When did I become the person who just tells everyone what to do?

Get dressed. Eat your breakfast. Where are your shoes. Put that down. Brush your teeth.

Some days parenting is one long list of instructions. Not because you're doing anything wrong. But by bedtime you can realise that almost everything you said was something you needed them to do.

This free guide gives you a five-minute reset for exactly that day, and one complete adventure to try tonight. Nothing to prepare. Your child just thinks you're playing.


For the meltdowns, the not listening, the bedtime stalling: it all starts with five minutes.

What's inside

  • The "I manage you → I'm with you" reset: four steps, no preparation, works in the moments you already have
  • The Animal Translator, a complete Mind Adventure from the Magic Moments edition, on one page
  • Five places in an ordinary day where five minutes fits: cooking, the car, a walk, waiting, before bed

Why a pediatrician wrote it

In my waiting room I see it every day. A child who is nervous about what's coming, and who needs their parent right now. The child is on a tablet. The parent is on a phone. Nobody is doing anything wrong; that is what a full life looks like by the time you reach a waiting room.

I was that parent too. I love playing with my children; I just didn't know where to start. So I built the start into one line you read aloud. Everything in the Mind Adventure Method comes from what I know as a pediatrician about what children need, and what I learned as a parent about where those minutes actually fit.

Julia Penning de Vries, pediatrician and mother of two

Try it tonight

Five minutes. One game. See what happens when the moment shifts from "I manage you" to "I'm with you."