There's a specific kind of love that only shows up when your kid is actively not listening to you. I told Evan to heal up first. Clear instruction, said it more than once. He looked at it, decided the plan was to just run, and charged straight in anyway. Instead of getting mad I kept repeating my patience mantra, I love my son. I think that's most of parenting honestly. Holding the frustration and the love at the exact same time and not making him choose which one he gets. So for the parents here. What's the thing your kid does that drives you up the wall and makes you love them more anyway?

I think we underestimate how much our kids want to build us up, if we give them the chance. I was racing back to revive Evan, sweating the 6 mobs between us, and instead of backseat driving he went full cheerleader. Run like the wind, Daddy, run. Then he capped it by confirming I'm the "slay queen", which he rarely confirms any honorary titles for me. I notice he mirrors whatever energy I bring. When I hype him up, he hypes me right back, and the whole session gets lighter. So a question for the parents. Do your kids cheer you on when you play or work on something together, and did you ever actually teach them to, or did it just show up on its own?

Kids are going to make mistakes. How you respond teaches more than the mistake itself. Evan forgot to start his recording and did not realize it until most of the game day was gone. He finally confessed, hoped I had been recording, and lucky for us I was. My joke to him was, well, let's hope I was witty, since my footage was all we had. This is actually why we restarted the Dinkum series in the first place, so this time we made sure our settings were right. I reminded him once about what to check next time and then let it go. Harping on it would only make him feel bad, and he already knew. He was embarrassed and apologetic after, and that is what matters. When your kid messes up, how do you point it out without piling on?

Sometimes the fastest way to get unstuck in these games is to stop talking and let Evan cook. We were stranded at the bottom of a crater with no obvious way back up. I can place a hearth. That was the whole fix. He set one down, we mapped back to the other one, and the long run home just disappeared. The part I want to hold onto is that I almost talked right over him. If I had kept lecturing I would have missed the answer he already had. So here's my honest question for the parents. When your kid hands you the better idea mid-activity, are you actually quick to take it, or do you catch yourself finishing your own point first?

I love it when Evan takes the lead on our next big goal instead of waiting for me to call it. In Dinkum, Rayne is the farmer. She controls every seed and sells all the supplies we need, so getting her to move onto the island really matters. It takes a grind too, roughly 18K spent in her shop plus a full heart with her. Evan wanted her moved in as fast as possible so we could finally build our farming fields. I always joke about who she really belongs to, since I end up doing all the farming. Rayne is my dinkum girlfriend. Letting Evan drive that call made him way more invested in the whole run. What goal has your kid pushed you to chase in a game?