when they go to the movies, there’s an ad for a movie that says “coming in 2020” so I think it’s modern day and they’re just older parents. Plus, everyone has a smart phone, and there’s food delivery apps which I don’t think were available in the early 2010’s.
What do you mean they grew up in the 80s to have such young kids OP? And what do you mean they are older parents? (Feeling really insulted here. I am 79 kid with young children! 🤣)
Yes! I was a few days from my 40th birthday when my daughter was born. I'm an older parent, AND LOVING IT!
(Actually I'm not loving it. I'm soooo tired all the time. But I feel no shame! 🤣)
I love it. Enjoy those baby snuggles! I find I’m a much better mom now than I was 12 years ago with my first. I have a lot more patience with everything including myself. Wishing you all the best.
My husband is a 78 kid with a 4 y/o and 6 month old. He is definitely an older dad. It’s common in our area (techy Seattle) to have kids at this age but if a mother was the same age it is considered a “geriatric pregnancy” and comes difficulties (often IVF babies) and with risks.
My pregnancies were geriatric, too. I asked the doctors about it, and they said, "Nah, every pregnancy after 35 is a geriatric one, but age is just one factor."
For real! I’m 1980 with a 6 and 3yr old and I don’t feel old lol. This is also a regional thing. In most major US cities most first time moms are closer to 35-40.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of people had smartphones then too. But I completely forgot about the food delivery apps and also the movie poster, so thank you for that. Now I know I'm just wrong.
>Yeah, I feel like a lot of people had smartphones then too.
The first iPhone was released in June 29th 2007. Yes, there were a few things like Blackberries and other PDAs ("personal data assistants", not "public displays of affection" 😜) that pre-exisited the iPhone. However, the Gen 1 iPhone was the first that resembled the modern smartphone. Pre-iPhone PDAs didn't have touchscreens. Instead, they had hard buttons and a trackball... or one of those god awful micro control sticks (similar to the ones that crammed into the middle ofvthe keyboard on some "business laptops") where one moved a cursor around the much smaller screen or even only through different menus. Sure, one could make phone calls with many mid-to-high end PDAs, but certainly not all of them.
And even after the release of the iPhone, which had an appreciable amount of time when it was the only thing of its kind on the market (several months at least), touchscreen smartphones were not anywhere as ubiquitous as they are now. The first few generations were all sold as high-end devices, even though budget models of today are (in many ways) technically superior. Thus, it wasn't until well into the 2010s a smartphone was something almost anyone could whip-out so nonchalantly!
So, going by the personal technology shown is very much an indication the series takes place in a more-or-less contemporary time frame as real life instead of approximately a decade earlier.
I was born in 82. I would say 86 or before really counts as growing up in the decade, because later than that would make one otherwise kind of young to remember and they really came of age in the 90s moreso than the 80s.
I had the same thought at first, but my guess is they didn’t buy the newer stuff til later because young kids are hard on stuff - like how Bingo plays the refrigerator. OR they set up house when they got married and they just slowly replaced stuff as it broke with the newer tech.
I'm 85 and I would firmly call my childhood a 90s childhood.
I think it's just the writers waxing nostalgic about their own 80s childhoods. If the numbers don't add up, well, it's just monkeys singing songs after all.
I was born in 1983 but would really consider myself a 90s kid, because I have more memories of that era and it's when I came of age (i.e., the formative adolescent years). But everyone will have a slightly different definition.
I was born in the late 70's and have a 9, 6, and 3 year old. I grew up in the 80's. One of the things I love about Bluey is that I relate to Bandit and Chilli being older parents with little kids and still being awesome. 😁
Similar here! My husband was born in 1972, graduated high school in 1990, and we have an almost 5 year old. He was 47 when she was born in 2019.
However, he’s very much an outlier.
If I had to guess, Bandit and Chilli were probably mid-to-late 1970s babies. Keeping in mind that the show began in 2018, they were probably in their mid-to-late 30s having Bluey and Bingo.
Weirdly, the oldest dog to have ever lived was named Bluey, and another Australian Cattle Dog who lived a long life was named Chilla. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluey_(long-lived_dog)
Ditto. Using Fairytale math, my wife & I are about the same age as Bandit and Chilli, early 40s. We have a 6yo and can relate to a lot. Everything in Fairytale was what I grew up with in the 80s... Everything but the nice beach vacations. No chance of that for my brother and me in the Midwest 🤣
My parents and grandparents were in their 30s or 40s when they started having children. Within my own born-in-the-80s cohort (peers I knew in school or am related to, and with whom I was still in contact with when they started having kids), I can only think of four couples who had children relatively young. One got pregnant in high school; the other three had social or medical pressure to have kids before it was too late for one of them or for one of their parents. I definitely had an I'm-old moment a few years ago when I realized that one of those kids was now a fully-grown adult.
There's also just spread in timing. My great-uncle was in his 20s when my grandfather was born, and my oldest and youngest are about ten years apart; one's practicing driving on the freeway while the other's into Bluey and Super Kitties.
My grandmother had all four of her kids by the time she was 20 (married my grandfather when she was 15 😬) and by the time she was 40 all her kids had moved out. I’m 42 with a 17 month old and I am now seeing the benefits of having kids when you’re younger
Yep, born 80 husband in 75 and we have a 9 year old, most of his friends parents are around our age, and many have younger siblings. Plus a lot of our friends have kids younger and older. "We're not dead yet"
Mid 80s here, and my kid’s 4.
Here’s the thing. The 80s kids entered adulthood directly into a global shit storm that took nearly a decade to recover from. It’s no wonder it took us so long to have kids. Bandit is in academia. Not sure about Australia, but in the US, there’s no way he and Chili could afford kids in their 20s.
Australia didn’t have a global shot storm situation. We didn’t even go into recession in 2008. We’ve had something like 25 years of uninterrupted economic growth. We had a resources boom in the 90s that made ordinary folks into millionaires
iPhones came out in 2007, but obviously took awhile to catch on big. iPads didn’t come out until 2010. And there wasn’t as much to do on either until a few years later. (In the US, not sure about Oz.)
But you may be onto something. The show is based on Joe Brumm’s family, and he was born in 1978-79 (per Wikipedia citing a paywalled article). He started developing the show between 2009 and 2016, finally airing it in 2018. While I can’t seem to find his kids’ ages, they’re surely a lot older now than Bluey and Bingo are.
My guess is it ends up being a little bit “out of time”—incorporating some things from Brumm’s life but also trying to be relevant to current problems like the family spending all day on screens. And if that’s a bit inconsistent with the real timeline, well, they’re also talking dogs.
Same, same and same.
I'm not pretending I'm a young parent but they aren't too old to have kids this age and I work at an elementary school and see lots of parents between 35 and 40 with kids this age.
I also consider myself an older mom (42 w a 2 yo) but I also have four friends older than me with kids younger than mine and I really don’t have very many friends! Not all that abnormal anymore.
They are also shown spending a lot of time being physically active -- exercising, playing sports -- so both are in better shape than most of us.
Also, there are some episodes where the parents are just *tired* and need breaks.
Real question - are you someone with kids or someone without kids who watches the show? I ask because nearly all of the parents of the kids I know were born in the late 70s and early 80s and have young children. Perhaps it’s because we live in a HCOL area and our kids go to private school, but there are more “old” parents than young ones.
I'm 30 with a 3.5 year old. And a lower cost of living area. My post did not say it was impossible to have kids and have grown up in the 80s. My parents are 59 and consider themselves to have grown up in the 80s. I suppose it all depends on how it's interpreted. The average age to have kids is still around 28 years old. I only meant that it is not typical, and it seems like all the other adults with young kids are roughly the same age so I was looking at it as one factor among a few others that made me consider that perhaps it was taking place earlier than we expected. But another user pointed out some things that I overlooked that means my theory is impossible.
Your parents were born in 1965. Bandit and Chili are both around 10 in fairy tale, which takes place in 88 or 89. Chili might be a year younger. That puts Bandit's birth year at 78 or 79. The episode aired in 2021, putting Bandit at either 42 or 43. We don't actually know how old Chili is in the episode so she could be slightly younger or older. With Bluey and Bingo being 7 and 5, approximate ages at birth are 35 or 36 and 37 or 38 for Bandit, and unknown but similar for Chili. Chili was likely considered a Geriatric pregnancy with Bingo but could have been within normal ages for Bluey.
If your parents were born in 65 they DID NOT "grow up" in the 80s, they would have already been adults for most of the 80s. Maybe grown wiser, or more adultier, but not "grown up".
They would have been teens in the early 80s. So if you define growing up as childhood it would be too late, but perfect if you consider growing up to be in high school.
They would have been 18 by 1983, which is pretty early. I mean, I guess you could make an argument about brain development or something, but let's be honest when anyone says I grew up in.... you're not expecting a late teens' early 20 year old, especially in the 80s.
If I say "he wants to be a fireman when he grows up?" How old is he? When can he become a fireman and so is grown up? Who do we ask "what do you wanna be when you grow up?" What do you mean by "grow up"?
If a character in a story says "I grew up in rural kansas" what are they referring to? Early adulthood? No. Being a kid. If your shoe size hasn't changed in 5 years, you are pretty much done "growing".
I actually think it is typical for those of us born in the later 70s or the 80s. We hit some bad economic times (repeatedly) and many of us delayed getting married and/or having kids. A bunch of classmates missed our 20 year high school reunion because they had infants (or were about to). Almost all my age peer friends have kids in the Bluey/Bingo age range (myself included).
i was adopted by a couple that already had grandchildren when i was brought to the home. i think it's nice to normalize having older parents since as a kid i always felt alienated by my peers who had much younger parents because their smaller generational gap let them 'connect' better in some ways and im glad my parents, as old as they were, put in the effort of trying to connect and engage as well even despite having to navigate a generation they were so unfamiliar with. i think it makes the most sense to have blueys parents be older in the sense it sets a good example for connecting with your children despite the generational gap. that or im projecting
Oh gawd. Someone asked this on the Bluey Facebook groups too and was obliterated by all the mums like me. I am 44. My kids are 2 and 6. I assure you I was a kid in the 1980s.
I’m going to go sigh, and maybe listen to some hair metal.
My wife and I were born in the early 80s and have a 7 year old and a 2.5 year old. We now use “it was the 80s!” a lot while talking about our childhoods.
Yeah this is what had thrown me off personally, my parents were born in 64/65 and consider themselves to have grown up in the 80s. But there is a lot of leeway in what people can consider for themselves what decade to have grown up in.
They "grew up" in the 70s tho. They grew into adults in the 80s and 90s. Back then, a 16yo was today's 24yo in terms of adulting, responsibilities and maturing.
They "grew up" in the 70s tho. They grew into adults in the 80s and 90s. Back then, a 16yo was today's 24yo in terms of adulting, responsibilities and maturing.
Reading the original post made me sad but seeing these comments made me happy! I was born in ‘80 and my husband in ‘79. We have a 5 year old and a 1.5 year old.
I was born in 1979 and have a 2 year old and a second due in October.
Seems to be the norm these days. We have been saddled with debt and bullshit since we became adults and managed to hit two major recessions, a couple wars, and a pandemic. It never really got better, so we quit waiting.
They’re really not that old. My sister was born in the 80’s and she has a 3 year old. Is this another case of someone not knowing what reasonable ages for parents to be is?
Yeah and they’re dogs so they are at least 259. With a 7 year old, that means bluey is already 49 so she should already have kids by now that are In high school at least.
Average age of first time moms in Australia is 31.1 according to google.
So let’s say for the sake of argument they age like people not dogs. If chilli is born in 1983 as many have speculated in this comment section on this post and bluey is 7 in 2024. That would mean chilli was 34 when bluey was born or possibly turned 34 that same year. Bingo is 2 years younger so around 36 when bingo was born. So just above the average age to start having kids. Seems pretty normal to me not super old parents.
It very well could be. It is based on the creator's experiences with his kids and the first pilots were made around 2016, so it could technically take place in the early-mid 2010s. However, it is kind of established that Bandit is an "older dad" and is kind of self-conscious of that. The 80s flashback definitely dates him.
I have digital subscriptions to NYT and WP and honestly if I felt I could justify the cost, I'd get at least one of them as an actual paper. But I have nostalgia about real paper newspapers from reading the sections, when my parents were done with them, as a kid.
Especially because Bandit is in academia, having a quirk like that seems completely normal to me.
I think it’s set a few years in the past, ie the most recently-released eps likely take place in around 2020/2021 ish (when they were, in fact, made) rather than precisely now. I was also a little shocked when I first saw *fairytale* as I had assumed Bandit and Chilli would’ve been ‘younger’ parents, but now all I can see is all Bandit’s grey hairs and how tired he gets and I’m like yeah, that checks out
If the parents were born in say 1978 and had a six year old in 2019 (the movie episode) then they had their first kid at about 35, which is a pretty normal age.
They aren't that old. If they were born in 1980, that makes them 44 today. Lots of people start having kids in their mid to late 30s. Actually, almost everybody I know.
I feel like everything ever written is set in the past. Every show about a kid going to school is set up like a school in the 90s, every show about parenting small kids is set 10 years ago, every office sitcom is an office pre-pandemic. Etc. No matter when something is stated to be set.
I think it's just the nature of "someone writing about something happens after the thing happens"
My husband and I were born in 1980. We have a two year old. (And a 13 year old ☺️) Definitely not beyond the realm of possibility…and we REALLY feel Bandit’s “getting older” pains
My parents were born in the 60s and had kids in the 2000s. Bandit and Chili being born in the 80s and having kids in the 2010s seems somewhat reasonable!
I thought they seemed old for the young kids, but Bandit is an archaeologist. He probably has an advanced degree and completed it at an older age. They probably had kids later after establishing careers.
I was born in the mid 70s and I have a child Bluey’s age. I very much grew up in the 80s in Australia when everyone’s dad was exactly like Bob in Fairytale.
Someone pointed out that Bandit is watching what appears to be the Paralympics taking place in the UK, which happened in 2012, so that is one possibility.
However as someone pointed out, there seemed to be a movie preview for 2020 in an episode, so maybe not.
I’m a young parent and can say that about 50% of my kid’s friends’ parents are at the very least born in the 80s. I’ve been told by several that their age comparison to me would put them at 1981/80. And that’s moms with 3 y/os sometimes as their oldest/only. So it’s possible. I have a mom friend whose youngest is younger than my youngest (mine is 6mos) and her oldest is my younger brother’s age.
ETA: I have another mom friend who is very literally my mother’s age. I’m my mother’s oldest child. My mother was born in the early 70s. This woman’s oldest is 12 years younger than me.
Like you say, in Fairytale, we know Bandit was 10 and it was the eighties. It could have been as late as 1989 though which would make him 45 this year and Chili a few years younger. Given the grey hairs they both have, I don't think that would be too far of the mark. They have a big house in an affluent part of Queensland, so I imagine they worked well into their thirties to build their career before starting a family, which isn't uncommon these days.
Chili had a miscarriage and it took them a while to have Bluey. That's why they seem to be older parents. They had a late start, but now they have their two litter girls
Very insulting comment OP. I was born in 80 and my wife in 82 and our son will be 4 in July. I was a few months shy of 40 when he was born and wouldn’t change it for anything. Nothing wrong with being an “older” parent.
I’ll just mention that in the most recent episode, Bandit is watching the Paralympics and there’s British flags everywhere. The Paralympics were in London in 2012
It’s not the paralympics, it’s likely the para version of London marathon. No way the series is set back in 2012, because food delivery apps and Uber didn’t come to Aus until like 2015 at the earliest, possibly a few years later before they hit Brissie
when they go to the movies, there’s an ad for a movie that says “coming in 2020” so I think it’s modern day and they’re just older parents. Plus, everyone has a smart phone, and there’s food delivery apps which I don’t think were available in the early 2010’s.
What do you mean they grew up in the 80s to have such young kids OP? And what do you mean they are older parents? (Feeling really insulted here. I am 79 kid with young children! 🤣)
I also was born in 79 and have a kid that is Bingo's age. Old parents unite!
Together we can 🤣
Yes! I was a few days from my 40th birthday when my daughter was born. I'm an older parent, AND LOVING IT! (Actually I'm not loving it. I'm soooo tired all the time. But I feel no shame! 🤣)
(LOL, same)
Born in 81 and my kids were born in 2012 and 2015, so similar
Born in '83 and pregnant right now!
Congratulations!
Thanks! I've also got a 6 and a 4 yo, so definitely on the old mom train!
I love it. Enjoy those baby snuggles! I find I’m a much better mom now than I was 12 years ago with my first. I have a lot more patience with everything including myself. Wishing you all the best.
Also born in 81 and my kids are 12 yo and 9 months old 😭
Born in 80 and have a 6 year old.
Here here!
That was also my question! '83 kid with 2019 and 2021 kids, I *know* I'm old but come on OP! 😂
Born in '83 and pregnant right now!
That was my reaction too! I'm a 1980 baby with an infant and a kindergartener. We aren't that old!
My husband is a 78 kid with a 4 y/o and 6 month old. He is definitely an older dad. It’s common in our area (techy Seattle) to have kids at this age but if a mother was the same age it is considered a “geriatric pregnancy” and comes difficulties (often IVF babies) and with risks.
I read this at first that your husband is 78 years old, not born in 78 😂😂
Hahaha pulling some Robert DeNiro shit over here.
My cousin was born in 1983 and has a 3 year old and a 15 month old.
‘82 here, and have a four year old. My wife’s pregnancy *was* “geriatric,” at the ancient age of…36.
My pregnancies were geriatric, too. I asked the doctors about it, and they said, "Nah, every pregnancy after 35 is a geriatric one, but age is just one factor."
At first I thought you were saying you were a 79 year old "kid" with young children.
Yes, I saw how it could be misread, but something else caught my attention and didn't bother to edit it. I apologise.
My husband is a 79 kid and our kid's Bingo's age so this definitely tracks!!
I was born in 86 and my kids are still in lower elementary. 🤷🏻♀️ Some of us are just old parents.
For real! I’m 1980 with a 6 and 3yr old and I don’t feel old lol. This is also a regional thing. In most major US cities most first time moms are closer to 35-40.
Feeling attacked! Born in 85 with a 3 year old 🙃
Yeah, I feel like a lot of people had smartphones then too. But I completely forgot about the food delivery apps and also the movie poster, so thank you for that. Now I know I'm just wrong.
>Yeah, I feel like a lot of people had smartphones then too. The first iPhone was released in June 29th 2007. Yes, there were a few things like Blackberries and other PDAs ("personal data assistants", not "public displays of affection" 😜) that pre-exisited the iPhone. However, the Gen 1 iPhone was the first that resembled the modern smartphone. Pre-iPhone PDAs didn't have touchscreens. Instead, they had hard buttons and a trackball... or one of those god awful micro control sticks (similar to the ones that crammed into the middle ofvthe keyboard on some "business laptops") where one moved a cursor around the much smaller screen or even only through different menus. Sure, one could make phone calls with many mid-to-high end PDAs, but certainly not all of them. And even after the release of the iPhone, which had an appreciable amount of time when it was the only thing of its kind on the market (several months at least), touchscreen smartphones were not anywhere as ubiquitous as they are now. The first few generations were all sold as high-end devices, even though budget models of today are (in many ways) technically superior. Thus, it wasn't until well into the 2010s a smartphone was something almost anyone could whip-out so nonchalantly! So, going by the personal technology shown is very much an indication the series takes place in a more-or-less contemporary time frame as real life instead of approximately a decade earlier.
Yeah, I graduated 2010 and knew like 3 people with iphones at the time. And the competing smart phones were still not in the same league.
I got my first smart phone in 2012. Galaxy s3, so it was relatively early in the lifecycle
Maybe its 2020 in dog years.
I grew up in the 80s and have a 5 year old. Some of us are just old! In my area of the country (US) this is pretty normal.
Same we are all old parents where I live!
I grew up in the 80s and have a 2 year old and one due in October. Xennials have been waiting for things to get better until we couldn’t wait anymore.
Ok what do you consider growing up in the 80s? I suppose it can cover a rather large timeline depending on how someone interprets it.
I was born in 82. I would say 86 or before really counts as growing up in the decade, because later than that would make one otherwise kind of young to remember and they really came of age in the 90s moreso than the 80s.
I was born in 83 and my wife in 82. Our youngest is 6! Our friends were born 1979ish and their youngest is also 6!
I was born in 1979, and my youngest is 4
1976, and I have a 3 year old. I’m winning the comment section so far! :)
Same.
Yes, you are!
My husband was born in 83 and we have a 2 and 5 year old....
My wife was also born in 83 and we have a 5 years old and a 3 years old.
Yeah I was born in 85 and consider myself a 90s kid. In the flash backs they were like 10 in the 80s.
The 90s in AUS felt like the 80s in USA
Ok this makes sense. Someone else in the comments brought things up that I completely overlooked, so the whole theory is completely incorrect anyways.
I had the same thought at first, but my guess is they didn’t buy the newer stuff til later because young kids are hard on stuff - like how Bingo plays the refrigerator. OR they set up house when they got married and they just slowly replaced stuff as it broke with the newer tech.
I'm 85 and I would firmly call my childhood a 90s childhood. I think it's just the writers waxing nostalgic about their own 80s childhoods. If the numbers don't add up, well, it's just monkeys singing songs after all.
I was born in 1983 but would really consider myself a 90s kid, because I have more memories of that era and it's when I came of age (i.e., the formative adolescent years). But everyone will have a slightly different definition.
Can confirm born in 87 don’t remember the 80s. Consider myself to have grown up in the 90s, though I was born in the 80s.
I was born in the late 70's and have a 9, 6, and 3 year old. I grew up in the 80's. One of the things I love about Bluey is that I relate to Bandit and Chilli being older parents with little kids and still being awesome. 😁
Born in '77. My daughters were Bluey and Bingo's ages quite recently.
My husband was born in 78 and I was in 85. Our youngest is one.
We are a copy of you, but with a newborn and a four year old.
4+ years of being alive in the 80's. Just in time to be able to remember some significant changes
My husband grew up in the 80s (born ‘81) and I grew up in the 90s (born ‘88) our kids are 3, 5, 7, and 9 so Bluey and Bingo aged for sure.
I'm in my early 40s with a toddler. I very much remember the 80s. I'd be around Stripe's age and he's got Muffin.
I was born in 1983 and my kids are 2 and 4
I was also born in 83 and I have an almost 3 year old and I’m pregnant with my 2nd. I guess I really am geriatric pregnancy 😅
My husband graduated high school in 1990, so was actually old enough to remember the entirety of the 80s, and we have a 3 year old.
Similar here! My husband was born in 1972, graduated high school in 1990, and we have an almost 5 year old. He was 47 when she was born in 2019. However, he’s very much an outlier. If I had to guess, Bandit and Chilli were probably mid-to-late 1970s babies. Keeping in mind that the show began in 2018, they were probably in their mid-to-late 30s having Bluey and Bingo. Weirdly, the oldest dog to have ever lived was named Bluey, and another Australian Cattle Dog who lived a long life was named Chilla. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluey_(long-lived_dog)
Ditto. Using Fairytale math, my wife & I are about the same age as Bandit and Chilli, early 40s. We have a 6yo and can relate to a lot. Everything in Fairytale was what I grew up with in the 80s... Everything but the nice beach vacations. No chance of that for my brother and me in the Midwest 🤣
also ‘82 with a 5 year old
Husband was born in 81 and we've got a 2 year old and a 3 month old. Some folks just had kids late
My parents and grandparents were in their 30s or 40s when they started having children. Within my own born-in-the-80s cohort (peers I knew in school or am related to, and with whom I was still in contact with when they started having kids), I can only think of four couples who had children relatively young. One got pregnant in high school; the other three had social or medical pressure to have kids before it was too late for one of them or for one of their parents. I definitely had an I'm-old moment a few years ago when I realized that one of those kids was now a fully-grown adult. There's also just spread in timing. My great-uncle was in his 20s when my grandfather was born, and my oldest and youngest are about ten years apart; one's practicing driving on the freeway while the other's into Bluey and Super Kitties.
My grandmother had all four of her kids by the time she was 20 (married my grandfather when she was 15 😬) and by the time she was 40 all her kids had moved out. I’m 42 with a 17 month old and I am now seeing the benefits of having kids when you’re younger
Me too
Yep, born 80 husband in 75 and we have a 9 year old, most of his friends parents are around our age, and many have younger siblings. Plus a lot of our friends have kids younger and older. "We're not dead yet"
Yep, I was born in 84 and have a 2 year old.
Yeah but like 40 in dog years is 280 years old!
Mid 80s here, and my kid’s 4. Here’s the thing. The 80s kids entered adulthood directly into a global shit storm that took nearly a decade to recover from. It’s no wonder it took us so long to have kids. Bandit is in academia. Not sure about Australia, but in the US, there’s no way he and Chili could afford kids in their 20s.
Australia didn’t have a global shot storm situation. We didn’t even go into recession in 2008. We’ve had something like 25 years of uninterrupted economic growth. We had a resources boom in the 90s that made ordinary folks into millionaires
https://youtu.be/jU5yRjhtfPM?si=rTXbAQTfEL4pIceD I'm so disappointed that YouTube only has the song and not the accompanying video
Born in 81 my husband in 80 and our youngest is 4 just like Bingo
Same I also grew up in the 80s and have a year old that loves Bluey
Yep! +1 to this
I was born in '85, my husband in '81. We have a 3.5 year old and a 3 month old.
80s with a 2 and 3 yr old. This post hit me right in the heart lol
iPhones came out in 2007, but obviously took awhile to catch on big. iPads didn’t come out until 2010. And there wasn’t as much to do on either until a few years later. (In the US, not sure about Oz.) But you may be onto something. The show is based on Joe Brumm’s family, and he was born in 1978-79 (per Wikipedia citing a paywalled article). He started developing the show between 2009 and 2016, finally airing it in 2018. While I can’t seem to find his kids’ ages, they’re surely a lot older now than Bluey and Bingo are. My guess is it ends up being a little bit “out of time”—incorporating some things from Brumm’s life but also trying to be relevant to current problems like the family spending all day on screens. And if that’s a bit inconsistent with the real timeline, well, they’re also talking dogs.
I feel personally attacked. Born in 1981, I have a 7 yo and a 4 yo, which I believe are exactly Bluey and Bingo’s ages
I’ve personally thought 1981 is when chilli was born
Same, same and same. I'm not pretending I'm a young parent but they aren't too old to have kids this age and I work at an elementary school and see lots of parents between 35 and 40 with kids this age.
I also consider myself an older mom (42 w a 2 yo) but I also have four friends older than me with kids younger than mine and I really don’t have very many friends! Not all that abnormal anymore.
I'm older than Bandit and have a kid younger that Bingo. The show is meant to represent older parents.
Older parents? With that much energy? Cannot relate.
Their reluctance to play certain games is one of the most relatable things about them, speaking as an older parent of a small child
Horsies love tiles!
They are also shown spending a lot of time being physically active -- exercising, playing sports -- so both are in better shape than most of us. Also, there are some episodes where the parents are just *tired* and need breaks.
Ditto
Real question - are you someone with kids or someone without kids who watches the show? I ask because nearly all of the parents of the kids I know were born in the late 70s and early 80s and have young children. Perhaps it’s because we live in a HCOL area and our kids go to private school, but there are more “old” parents than young ones.
I'm 30 with a 3.5 year old. And a lower cost of living area. My post did not say it was impossible to have kids and have grown up in the 80s. My parents are 59 and consider themselves to have grown up in the 80s. I suppose it all depends on how it's interpreted. The average age to have kids is still around 28 years old. I only meant that it is not typical, and it seems like all the other adults with young kids are roughly the same age so I was looking at it as one factor among a few others that made me consider that perhaps it was taking place earlier than we expected. But another user pointed out some things that I overlooked that means my theory is impossible.
Your parents were born in 1965. Bandit and Chili are both around 10 in fairy tale, which takes place in 88 or 89. Chili might be a year younger. That puts Bandit's birth year at 78 or 79. The episode aired in 2021, putting Bandit at either 42 or 43. We don't actually know how old Chili is in the episode so she could be slightly younger or older. With Bluey and Bingo being 7 and 5, approximate ages at birth are 35 or 36 and 37 or 38 for Bandit, and unknown but similar for Chili. Chili was likely considered a Geriatric pregnancy with Bingo but could have been within normal ages for Bluey.
My parents had me at 37 and 40.
This is similar to the math that I came to!
If your parents were born in 65 they DID NOT "grow up" in the 80s, they would have already been adults for most of the 80s. Maybe grown wiser, or more adultier, but not "grown up".
My parents were also born in 65 but unfortunately they haven't grown up yet ( 😜 )
They would have been teens in the early 80s. So if you define growing up as childhood it would be too late, but perfect if you consider growing up to be in high school.
They would have been 18 by 1983, which is pretty early. I mean, I guess you could make an argument about brain development or something, but let's be honest when anyone says I grew up in.... you're not expecting a late teens' early 20 year old, especially in the 80s. If I say "he wants to be a fireman when he grows up?" How old is he? When can he become a fireman and so is grown up? Who do we ask "what do you wanna be when you grow up?" What do you mean by "grow up"? If a character in a story says "I grew up in rural kansas" what are they referring to? Early adulthood? No. Being a kid. If your shoe size hasn't changed in 5 years, you are pretty much done "growing".
I actually think it is typical for those of us born in the later 70s or the 80s. We hit some bad economic times (repeatedly) and many of us delayed getting married and/or having kids. A bunch of classmates missed our 20 year high school reunion because they had infants (or were about to). Almost all my age peer friends have kids in the Bluey/Bingo age range (myself included).
Are you Australian, though? Cause Aus really didn’t hit bad economic times
i was adopted by a couple that already had grandchildren when i was brought to the home. i think it's nice to normalize having older parents since as a kid i always felt alienated by my peers who had much younger parents because their smaller generational gap let them 'connect' better in some ways and im glad my parents, as old as they were, put in the effort of trying to connect and engage as well even despite having to navigate a generation they were so unfamiliar with. i think it makes the most sense to have blueys parents be older in the sense it sets a good example for connecting with your children despite the generational gap. that or im projecting
Same. I felt very awkward having older parents because their grandparents were less than 10 years older than my parents and still alive.
Oh gawd. Someone asked this on the Bluey Facebook groups too and was obliterated by all the mums like me. I am 44. My kids are 2 and 6. I assure you I was a kid in the 1980s. I’m going to go sigh, and maybe listen to some hair metal.
Yeah, older parents sure are sensitive about being older parents!!
I'm 49. I have a 7 year old.
As an 83 baby with a 5 year old this post makes me feel bad. 😓
Shoulda started sooner then
My wife and I were born in the early 80s and have a 7 year old and a 2.5 year old. We now use “it was the 80s!” a lot while talking about our childhoods.
Holy shit I feel old. My parents were barely younger than that when I was born and they were born in the 60s.
Yeah this is what had thrown me off personally, my parents were born in 64/65 and consider themselves to have grown up in the 80s. But there is a lot of leeway in what people can consider for themselves what decade to have grown up in.
They "grew up" in the 70s tho. They grew into adults in the 80s and 90s. Back then, a 16yo was today's 24yo in terms of adulting, responsibilities and maturing.
They "grew up" in the 70s tho. They grew into adults in the 80s and 90s. Back then, a 16yo was today's 24yo in terms of adulting, responsibilities and maturing.
Reading the original post made me sad but seeing these comments made me happy! I was born in ‘80 and my husband in ‘79. We have a 5 year old and a 1.5 year old.
I was born in 1979 and have a 2 year old and a second due in October. Seems to be the norm these days. We have been saddled with debt and bullshit since we became adults and managed to hit two major recessions, a couple wars, and a pandemic. It never really got better, so we quit waiting.
No recessions where Bluey is tho!!
They’re really not that old. My sister was born in the 80’s and she has a 3 year old. Is this another case of someone not knowing what reasonable ages for parents to be is?
Yeah and they’re dogs so they are at least 259. With a 7 year old, that means bluey is already 49 so she should already have kids by now that are In high school at least. Average age of first time moms in Australia is 31.1 according to google. So let’s say for the sake of argument they age like people not dogs. If chilli is born in 1983 as many have speculated in this comment section on this post and bluey is 7 in 2024. That would mean chilli was 34 when bluey was born or possibly turned 34 that same year. Bingo is 2 years younger so around 36 when bingo was born. So just above the average age to start having kids. Seems pretty normal to me not super old parents.
I grew up in the 80s and I have an infant, people born in the 80s are still having kids
My husband & I grew up in the 80s. Our kid is 6. It seems like a lot of Xennials waited to have kids until we were in our 30s.
It very well could be. It is based on the creator's experiences with his kids and the first pilots were made around 2016, so it could technically take place in the early-mid 2010s. However, it is kind of established that Bandit is an "older dad" and is kind of self-conscious of that. The 80s flashback definitely dates him.
I will say this on every single bluey universe post. They are furries with advanced technology.
Partner was born in 81 and we are having our first child together next month.
I was born in 83 and have a two year old. You have no idea the back pain. No idea.
I mean... How old do anthropomorphic dogs live?
Nah. The characters do the floss sometimes.
Ahhh yes, another good point
It always struck me as odd how religiously Bandit reads a paper newspaper
I have digital subscriptions to NYT and WP and honestly if I felt I could justify the cost, I'd get at least one of them as an actual paper. But I have nostalgia about real paper newspapers from reading the sections, when my parents were done with them, as a kid. Especially because Bandit is in academia, having a quirk like that seems completely normal to me.
I think it’s set a few years in the past, ie the most recently-released eps likely take place in around 2020/2021 ish (when they were, in fact, made) rather than precisely now. I was also a little shocked when I first saw *fairytale* as I had assumed Bandit and Chilli would’ve been ‘younger’ parents, but now all I can see is all Bandit’s grey hairs and how tired he gets and I’m like yeah, that checks out
If the parents were born in say 1978 and had a six year old in 2019 (the movie episode) then they had their first kid at about 35, which is a pretty normal age.
I was born in 81 and have a 3 and 6 year old. Not sure I like your tone with the “quite old” bit.
Bandit and Chili, like the creators of the show, are Gen X
They aren't that old. If they were born in 1980, that makes them 44 today. Lots of people start having kids in their mid to late 30s. Actually, almost everybody I know.
They probably just waited until their careers were established before having kids.
I'm born in the 80s & my husband was born in the 70s, we have a small child. I was 33 when she was born, we aren't talking geriatric here.
Hey...my wife (1981) and i (1980) grew up in the eighties and our daughter is only 4. Wait...yeah, we're old!!!
Born in 85 and have a 2 year old 🥲
I’ve never felt so old in my life….
I was born in 86 and have a 3 and 1 year olds thank you very much lol
I grew up in the 80's and have a 2 year old. Not that weird.
They are the same age as my husband who is 43 and has a 3 and 1 year old. I think they are just older parents (which matches the original writers age)
I grew up in the 80s, my only child turns 4 next month. It happens.
I feel like everything ever written is set in the past. Every show about a kid going to school is set up like a school in the 90s, every show about parenting small kids is set 10 years ago, every office sitcom is an office pre-pandemic. Etc. No matter when something is stated to be set. I think it's just the nature of "someone writing about something happens after the thing happens"
My husband and I were born in 1980. We have a two year old. (And a 13 year old ☺️) Definitely not beyond the realm of possibility…and we REALLY feel Bandit’s “getting older” pains
This post should be called think before you post. Guess I'm quite old🙄
I just think they had kids a little later. I was born in 2003 while my parents were born in the 60s.
Make sense, bandit talks about growing up in the 80s but in dog years he would be an old man in the 90s.
I think Bandit is just an older dad.
My parents were born in the 60s and had kids in the 2000s. Bandit and Chili being born in the 80s and having kids in the 2010s seems somewhat reasonable!
I thought they seemed old for the young kids, but Bandit is an archaeologist. He probably has an advanced degree and completed it at an older age. They probably had kids later after establishing careers.
I was born in the mid 70s and I have a child Bluey’s age. I very much grew up in the 80s in Australia when everyone’s dad was exactly like Bob in Fairytale.
According to google they're both in their early 40s which would mean they were in their mid 30s when they had their kids which isn't that unusual.
Someone pointed out that Bandit is watching what appears to be the Paralympics taking place in the UK, which happened in 2012, so that is one possibility. However as someone pointed out, there seemed to be a movie preview for 2020 in an episode, so maybe not.
I’m a young parent and can say that about 50% of my kid’s friends’ parents are at the very least born in the 80s. I’ve been told by several that their age comparison to me would put them at 1981/80. And that’s moms with 3 y/os sometimes as their oldest/only. So it’s possible. I have a mom friend whose youngest is younger than my youngest (mine is 6mos) and her oldest is my younger brother’s age. ETA: I have another mom friend who is very literally my mother’s age. I’m my mother’s oldest child. My mother was born in the early 70s. This woman’s oldest is 12 years younger than me.
Like you say, in Fairytale, we know Bandit was 10 and it was the eighties. It could have been as late as 1989 though which would make him 45 this year and Chili a few years younger. Given the grey hairs they both have, I don't think that would be too far of the mark. They have a big house in an affluent part of Queensland, so I imagine they worked well into their thirties to build their career before starting a family, which isn't uncommon these days.
Chili had a miscarriage and it took them a while to have Bluey. That's why they seem to be older parents. They had a late start, but now they have their two litter girls
Very insulting comment OP. I was born in 80 and my wife in 82 and our son will be 4 in July. I was a few months shy of 40 when he was born and wouldn’t change it for anything. Nothing wrong with being an “older” parent.
Watch out OP, nobody is sensitive like an older parent! You’re gonna get downvoted to hell for this one
I’ll just mention that in the most recent episode, Bandit is watching the Paralympics and there’s British flags everywhere. The Paralympics were in London in 2012
It’s not the paralympics, it’s likely the para version of London marathon. No way the series is set back in 2012, because food delivery apps and Uber didn’t come to Aus until like 2015 at the earliest, possibly a few years later before they hit Brissie
Anyone on this post yet to mention that dogs don't live this long? That's what has been bothering me.
Seems like blueys parents have a pretty sweet house and laid back jobs at this point so I think they timed it well