The Last Five Minutes

Little Bean is inside the screen.

Not really, of course. But that is how it feels.

The colours move. The sounds keep coming. Something is always about to happen next.

Then Big Bean says: five more minutes.

Little Bean hears the words. But inside the screen, five minutes disappears very quickly.

And when the time is up, the screen stops all at once.

Little Bean does not.

Hands still want to reach back. Feet do not feel ready to move. The room has returned, but Little Bean is still arriving.

Big Bean keeps the boundary - and stays close enough to help with the way back.

The Last Five Minutes is a gentle story about the difficult space between switching off and moving on. It is for children who find screen-time endings hard, and for the grown-up learning that understanding the struggle does not mean removing the limit.

Not an anti-screen book. No lectures, no warnings about technology. The screen is enjoyable and absorbing. The story is only about what happens when an absorbing thing ends before a child feels ready.

The boundary stays. Big Bean gives a warning, ends the screen when agreed, and does not switch it back on when the feelings arrive. The difficulty is understood without making the ending optional.

A hard transition, reframed kindly. Little Bean is not being defiant. The screen has stopped faster than Little Bean's attention and body can return.

A gentle way back to the room. Little Bean stretches, moves and starts noticing what is nearby - the clock, a bird, the kettle. Not a trick to stop the feelings, but a quiet bridge from one part of the day to the next.

A short page for grown-ups. A plain-spoken note on why leaving an absorbing activity is hard, why warnings help without preventing every reaction, and how a boundary and connection can sit together.

Ages 4-8. Full colour, 32 pages. Part of Little Signals Stories - gentle books about the moments children feel deeply and cannot always explain.

The screen had stopped. Little Bean was still arriving back.

From The Regulated Human Co. - quiet stories and tools that help people notice their signals and find their way back to steady. Regulation before optimisation.