be honest. I've had to watch it before with my other siblings, I was gonna say siblings, children's, nephews and nieces. Yep, that's the word for those things. I was like, what are they called? Um, and I hated it. Like, it had, honestly, it had some nice songs. There's a lovely song about bing bong something, but it's  just She's so spoiled.

And I think it just, if Lily was to watch that, I feel like she'd pick up the worst habits about being spoiled. Yeah, possibly. I mean, I suppose you could make the same argument that sometimes Bluey, in the episodes, she doesn't behave badly, but she, you know, she doesn't learn the lesson until maybe the end of the episode.

True. And so it depends what they mimic. I'm not being mean. I don't think Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig ever make  Pepper learn the lesson. Because I also like the fact that Chilli and Bandit, they kind of always, not always do gentle parenting, but they always are very good at trying to calm them down in a good way.

And like, it models well, almost what she expects us to do and what we'd expect her to react like when we do that. Well, that's how it links in with, like I said, so many of our other conversations that we've had, because we brought Bluey up in our podcast episodes around Montessori and Waldorf, because there's a lot of that very powerful.

prevalent in the Bluey series. Um, yeah, the whole gentle parenting stuff. Um, I don't think we mentioned this in the episode we did with our guests, Sue and Nigel around toddler emotions, but yeah, like again, some really great examples with how to. helpfully navigate, um, you know, the highs and lows of toddler emotions.

Yeah. I also like, in Relax, how they do show a good mental health perspective. Because even though I know the children might not pick up on it, it shows that Oh, maybe mummy or daddy find it hard to relax. Maybe they've got a lot going on. They also do it in the other, Stickbird, so both the holiday episodes.

They've like, the mum being kind of, she finds it hard to just let go and relax and just enjoy the holiday. And the other episode about Stickbird, kind of the dad's got something on his mind and he's distracted. Yeah. And he has to learn to just kind of let that go. Parents have a lot of emotions too, and they have to work through them as well, not just kids. 

It's just a deep, very multi layered show that's very well done. Um, which means that like, kids of all sorts of ages seem to really like it. I'm not quite sure An upper age limit is, but no, I'm worried though. 'cause Lily is slowly Mm, she's getting really into princesses at the moment. Yeah. So she's, she's gone off Bluey a little bit, but she had a, but she did, she did do a very solemn thing where she like did a grand gesture of gifting her bluey and bingo, um, toys.

Yeah, like the cuddly toys to Lola and being like, I'm a big girl now. You can have my Blue and Binga toys . Um, but that hasn't lasted because Blue and Binga toys are now back in her bed. She did have, for a long time, the bingo plushie toy that was her, like, comforter that she would take everywhere with her and sleep with.

With so many holiday pictures with bingo with us. Yeah, yeah. I even made it a little passport to travel with us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's been a big part of our lives for a long time.  We had a Bluey themed party for her second birthday. Um, we went with our friends to see the Bluey live show. We did, that was a really good show.

Yeah, so we're very invested in this, in this. So, she still watches it quite a bit now. Oh, she still watches it now. She's just very into princesses as well. Yeah, they're now her idols. Bluey, Bluey's been tossed aside as the idol. Well, I mean, this is the shame though. This is why I think it's great to highlight how good Bluey is because, you know, She does create these role models, and at the moment, she's so into mimicking Elsa.

Yes. And that is her role model. It is her role model. There's a limited amount she can draw from, from that. Well, because they've only got two films. Mmm. And little side films, but there's not much about Elsa being, like, there's not many everyday events in that. So it's not like, oh, Elsa brushes her teeth, Elsa gets dressed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Elsa eats her vegetables. Like, there's nothing you can go, oh, well Elsa would do this, because that's not what she sees. Yeah, it's not relatable because like we have to often play like oh we're going to an enchanted forest like else. Yeah Whereas when everyday stuff you can call up when bluey was lily's role model Yeah, um a lot of this stuff the games would be about role playing everyday scenarios.

Yeah, and she would love to do that and it really helped, you know, at the dinner table and stuff, because there's so many scenes with the Bluey family sat around at dinner, um, that that would really help with her understanding of, like, eating at a table and having conversation. Or even, like, when they try and feed Unicorns broccoli.

That makes me think about how other shows do do some of that, like, everyday stuff, but equally we're not a fan. So what, what about it do you think is different from, for example, Bing?  Oh, I hate Bing.  Hot take on the podcast. Lily is a big fan of Bing. We just don't let her watch it her watch it. Her behaviour goes really downhill when she's been watching Bing.

I think there's a balance, isn't there? Because that show does show loads of everyday activities. It does. But,  Bing is mostly badly behaved,  and then he learns the lesson, but Lily doesn't pick up on that, she only mimics the bad behaviour. I think Osferdin, because she's never acted like that before either, it's very novel.

Yeah. So like, she never used to stamp her feet when she had a tantrum. And then she watched Bing where he always stamps his feet. And then she was like repeating the things he said. And um, then I was like, That's it! No more Bing! But I don't know what about it made her think.  I don't know, she just didn't understand the story as well.

Like it wasn't as clear the messaging that at the end it was bad or they got over it. I also, but I'm a snob. I also just don't like the animation. I don't like the fact he's like Parent is tiny and he's really big. Ha ha ha ha. I promise she loves it. She'd watch Bing loads if you'd let her. Yeah, yeah. So this is it, isn't it?

Like, screen time, we do allow it, but we are fairly strict with We're pretty strict, yeah. Like, what the choices are. Yeah, so we let Lily choose, but it's within a certain,  like,  um, that's gonna say paradigm, I don't even know that's the right word. Um, we, like, she knows there's certain things she's not allowed to watch. 

And part of that is because, obviously, we're a modern generation, like, we don't watch the BBC. No. We don't watch any live TV, so  everything we watch is pretty much Disney Plus. Yeah. Um, so, that is our thing, that and YouTube. I think it's better in a way than watching live, though, because You can kind of pre watch a lot of stuff before you show it to them.

Yeah. So you know it's going to agree with what you want to get out of it. Or even,  I'm not someone who's like, Oh, you always have to get a good thing out of TV. Yeah, yeah. It can just be entertainment. It can just be entertainment. I just don't want you to get anything bad out of TV. Yeah. For instance, she watches Pingu, and he's quite a cheeky little penguin.

But she doesn't get any bad behaviour from him. She just seems to find it as enjoyable, but doesn't really Take any of it to heart. Yeah, um, and that's the thing with you know, things like cocoa melon, you know There have been studies that it does poorly affect behaviour. Um, so whether you enjoy it or not, or allow it or not, like,  it's the impact it has that's the thing that we're particularly focused on. 

Um, and that's why, you know, I love Bluey not just for the impact it has on Lily, but on society as a whole, the way that, you know, it's making the whole Montessori and Waldorf, the creative play and imagination, that type of thing, better known. The way that it Advocates for dads being very involved and getting involved in parenting and playing games and just all of that stuff.

Um, I think it's just so helpful for society to absorb that and that to become much more the norm. Yeah, I even think it's got very good talks or like lessons in it for a lot of people, even for adults to kind of have conversations like. Yeah.  The one where the baby race episode. Yeah. And the mom feels a lot of pressure that the baby has to keep it with all the other babies.

Um, or the one where the moms are 20 minutes just with nobody talking to her. Yeah. Like I think not just for the kids, but for adults. It's good to go, oh, well I think everybody sometimes needs a point where they just need time away, even for a few minutes in the day from their children. Like it just gets too much.

Mm-hmm  . You know, that's what our podcast is about, is hopefully about diving into some of the. The topics of how we navigate parenthood and really we could go through episode by episode and have a whole conversation about the plot and the messaging it would give us topics for years and years using Bluey as a like guide.

I've often wondered whether we should do that, but, um, yeah, just so many good kind of reflections on society and points it's making and, um, very rarely. Do I watch an episode and go, I'm not sure I agree with the point it's trying to make? Yeah, I think there's some that I find duller than others. Yeah  So like Barky Boats, I like the messaging.

I just find it a little dull to watch compared to the others Yeah, well, I mean it depends what stage of parenting you're in isn't it? I suppose we probably resonate more with the ones that  closer to Like the baby phase and having toddlers, whereas some of them are aimed at if you have slightly older kids.

Yes, that's true. Yeah, maybe it'll change and evolve. Yeah, maybe. And it's really, this is sound sad, but it's nice. One day we were all feeling under the weather and I was like, let's just have a princess film day. And we got some popcorn and like some fizzy drinks and we just sat. and watch some Disney films.

And it was nice that she was happy that day. Like, it wasn't a lot of work and effort. Like, it sounds mean, but it means you can rely on the fact that on the days where you all feel rubbish and you don't want to do much, that you can still have quite a nice day. Because for her, it's still a treat watching TV all day and having popcorn.

And that's still like, ooh, what a novel experience. And I pretended to be the person who sells the sweets and the popcorn. So it even helped. Her idea of going to the cinema. She only knew that Bluey and Bingo had been to the cinema. Yeah, yeah. So before we went, we recently went to see, um, the new Moana film.

Um, I say recently, probably two months ago. But it meant she had a point of reference to be like, Oh, you go here and this is where you get the popcorn, and this is where you get your drink, and then you go into the cinema. Yeah. And it kind of just helped that she, A, had a really good understanding of what it was, but B, Was then quite well behaved because she knew what was gonna happen.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so if people have like a child like Lily She doesn't like things. She doesn't know she likes to have like an idea of what's going to happen a bit like us We're both quite. Yes Yeah, anxious people. We like to know what's going on what's happening So she likes to have a clear idea in her head what is happening and what's going on  Like one of the things is clothes people know Lily's A big thing about clothes.

And I'm sorry Sue and Nigel, I still haven't taken their advice and given her just two options. Haha,  yes. But this morning, we had a whole meltdown because she wanted a certain bluey dress and the bluey dress is being washed. I'm very concerned about school and how she's going to get on wearing a school uniform. 

I really don't know how we're going to navigate that. Well part of me hopes the choice has been taken away from her but then she just might not react well. Like they have a lot of silly rules as well that she might just not want to follow because that's not fashionable. Well, yeah, because she loves painting her nails, she loves wearing jewellery, she loves having her hair in fun ways, like Yeah. 

Yeah. It's going to be a challenge, but I always hope, oh, could they not make Bluey get dressed one day and be like, this is what you've got to wear.  Yeah.  And I get they're dogs. Okay. I get it. Well, the problem is they go to those lovely Waldorf schools, so they don't have school uniforms. That's true. The point, like, they're showing such a good example of how to do education.

It's true. That it just has no resemblance to, yeah. If you want to know our thoughts on that, go listen to our episode all about flexi schooling. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Uh, well, we. We chat and have a moan all about the school education system. 

We've gone all over the place with it. I feel like we've gone all over. I don't know. It's not a very concise thought through episode, but we just love to chat about it. And we just love Louis. Yeah. Who's, who's your favorite? Who's your favorite episode? Who's your favorite character? Once again, think we've discussed this.

Who do you think my favourite character is? Oh no, I'm going to get in trouble again. You're not going to get in trouble, I just, I find it amusing if you could guess it. You know I'm a man, I don't listen. I'm sorry, I don't know what yours is. I assume yours is Bandit, but I don't actually know. That's true.

Um, who's your favourite character? It'll be some little odd bod little character. It'll be like a little cute one. Um.  Uh, is it Rusty? No, but I really do like Rusty, that's a really good point. Um, no, it's just Lucky's dad. Lucky's dad? Yeah. Lucky's dad. I think he's quite a fan favourite of a few of them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just like that he always plays along. Yeah. And he seems so chill. I'm like, oh, he seems great. Who's my favourite character? Oh, yeah, but we all admit, if you were to be a character, you'd be Is it Chloe? Yes. Chloe's dad. I definitely would be Chloe's dad. So if people don't know, that's the Dalmatians.

Yeah.  I think, do they only appear in one episode? Or do they appear in other episodes? I think he appears in others, but he didn't really talk. Yeah, yeah.  I mean, I think Bingo really is probably my favourite character. Bingo is a good character.  But again, maybe because she's closer in age to the, the children we have.

That's true. That's a lot more like, reminiscent of the, you know, the funny things she comes out with. Well, I was discussing with, I don't know if I mentioned this last podcast, um, with my friend Vicky the other day, how we  Keep thinking our girls are so much older than they are. Mmm. Like, I forget Lily's not four yet.

I know. But she sometimes is so mature and comes out with such normal things that older kids say. Yeah. I sometimes feel like she's a six year old. Yeah, yeah. And it's only when Somebody asked what her age is and I'm like, oh my goodness, she's all really young for me to expect a lot of the behaviour I expect from her.

Yeah, I'm just looking forward to when we get to that point when our children are the same age as Louis and Bingo. Yeah, true. Because that is not too far off and it'll be a similar age gap. Yeah, it will, yeah.  The, you know, at the moment things are quite tough because we've got a little baby and Lily's still in, just coming out of the toddler years. 

Whereas I'm just, yeah, I'm very excited for  Being able to go into, like, the bandit years where we can actually play a lot of imaginary stories and games and, like, go out. Especially at the minute, it's just, it's hard juggling, like, they have two very different needs at this point. Yeah. Or at least that's what I'm hoping.

Somebody might tell us it's an illusion and that they never want to play the same game.  Um, yeah, so if you're like us and rely heavily on screen time, it's part of your parenting, a plethora of tactics that you're employing with your kids, then don't, don't worry about it, don't stress, don't take on board everyone who criticizes, uh, it's, it's fine.

I like, I think. Yeah, well I'd say Lily, other than when we've been strict when we think a show has affected her behaviour, she's like, definitely a very good child for watching a lot of television. So I think where our summary is, Blue is great, it's one of those shows you can watch. Yeah, yeah. Other shows might suck, and don't watch them. 

It's Editing Elliot again. There was something I forgot to mention when we were recording. I wanted to highlight some external resources and links. I'll put some stuff in the description and show notes. But just to back up some of the things we're saying, aren't all completely negative about screen time.

But for a more balanced approach, I really like some of the things I've seen from a Dr. Dean Burnett, who's a Welsh neuroscientist. He's got a book about phones, particularly aimed at young teens. But I think he agrees more with us around they're not being Any particular science to back up the concern that phones and screens are damaging to young people's development.

Even things like social media, that there's a big misconception that clearly there are dangers, but it's not all bad. The studies that have been done do show a correlation, but it's not necessarily a causation. But also things like how video games can be really positive for kids, something I don't think we mentioned in this episode, which seems a shame as Emma works in the video game industry.

But yeah, anyway, I just thought I'd highlight that as an external voice to ours.  Another hot take, do you know what else I don't like? Oh yeah, go on, go on. Paw Patrol. Paw Patrol, yeah. I know there's a lot of these shows that are like, just before our time. Like, they were really big at one point, and then Yeah, they haven't been as big for Lily's generation.

No, and so like, I think because we've seen them just everywhere so much, like, in all the shops, I don't know, I just kind of like, ugh, yeah. Like, In the Night Garden's not as big anymore. No.  . I dunno. May, maybe you'll disagree with us, but I think well also 'cause we don't watch  terrestrial, terrestrial tv. Yep.

Um, so.  Maybe you do watch those more if you're like a BBC viewer. Yeah, maybe. Um, but because we have kind of complete control because we watch through the steamy streaming services, we, we don't watch any of that stuff. Shout out. Puffin Puffin Rock's excellent. Yeah. People want a calming show. A, you've got beautiful accents in it.

Yeah. Um, and that's British, just do an episode on Puffin Rock. Got a load of stuff that I like about Puffin Rock. Yeah, yeah. Teaches you loads of good words like nocturnal and how different animals live. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm going on, it's going to cut it out, but I'm just saying I really like Puffin Rock.

I mean that's the thing is, it's like, they're teaching you things like, I'm trying to think, are there any,  any Australian like, phrases that we've  We've got certain words. I don't know if they're Australian, but chippies are now the standard for chips. For real life, we talk about to make her understand is it real or pretend.

She understands we have pounds, but she calls a lot of things dollar books.  Things like oh biscuits. Yeah. And like the little phrases they have in Bluey. Um, yeah, it seeps into your life, doesn't it? Into the vernacular.  Because, like, you know, you look around at nursery and all of the kids, you know, when it's a dress up day, they know, like, Bluey and Elsa and, like, Spider Man.

They're like the big They're the big three. They're the big ones, aren't they? Nola's ready to get up. It's  okay. Oh, hi. I know, are you waking up? Let us know what your favourite Bluie episode is, or favourite Bluie character. Yeah, and do you have any show you really hate, like me and Bing? Do you have any show you despise?

Well, I think you're going to have to end this podcast episode. Yeah, well that sound means the baby's woken up, so that must mean it's time to end the episode.  Thank you for joining us in the home movie cinema room. With us today to chat all about screen time and Bluey it's been a very one sided conversation which is entirely the point we're in our defense of  Uh, kids watching TV, uh, particularly our appreciation of Louis, so  thank you for sharing this episode and liking, subscribing, leaving a review, all that good stuff.

Until next time, when you're here, you again, here, we'll see you again, no, uh, see, here see you be again, sleep well, God bless, and why should I care?