Chilli Heeler Is Every Mom On Vacation, Ever, In New Bluey Episode

Our beloved Heeler family is on vacation in a number of the new Bluey episodes that came out today on Disney+. Fans theorize that they’re on holiday in Caloundra, the southernmost town on Australia’s Sunshine Coast, and it looks like a pretty dreamy place to be. Bandit looks like he’s totally ready to “chill the beans” as they pull up to their hotel parking lot in Ep. 30, “Relax”, and Bluey and Bingo are likewise joyful, singing together without a care in the world. Unfortunately, Chilli Heeler is not yet in vacation mode. “Come on lift, we haven’t got all day,” she mumbles as she punches the elevator buttons. “Yes we have!” Bluey counters. Gently, Bandit reminds Chilli to “relax, we’re on holiday.”

“I’ll relax when I’m on the beach reading my book,” she says, explaining to the kids that her book is about ‘how to be happy.’ With multiple bags on each shoulder, she ushers her family into the elevator and toward their hotel room. Once there, the girls rush around, delighting in every mundane detail the room has to offer — bubble bath! paper on the toilet seat! tiny soaps! — Chilli grows increasingly frustrated that no one is helping her get to the beach so she can relax.

In other words, the degree to which this episode of Bluey has moms pegged is so precise it’s almost painful. Watching her try (and fail) to force “relaxing” to happen is one of the most relatable parenting moments we’ve ever seen captured on screen.

The kids are so busy being thrilled with everything right in front of them in their very basic hotel room, that they haven’t put sunscreen on yet as Chilli asked. “Come on!” she begs them. “I want to start relaxing.”

Bandit swoops in, and suggests that Chilli goes to the beach on her own, while the kids take a bath (as they’re begging to do). Slightly stunned, she accepts. With her book and hat, she makes her way to the beach. Once there, though everything is just as she planned, the elusive “relax” moment doesn’t come. She begins her book. Puts it down. Picks it up again.

Cut to her wandering, defeated, back into the hotel room. “I don’t know how to relax!” she wails to Bandit. He soothes her, and directs her attention to Bluey and Bingo, who are giggling as they play the room’s reclining chair.

At last, it clicks. The kids were never the barrier to the day she envisioned — rather, they are the gateway. Not to the exact circumstances she imagined, but to the feeling she’s chasing. Bingo and Bluey are, by nature, a master class in everything she’s been looking for: Joy, presence, play.

“You kids just go about it, don’t you?” she says, as Bandit hands her a cup of tea. She wanders out onto the balcony. She breathes deeply, the world glows around her. What she was looking for was right in front of her all along, it just didn’t look the way she thought it would. Life as a parent often doesn’t look exactly they way we plan. But as Bluey’s creators know, our children give us just as much as we give to them. Sometimes, we just need a little change in perspective in order to see it all clearly.