

Mum... Dad... Bingo... Bluey.
If you’ve just read these four words and can already hear the accompanying theme song playing in your head, then welcome. You’ve come to the right place.
Since 2018, Australian animated TV series Bluey has delighted millions of young fans (and probably just as many grown-ups, tbh) with the imaginative adventures of the anthropomorphised Heeler family. For three seasons, blue heeler Bluey along with her pup sister, Bingo, and their pooch parents, Bandit and Chilli, have taken us inside their (utterly relatable) home and family life.
But if you’re a parent or grandparent to a preschooler, you most definitely already knew all of this. After all, Bluey is a worldwide critically acclaimed series that’s notched up two International Emmys and two TV WEEK Logie Awards. Yep, for real life.
If you hard relate to any of the above faster than you can say "wackadoo", here’s some other Bluey-inspired scenarios you probably recognise.
1. You play Verandah Santa. And The Claw. And Keepy-Uppy.
Bluey and Bingo, along with their ultra-creative parents, are always inventing new games – and like many kids, my own boys love to co-opt these into their own play (thanks Chilli and Bandit).
So, when some of the newest Bluey toys landed on our doorstep, there was only one befitting way to christen them – with a game of Verandah Santa.
Just like in the Christmas-themed episode, I instructed my three-year-old and five-year-old to shut their eyes while ‘Santa’ visited.