10 Reasons Why Chilli Heeler From Bluey Is Actually Our Favorite TV Mum

In the penultimate scene of Season 1’s fan-favorite episode “Camping,” Bingo wakes up in the middle of the night for a “bush wee.” Bluey accompanies her mom and sister and begins to share her feelings of sadness about her friend leaving. As Chilli holds a groggy Bingo, she warmly tells Bluey:

“Sometimes special people come into our lives, stay for a bit, and then they have to go.”

“But that’s sad,” Bluey says.

“It is,” Chilli replies. “But the bit where they were here was happy, wasn’t it? Maybe that makes it all worth it.”

At this point she turns off the camping lantern to give Bluey a better view of a night sky full of stars.

The fact that she can impart grand life lessons while helping a second child with potty business is just one reason she’s the G.O.A.T.

In “Queens,” Bingo and Bluey take turns pretending who gets to be the Queen and who gets to be the Queen’s butler. In the background, Chilli, affecting a cockney accent as she scrubbed cockatoo poo off the verandah (“it’s gotta be done,” as Bandit would say), inadvertently inspire the girls to understand the power of hard work and determination.

In the end, Chilli is rewarded by being crowned Queen herself.

When Bluey decides to mother a bundle of colorful balloons, Chilli takes on the role of professor in “Mum School.” It isn’t long before Bluey realizes that being a mum is a lot more challenging than she initially believed. When Greeny, her particularly buoyant and independent “child” floats away despite her best efforts, she and Chilli watch it float off into the distance.

“Does this mean I failed Mum School?” she asks.

“Well... yeah,” Chilli replies. “That’s OK. We all fail Mum School sometimes. We can just start again tomorrow.”

On behalf of all mothers: thanks, Chilli. We needed that.

One thing you need to know about Chilli’s husband Bandit is that he’s not one to go easy on kids in competitions just because they’re kids. So Chilli takes it upon herself to train Bluey to get faster and stronger to be able to take her dad on head to head.

Channelling the Australian classic Gallipoli she urges her “How fast can you run?”

“Ask fast as a greyhound!” Bluey replies in determined excitement.

“How fast are you going to run?”

“As fast as a greyhound!”

That’s the thing with Chilli: she’s going to be the one to lovingly and encouragingly pushing you to be your best, all while loving you unconditionally no matter who wins the race.

It’s a rule of adulthood that, generally speaking, we don’t like getting wet for no particular reason. In the wordless episode “Rain,” Chilli watches Bluey playing outside in the rain. Specifically, she’s attempting to dam the water flowing down their driveway. Chilli, determined that she not track water through the house, attempts to dissuade her from running in and out to gather more supplies, but ultimately finds herself watching her daughter and seeing this moment through a child’s eyes. Eventually she joins Bluey in her efforts, going so far as to throw down her umbrella and get wet.

As a mom, it’s very easy to get stuck in patterns of how things should go and not sit in a moment and enjoy it. Even when you’re Chilli! Fortunately she’s there to remind us to stop and smell the roses, even when it’s a bit drizzly out.

Have you ever had those days where everyone seems to be off their game? This was the case in Season 3’s “Musical Statues.” Everyone is feeling pretty “blah” and, not keen to let that stand, Chilli declares a game of Musical Statues (which fans will notice is the game the family plays in the opening credits; in America, we call it Freeze Dance). At first not everyone is into it, but once they get their bodies moving and find music they enjoy, everyone has fun and wants to keep going. In fact, they love it so much no one wants to be the one to stop the music, so Chilli comes up with alternative rules.

“In this version of Musical Statues, there’s no winner or loser. It’s not about getting to the end or getting to the weekend or the forever weekend. It’s a musical thing: you’re just supposed to dance while the music’s being played.”

A brilliant idea capped with a valuable life lesson? Classic Chilli.

One of our favorite episodes over here is “Whale Watching,” because it’s so obviously at least as much for parents as it is for kids. After a clearly raucous evening (apparently Chilli was dancing on a table, which only makes us love her more), Chilli and Bandit lie groggily on the couch and floor respectively. It’s very clear they’re hungover. But that doesn’t stop their kids from being kids and demanding they play an energetic game of Whale Watching. Bluey is the Captain, Bingo is the passenger, Bandit is the boat, and Chilli is the whale who they’re hoping to see jump out of the water.

All this whale wants to do is eat corn chips and sour cream. But in a burst of maternal energy (and probably a bit of guilt after she pops her kids in front of the TV), Chilli epically leaps directly onto the “boat.”

Ya love to see a mom rally....

In “Relax,” Chilli has worked really hard to ensure the family is all ready for vacation. She wants everything to run smoothly so that she can sit on the beach with her book and finally relax. But when she’s finally able to get her wish, she realizes that she doesn’t exactly remember how to relax and, honestly, we’ve been there! It’s hard for a mom.

We see you, Chilli. We are you.

In “Chest,” Bandit is determined to teach Bluey how to play chess. Chilli is skeptical — 7 years old seems a bit young to teach a kid chess — but Dad appears undaunted and uncharacteristically serious. It isn’t too long before Chilli gets to the bottom of this mission: she realizes that Bandit wants to teach the girls chess because smart people know chess and he wants them to grow up clever. Right now they might just be little “prawns” (pawns), but someday they’ll be queens. He won’t always be there to protect them and wants to prepare them.

“Because he’s a good king,” she concludes.

“And you’re a good queen,” says a sobered Bandit.

“Work on their heads later,” she advises him. “For now, just hearts.”

I mean... you knew we couldn’t have a good list of Chilli’s greatest hits without including this absolute banger. “Sleepytime” is not just a fan favorite but quite possibly the fan favorite episode of the series. It features Bingo wanting to do a “big girl sleep” where she wakes up in her own bed. Chilli encourages her, but lets her know that she’s always there if she needs her.

The episode goes back and forth between Bingo’s celestial dream and her sleep-walking in real life. When Dream Bingo finds herself cold, alone, and crying (in real life she’s been left without a blanket), her Real Life Mom hears her whimpering and walks over to her bed for a snuggle. In the dream, this launches Bingo to a planet immediately in front of the warm, comforting glow of the sun, who speaks in her mother’s voice. “Remember, I’ll always be here for you,” the sun says in her mother’s voice. “Even if you can’t see me. Because I love you.”

Are you crying? I’m crying and I’ve seen this episode about 20 times. Now add to that the emotional weight of all of this is played against a brilliantly composed variation on Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter.”