Why Bandit on 'Bluey' makes me want to be a better parent

I consider myself a fun mom. We get Happy Meals and go to Chuck E. Cheese for (masked) playdates.We have dance parties with flashing disco lights. When my son was 1, we dressed up as Baby Macho Man Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth for Halloween.

But I can't always be fun. Like a lot of parents, I'm not that great at playing with my kid. And as a solo parent who works full-time, there's a never-ending list of things I need to take care of, like making dinner or sweeping up chunks of kinetic sand and dried Play-Doh. To buy myself some time to do those chores, I usually switch on Bluey, a show that never fails to captivate my toddler — or me — despite us having watched all of Season 1 and Season 2's 100+ episodes multiple times on Disney+ during the pandemic. It's also a show that never fails to make me wonder: Will I ever be as good a parent as a fictional, animated Australian dog?

That dog would be Bandit the Blue Heeler, dad to young sisters Bluey and Bingo on the beloved cartoon, which is finally, mercifully, releasing its first batch of Season 3 episodes in the U.S. on Aug. 10. With all due respect to matriarch Chilli, the sensible, wry parent who certainly holds her own when it comes to family hijinks, it's Bandit I find myself both quoting — "I'm gonna put these clean clothes away — unh!" is my new laundry day equivalent to slamming the dishwasher door and crowing "dishes are done, man!" à la Keith Coogan in Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, and Reddit tells me I'm not alone — and wanting to emulate.

It's not that Bandit doesn't have flaws. Like any harried parent, he makes mistakes — playing too rough, not listening, unintentionally bruising feelings — but is quick to apologize by the end of a seven-minute episode. It's also fair to say that Chilli does the majority of the emotional labor (packing sunscreen, buying birthday presents) in this four-legged household, and some critiques have called his behavior charmingly carefree to the point of irresponsibility.

But as a parent who genuinely wishes I could summon up more energy and enthusiasm for ramming toy cars against each other or chaotic rounds of Soggy Doggy, I admire and take inspiration from Bandit's example. Under his watch, the most mundane chores get a playful spin (see: talking trash cans, Daddy Robot). He finds inventive ways to entertain his daughters even when he's tired or tied up with work. He's silly, creative and doesn't mind playing the fool so long as everyone's having a good time. His energy is infectious, even to a parent like me who is almost certainly watching Bluey while scrolling through my Instagram feed. To quote a fellow mom on Twitter: "Bandit makes me feel like such a slacker parent!" In my case, it's a slacker parent who is now trying harder to squeeze joy and spontaneity into each day.

Is the bar for animated TV dads — who skew from bumbling and incompetent (Peppa Pig patriarch Daddy Pig) to downright toxic (Family Guy's Peter Griffin) — just so low that we're lavishing Father of the Year awards on anyone who pitches in with the housework and devotes time to his kids? Dave McCormack, the Australian rocker who voices the Heeler patriarch, has a theory.

"They always say, 'how come Bandit's so fantastic?'" McCormack says of the show's fans. "And I say, 'because he only has to do it for seven minutes at a time.' He doesn’t have to do it 24/7."

Like Bandit, McCormack has two young daughters of his own. He, too, says his animated alter ego makes him "want to be a better parent."

"He’s engaged, he's present, he's trying to play games that are going to be fun for the kids," he notes. "I also like the side of Bandit Heeler when he tries to invent games that involve him lying on the couch reading the newspaper, or games where he can just watch TV and try and incorporate those in the rules of the games. He's a smart dude, you know — he can engage with the kids and he can also be a little bit of the puppet master and make the kids play to his rules."

Bluey executive producer and Ludo Studio co-founder Daley Pearson agrees that Bandit is "aspirational," though he warns that it's hard for real-life parents to compete with, well, a dog. Ironically, however, it's Bandit and Chilli's "human" instincts that represent a "new generation of parents" who don't rely on traditional, heavy-handed parenting methods, Pearson notes. They're imperfect, but also capable of self-awareness and contrition, and so an episode might end with an apology or a heart-to-heart with Bluey and Bingo. And if Bandit and Chilli disagree about how to handle a family situation, they find a compromise; they're also forthright with their daughters during any dispute.

"I think our parents and our grandparent, maybe didn’t try to show us that side of themselves — to protect us, I guess, and to help us," Pearson muses. "But I think people are coming around to the idea that you can be flawed and you can be good at the same time."

Now 150 episodes in, the Joe Brumm-created series remains popular with kids and grown-ups alike. Pearson calls trying to appeal to both demographics "a bit of a balancing act," but ultimately the magic formula might just be what he strives to bear in mind as each episode is in production: "I'm going to make myself like this first."

If our games of Keepy-Uppy or my toddler's fascination with flossing (the dance, not the dental hygiene, alas) and pretending to be a granny are anything to go by, it's working. And even on days when I feel like the crabby, tormented Mr. Wilson to my son's Dennis the Menace, I can watch Bandit's playful parenting and not feel resentful or filled with self-loathing, but determined to make some of that magic and mischief myself.

McCormack says it best: "I think we should all try and be a little bit more Bandit every day."

Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life's newsletter. Sign up here.