The Bug Dilemma: how play and a connection with nature develops morality
Bingo and Lila enjoying a backyard waterslide (ABC’s Bluey - ‘Slide’, 2023).
Written by Amy Saunders
I regularly watch episodes of Bluey. I don’t even pretend that it is to keep up with what is popular with the children I work with, I watch it because it is a very good show. This episode, Slide, sees Bluey’s little sister Bingo and her friend, Lila partaking in a rite of passage for many Australian children; launching themselves along a backyard water slide connected to the garden hose (Brumm & Jeffrey, 2023). It takes me back to my own childhood and I swear I can smell the warm plastic slide and the wet grass. I feel the familiar joy so beautifully portrayed in this episode. I am sure I am not alone in this.
Sometimes, I happily find myself at an intersection where the pathways of my different roles in early childhood education, play therapy and nature play education intersect. Watching this episode of Bluey took me here and my brain couldn’t help but scream at me all the ways Slide links to child development, and captures the unique wonder of childhood. Bingo and Lila are having a blast, relishing in the fun and feeling like “the luckiest kids in the world!” Then they experience a moral dilemma: how do they have fun on the slide, at the expense of the bugs that they keep finding in their way? Bingo and Lila don’t want to squish them. The two display such genuine care and gentleness for the smallest of creatures; removing them from the slide and returning them to the safety of the garden. They pause their fun over and over, putting their needs second to the safety of the little critters. It’s a marvel that Bingo even noticed the first bug.
Bingo’s attention to the world, in all its small detail, reminded me of a poignant lesson learnt when I was a nanny some years ago. It was a really hot day and I was attempting to hurry a child into the car to get to kindy on time, he was instead, staring intently at a tree. My internal dialogue was annoyed, “What on earth is he doing?” Something stopped me and asked me to slow down, “What’s another minute late in the scheme of things? Go and find out.” I knelt down, and looked at the tree with him. My eyeline at his perspective now, I could see about ten or so yellow ladybugs, positioned in the cracks of the bark. “I think they are thirsty,” he said. It all became very clear to me. In the hurriedness of adulthood, I was about to take him away from the uniquness of his childhood: of possessing the curiosity and attention to the world to notice the ladybugs in the first place, and the developing sense of empathy and care to worry about their comfort. He asked for his water bottle so he could gently pour some water on the bark near them. It took all of two minutes to do this. Satisfied that he had helped them, he climbed into his car seat, and we were only two more minutes late to kindy. I think of this moment when I sense myself hurrying children through the world. What is it that they see? What is it that they are feeling? What are they wondering? How is this moment developing care for themselves, others and the world around them? Children need the time and space to develop a connection to the world and all the living things in it, and to figure this out in their play (Elliot & Chancellor, 2014).
Returning to Bingo and Lila, playing in the nature of Bingo’s backyard, on an ethical journey of right and wrong. They problem solve together, helping the bugs back into the garden and building walls, but each time they think they have it sorted, the bugs find a way to interrupt! To squish or not to squish? That is their moral question. They wonder if they can close their eyes and ignore the problem, but it doesn’t sit well with them. They discuss which bugs are okay to squish, (they decide none) and the different bug-squishing-stance of their family members, taking on varying perspectives. They conclude that they want to be of the non-bug-squishing variety, even if it means their fun will stop. Lila and Bingo don’t know this (because that would be very boring) but they are entering into a stage that developmental theorist Erik Erikson named Initiative vs Guilt. Children typically explore this around the ages of three to five (Ryan & Edge, 2011). They often play out themes and ideas around good and bad, right and wrong, social rules and morality. New experiences and relationships help them to develop a sense of initiative with a focus on helping others. Four-year-old Bingo and Lila don’t need to know this of course, but it might be interesting to the adults in their lives to know that play allows for the child-led exploration of these big questions.
Lila and Bingo reach a moral impasse and they don’t feel lucky anymore. Sometimes playing can be really serious work. Children safely unpack big decisions in play sometimes on their own, and sometimes with the guidance of a caring adult (Chazan, 2002). For Bingo and Lila, they have each other, the perspectives of caring adults to help inform their decisions, an extensive and uninterrupted amount of time to play, the freedom to work it out themselves, and a space in nature to do so. All of this comes together and Bingo and Lila find a solution: creating the role of Bug Inspector. They end up protecting a caterpillar from being squished by Bingo’s dad and returning it to the safety of the garden. A timelapse of the caterpillar turning into a chrysalis and becoming a butterfly ends the episode. The girls marvel at how lucky they are to be visited by the butterfly. I wonder how much of this is luck, and how much of it is that they have had the opportunity and time to play, where they could develop a curiosity and care for the world, a sense of morality and the agency to make positive change. Children that connect with nature on a personal level are likely to become the adults that protect it (Krysiak, 2019).
I wonder, that if we adults stopped a little more, and noticed the small things, we might feel this lucky, too.
References:
Brumm, J. (Writer) & Jeffery, R. (Director). (2023, June 4). Slide (Season 3, Episode 46) [Television series episode]. In C. Aspinwall et.al (Executive producers), Bluey. Ludo Studio.
Chazan, S. E. (2002). Profiles of play: assessing and observing structure and process in play therapy. ProQuest Ebook Central
Elliott, S., & Chancellor, B. (2014). From Forest Preschool to Bush Kinder: An Inspirational Approach to Preschool Provision in Australia. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 39(4), 45–53. DOI: 10.1177/183693911403900407
Krysiak, N. (2019). Designing Child-Friendly High Density Neighbourhoods: Transforming our cities for the health, wellbeing and happiness of children. Cities for Play.
Ryan, V., & Edge, A. (2011). The Role of Play Themes in Non-Directive Play Therapy, Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1-16. DOI: 10.1177/1359104511414265
