By India McCarty
Children and parents alike love BLUEY for its fun and heartfelt storylines, but did you know the show also teaches viewers of all ages important lessons about emotional regulation?
“There is a sense in which a show like BLUEY that is this warm and affirming can feel like fantasy. Even a fantasy of how we regulate our emotions, because in the world of the episode, there’s never a concern that everything won’t work out,” Kathryn VanArendonk, author of The Bluey Years, told Parents.
She explained that emotional regulation is a major theme of almost every episode of the show, saying, “Almost any interaction that a kid that age is having in almost any context is going to be about emotional regulation.”
Related: BLUEY Creator Wants Kids’ Show to ‘Make Parents Laugh, Too’
Psychology Today also reported on BLUEY’s themes of emotional regulation, writing, “BLUEY helps kids recognize emotions, process them, and move forward and gives parents tools that are accessible and meaningful to support emotional regulation and resilience.”
And these lessons aren’t just for the young viewers; VanArendonk pointed to episode “Takeaway” as an example of a storyline that showed parents the importance of handling their emotions.
“Bandit is a character who, throughout the show, is given these opportunities, put in these circumstances that a parent would look at and think: That’s the moment when I would lose it,” she said but added that the character always chooses to take a deep breath and practice patience.
VanArendonk concluded, “It’s hard to overstate how powerful it is to have a show like this that does not feel like it’s lying to you about the world.”
In an NPR interview, VanArendonk shared that BLUEY also “makes parent emotions visible to kids in a way that they often aren’t,” pointing to episodes that tell children parents might need a few minutes to themselves.
“That can be a concept that your 5-year-old can watch and be like, I don’t know if I really get that, but OK, that’s something that I’m now seeing is a thing that exists,” she said. “Or that a parent can be annoyed with their partner, and then they figure it out together. Like, these are all ways that it presents that parenting reality in a digestible version for kids. And so I think that is part of what works in that double-vision way that is so special about the show.”
VanArendonk’s book, The Bluey Years, hits bookstores in 2027.
Read Next: What Theme Is Most Common in BLUEY?
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