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Grown-ups are saying this 'Bluey' episode might be the best 8 minutes of TV ever made

"Bluey" is made for kids, but adults might love it even more.

Bluey/YouTube

Bluey's little sister Bingo learns to wake up in her own bed in "Sleepytime."

If you're reading this article as an adult who keeps hearing people talk about "Bluey" and are wondering what all the fuss is about, hi there. I used to be you. I'd heard people recommend "Bluey" over and over, but I had no inclination to watch a children's show after already paying my dues in that department. My youngest is a teenager. Why on Earth would I want to watch "Bluey?"

I was wrong. So very wrong. It took my teen checking it out and getting hooked for me to finally cave and watch a few episodes. Initial intrigue morphed into sheer delight, and now I'm a totally unapologetic "Bluey" evangelist.

And I'm not alone. More and more adults are falling for the family of Australian Blue Heeler dogs and comparing their favorite episodes. One fan favorite that comes up frequently is "Sleepytime." Many adults find themselves in a puddle by the end of it. But why?

Blue does a lot of things beautifully, but one of them is creatively highlighting child development milestones. In "Sleepytime," Bingo, the youngest, wants to "do a big girl sleep" and wake up in her own bed in the morning. The episode follows the family through the night, alternating between Bingo's dream world and the "musical beds" happening in the real world.

Really, it's a short tale about growing up, letting go in your own time, knowing Mom is always there even if you can't see her and the reality of sleep in families with young children.

X user Justin Dubin, MD, a first-time "Bluey" watcher, shared his thoughts on "Sleepytime" after seeing that it was ranked as one of the best episodes of TV ever on IMDB.

"Good god, it’s perfect," Dubin wrote. "Rarely do you see such a simple idea considered in such a complex and relatable way. In just 8 minutes it tackles parenthood, growing up, independence, and family dynamics- all with very little dialogue."

@justindubinmd @IMDb @BlueyCommunity @OfficialBlueyTV It is an absolutely incredible episode. \n\nIt\u2019s so perfect. The choice of Gustav Holst\u2019s Jupiter for the soundtrack was so amazingly selected.
— (@)

While there's much less dialogue in "Sleepytime" than there is in a normal "Bluey" episode, the music (Holst's "Jupiter" from "The Planets") creates a sense of magic as Bingo floats around in space, gravitating toward the warmth of her mother, getting help from her stuffed bunny, Floppy, and friends, and ultimately finding comfort without Mom. And all of that magic is interspersed with real life in which kids are asking for water, climbing into Mom and Dad's bed, kicking in their sleep, sleepwalking, and more.

First of all, a kids' show acknowledging that children end up in parents' or siblings' beds frequently is refreshing to see. So real. Second of all, the tenderness with which Bingo's budding independence is handled is just lovely. People often praise "Bluey" as a show that depicts good parenting examples, and it does. But it does that while being real—there's one episode where Chili, Bluey and Bingo's mom, says, "I JUST NEED 20 MINUTES WHERE NO ONE COMES NEAR ME," and moms everywhere felt it in their bones.

The beginning of the "Sleepytime" episode is shown at the beginning of this video on Bluey's YouTube channel if you want a taste:

But to see more than the first couple of minutes, you'll have to watch the entire episode on Disney + (Season 2, Episode 26). It honestly might be worth the subscription price for a month just to watch all the Bluey episodes.

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bluey

'I will not let angry strangers tell my son what he can or cannot wear.'

When people ask Jen Anderson Shattuck's 3-year-old son about the sparkly tutus he likes to wear, he says they make him feel beautiful and brave.

He wisely says there are no rules about what boys can wear or what girls can wear.

Jen says people are generally pretty accepting of the tutus ... except for people like the stranger Jen and her son met a few weeks ago. Check out Jen's Facebook post below about what the man said and how she responded:

My three-and-a-half-year-old son likes to play trucks. He likes to do jigsaw puzzles. He likes to eat plums. And he...
Posted by Jen Anderson Shattuck on Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Here's the full text:

My three-and-a-half-year-old son likes to play trucks. He likes to do jigsaw puzzles. He likes to eat plums. And he likes to wear sparkly tutus. If asked, he will say the tutus make him feel beautiful and brave. If asked, he will say there are no rules about what boys can wear or what girls can wear.

My son has worn tutus to church. He has worn tutus to the grocery store. He has worn tutus on the train and in the sandbox. It has been, in our part of the world, a non-issue. We have been asked some well-intentioned questions; we've answered them; it has been fine. It WAS fine, until yesterday.

Yesterday, on our walk to the park, my son and I were accosted by someone who demanded to know why my son was wearing a skirt. We didn't know him, but he appeared to have been watching us for some time.

"I'm just curious," the man said. "Why do you keep doing this to your son?"

He wasn't curious. He didn't want answers. He wanted to make sure we both knew that what my son was doing---what I was ALLOWING him to do---was wrong."She shouldn't keep doing this to you," he said. He spoke directly to my son. "You're a boy. She's a bad mommy. It's child abuse."

He took pictures of us, although I asked him not to; he threatened me. "Now everyone will know," he said. "You'll see."

I called the police. They came, they took their report, they complimented the skirt. Still, my son does not feel safe today. He wants to know: "Is the man coming back? The bad man? Is he going to shout more unkind things about my skirt? Is he going to take more pictures?"

I can't say for sure. But I can say this: I will not be intimidated. I will not be made to feel vulnerable or afraid. I will not let angry strangers tell my son what he can or cannot wear.

The world may not love my son for who he is, but I do. I was put on this earth to make sure he knows it.

I will shout my love from street corners.

I will defend, shouting, his right to walk down the street in peace, wearing whatever items of clothing he wants to wear.

I will show him, in whatever way I can, that I value the person he is, trust in his vision for himself, and support his choices---no matter what anybody else says, no matter who tries to stop him or how often.

Our family has a motto. The motto is this:

We are loving.

We are kind.

We are determined and persistent.

We are beautiful and brave.

We know who we are. Angry strangers will not change who we are. The world will not change who we are---we will change the world.

Jen's Facebook post has been met with an outpouring of support since she posted her story.

It's been shared over 51,000 times, and the comments have been empowering and supportive overall. Sure, there will always be haters. And yes, tutus are frilly, sparkly garments often associated with girls and princesses, sugar and spice and everything nice. But is there a rule that says boys can't also love those things? Nope.

Jen's not alone in her open-minded approach to her kid's self-expression. Charlize Theron was recently criticized after her son was photographed dressed as Elsa from "Frozen," but she supported his choices just like Jen did.

Kudos to Jen (and other parents like her!) for encouraging this awesome display of self-expression. And kudos to her young son for not letting small-minded people get in the way of his desire to express himself!

More young people than ever are living with their families. But does that make them less independent?

For about four months last year, I needed to live with my family.

A month after I turned 26, my housing plans fell apart. Suddenly, I found myself living in Seattle with few resources and nowhere to go.

Couch-surfing might not seem so bad at first, but talk to me again after a week, mister. Photo from iStock.

I tried couch-surfing for about a month. I'd stay for a week at one friend's house, then for a few days at another.

But it soon became apparent that I needed a long-term solution. So I asked a nearby family member, my aunt, if I could stay with her.

Don't get me wrong — I love my family. But the whole experience kind of messed with my head.

What did living with my family say about me? I had recently earned a master's degree, and people kept calling me successful — but I didn't feel successful. Could I call myself an independent adult if I wasn't living on my own?

Also, where did this beanie and scarf come from? Photo from iStock.

That's how I fell into a rut of looking at independence as a "yes" or "no" thing.

I felt like living on my own was independent, and living with my family was not. But the truth is that it's not a yes or no thing at all.

In fact, a recent study showed that for most young people today, independence has become a lot more nuanced than it was in the past.

North Carolina State University sociology professor Anna Manzoni analyzed data about the lives of more than 14,000 Americans age 18-25.

She measured the idea of independence in a few different ways: by whether the subject had their own living space, by asking them to record their earnings and whether they got financial support from their parents, and by considering their own perceptions of independence and adulthood.

Most young people can be roughly split into four different, nearly evenly split groups of independence.

Only about 28% of the people she surveyed were classified as fully independent — people who lived by themselves, didn't receive support from their families, and personally felt independent.

On the other extreme, only 23% were more or less dependent. They lived with their parents, received financial support, and thought of themselves as dependent.

In between those two, however, were two more groups, making up about half of the population:

About 24% were a category I'll call free range. They live apart from family and have their own finances but still feel connected in an emotional way to their parent's home.

And another 25% were what I'd call housemates. They're financially independent, and thought of themselves as mostly independent, but lived with their parents.

What does this tell us? In real life, people's relationships with their families are a lot more nuanced than just "independent" or "dependent."

Everyone's situation is different, and independence today is definitely on a spectrum.

In many families, older siblings help raise younger ones. Photo from iStock.

Maybe a young person is staying at home while going to school so they can save money while living under mountains of student debt.

Or maybe that young person is one of the many folks who stay with their family in order to take care of an ailing loved one, to help raise younger siblings, or to help provide financially.

Or maybe they come from one of the many cultures around the world that encourage kids to stay with their families for years.

As today's millennials come into adulthood, their independence is likely to fall onto more of a spectrum than in years past.

This research could hopefully help inform future research and policies for the public, too.

"The fact that we have this diverse range of groups across the spectrum of independence, and that each of these groups is so well-represented in the population, means we need to stop thinking of independence as a binary concept: either dependent or independent," Manzoni said in a press release.

"It's more complicated than that. Our research and policies — on everything from education to housing — need to reflect these nuances, because they are important."

Today, I have my own place again. But now I'll think differently about what it means to be independent.

Like so many things in life, it comes down to what's best for each of us.

Haiti has always charted bold new paths in its fight for independence.

From the slave rebellion that made it its own nation — the first nation formed by slaves — to its economic struggles and fight to rebuild, the Haitian identity has been unyielding in its quest for freedom and stability.

Image by Todd Huffman/Flickr.

But political freedom and economic stability have been hard to sustain.

Immediately after kicking its French colonizers to the curb, Haiti's independence was undermined. It was required to pay a large indemnity to France or risk not being recognized by many other countries as its own nation, an action that would leave the country in a constant state of debt to France. Haiti, in search of legitimacy and security, paid the fine.

Playing by the rules didn't protect Haiti from being a pawn in the West's political ambitions.

In 1915, 330 U.S. Marines landed at Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Their arrival marked the beginning of a U.S. occupation that lasted almost 19 years. The U.S. took over the Haitian government, changed its laws, and fought a long and bloody battle in an attempt to get the Haitians to yield to its rule and protect its interests. As the United States Office of the Historian summarizes it:

"As a potential naval base for the United States, Haiti's stability concerned U.S. diplomatic and defense officials who feared that Haitian instability might result in foreign rule of Haiti. ... In 1914, the Wilson administration sent U.S. Marines into Haiti. They removed $500,000 from the Haitian National Bank in December of 1914 ... thus giving the United States control of the bank. ... President Wilson sent the U.S. Marines to Haiti to prevent anarchy. In actuality, the act protected U.S. assets in the area and prevented a possible German invasion."

The occupation ultimately failed, but the damage was already done. Again, Haiti had suffered the effects of another nation's ambitions and was left even more unstable and disparaged than before. Still, the people remained focused on their freedom.

In some regards, Haiti's history is not that different from many African nations, which have also had a long and sordid history with Western powers.

Image by Julien Harneis/Flickr.

From occupations and invasions to the division of the continent, African nations have suffered as a result of Western interests.

First, there was the "Scramble for Africa." Historian Saul David describes the mad dash for control of the African continent: "As late as the 1870s, only 10% of the continent was under direct European control ... by 1900, Europeans ruled more than 90% of the African continent."

Then, there was the partitioning of Africa during the Berlin Conference, which David explains "began the process of carving up Africa, paying no attention to local culture or ethnic groups, and leaving people from the same tribe on separate sides of European-imposed borders."

Both events were at the whim of Western powers that approached people in African countries as things to own. After centuries of suffering, those nations have taken action to unify and heal from the still-evident effects of colonial rule.

In an attempt to reclaim the African continent's resources, culture, and economic power, the African Union was founded in 2001.

The controversial and much maligned dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, led the creation of the African Union. Yes, that Gaddafi — the deposed Libyan leader who was killed on Oct. 20, 2011. While the good and the bad of his rule have been widely discussed and debated, he had a vision of a unified Africa, which would include "Caribbean islands with African populations," as stated in his 2009 speech in Tripoli.

Now, five years after his death, that vision could become a reality.

Image by Arsen.Shnurkov/Wikimedia Commons.

Haiti has expressed a bold desire to join the African Union, wading into uncharted waters in another attempt to take control.

After years of turmoil and destruction, Haiti sees its path to rebuilding — with the support and protection of empathetic African nations.

"To know where you're going, you need to know where you're from," the Haitian ambassador Jacques Junior Baril said in a recent interview with SABC Digital news. And the close cultural connection and mutual respect between the AU and Haiti is clearly evident. In 2010, former African Union chairman, Jean Ping said, "We have attachment and links to that country. The first black republic that carried high the flame of liberation and freedom for black people."

But the African Union isn't sold on the idea.

While there is potential for the formation of a "sixth region" of global delegates who will represent the African diaspora, Haiti may not be admitted into the African Union, instead remaining an observing member.

The Haitian ambassador stated, "It's not something we decided, it's a place that we earned after we fought for our independence 212 years ago. We paved the way for every other African nation to be free today, so historically speaking Haiti should have been in the AU already." While Haiti has made its intentions clear, ultimately, it's not for Haiti to decide.

Regardless of its status in the African Union, Haiti will continue to shatter boundaries, working toward the integrity and national sovereignty that they have long fought for.

Image via Chad Sparkes/Flickr.

Heroes

This incredible smartwatch converts texts and emails into braille.

Dot Inc. is making giant leaps in braille technology and accessibility.

There hasn't really been a true innovation in technology for the blind in 15 years. Until now.

When Eric Ju Yoon Kim was in college at the University of Washington, he saw something that he thought should change.

A blind student entered a group meeting Kim was attending with a massive heavy book. It was the bible translated into braille — and the massive book was just one of the 23 volumes necessary to read the whole text.

There should be a device, Kim thought, that lets people with visual impairments read whenever and wherever they want without having to lug giant books around with them. A digital reading device perhaps, like a braille iPad. Surely someone had thought of that.

To Kim's surprise, such a device didn't exist.

He saw a need and set out to fill it.

Eric Ju Yoon Kim (center) and the rest of the Dot team. Photo from dotincorp.com, used with permission.

Kim put together a team of specialists in hardware, software ,and design and is now the CEO of Dot Inc.

The company specializes in tech innovations for the blind and visually impaired. Its mission is to increase braille accessibility and literacy and to "reduce the invisible discrimination against people living with blindness."

Their latest product, the Dot Watch, is a sleek and stylish smartwatch that converts texts, emails, notifications, and even e-books, into braille.

Sleek, stylish, and innovative. Photo courtesy of Doo Hyuk Chang and Dot Inc.

"While talking with visually impaired people themselves, there were many who said that the current watches made for [them] have their own flaws." Doo Hyuk Chang, Dot's Head of Media Relations, told Upworthy.

Previous watches for the visually impaired tended to rely on sound to relay information.

"Feedback by sound is absolutely fine," Chang said, "But what about in public places or during meetings? There are many situations where sound feedback is not the best way."

The Dot Watch. Photo courtesy of Doo Hyuk Chang and Dot Inc

When a Dot Watch wearer gets a text message, the watch vibrates and small pins on its surface rise and fall to produce 4 braille characters at a time. So maybe it's not the best way to read a novel, but it's an amazing development nonetheless.

When the Dot Watch isn't translating text notifications, like any other smart watch, it displays the time.

As touch screens become ubiquitous, technology becomes understandably limited for the visually impaired who navigate the world by touch and feel.

Dot's goal is to make the technology that many of us take for granted every day accessible to everyone.

"We are also thinking of a module that will be installed in public areas such as bus stops, metro stations, airports, and other locations," Chang told Upworthy of the company's road map. "For example, it could display the bus number, station name, time left for next transport to arrive."

But Dot's braille innovations mean little if the braille literacy rate remains where it is.

The National Federation of the Blind reports that only 10% of blind students in the U.S. are being taught braille in school.

That's the other problem Dot wants to solve.

"Through our devices," says Chang "not only the Dot Watch but also products in our future road map, we want to make the education of braille easier and accessible."

Users of the watch will have access to an app that can pronounce, out loud, a letter on your phone while displaying it on the watch in braille, providing an easy and convenient way for people to learn braille on their own.

Dot also wants to improve literacy with the upcoming Dot Pad, the device that fulfills Eric Ju Yoon Kim's vision of a braille iPad.

A preview of the Dot Pad, still in development. Photo from dotincorp.com used with permission.

According to Doo Hyuk Chang, the Dot Pad "will be the first braille device that can display in several lines, and not, all in one line like the products out in the market right now."

It will also be the first device to display graphs, functions, and other mathematical content that will make learning immeasurably easier for the visually impaired.

"This pad will make the education of braille easier, and education of studies in braille easier," Chang explains.

The company's use of simple magnets and materials also means their products are affordable.

Currently, the Dot Watch is only $300 for pre-order.

If that doesn't sound affordable, it's important to note that braille reading machines can cost thousands of dollars, which is a lot to ask of the estimated 10 million people in the U.S. who are blind or visually impaired.

Dot's vision of a world with more innovations for the blind is inspiring. And as their company grows, so does their mission.

"Our goal in the end is to have total independence [for] visually impaired people," explains Chang. "Visually impaired people walking on the streets alone without canes or guide dogs is what we are going to make possible one day, and technology is the key to this process."

When compassion intersects with technology, amazing things can happen.

It's often the most simple ideas that make the world a better place for everyone.

The Dot Watch is currently available for early pre-order on their website.