PARENTING | BOOKS
Her children’s book The Day the Devices Disappeared imagines what kids find when they finally look up. Hollywood is now telling the same story.
Kasey Mansfield noticed something happening to childhood that many parents could see, but struggled to put into words. Kids were missing boredom, imagination, adventure, and sometimes a connection with the people sitting beside them at dinner. So Mansfield, an author, mom, former educator, and multi-six-figure business owner, wrote The Day the Devices Disappeared, a children’s book that imagines what families might discover when the screens go missing.
Her timing turned out sharper than she planned. With Toy Story 5 set to explore children’s attachment to devices, the conversation she has been having in living rooms and classrooms is headed for the multiplex. For her, the film and the book point at the same truth: the conversation was never really about technology. It is about attention, childhood, and whether families are creating enough opportunities for imagination, adventure, and human connection. She frames it with a single question: “What might our children discover if they looked up more often?”
“I know I’m not alone in wanting my kids to be more present, and wanting me to be more present with my kids,” she says. “That happens when we put our devices down and have dinner together.” She is part of a growing wave of parents embracing screen-free activities, outdoor play, and intentional family time, and books like hers are sparking those conversations at bedtime and around the table.
She is careful about how that question gets asked. “I’m not coming at this from a place of judgment. I’m not telling parents to throw away their devices or move off-grid,” she says. The book is an invitation rather than a lecture, and she wants the conversations around it to feel the same way. Hopeful, not guilt-driven.
Mansfield earned her perspective in the classroom and the kitchen, while raising her three children. She taught students across grades 1 through 12 before co-founding a six-figure hospitality and catering business, Hochatown Catering, with her husband and chef, Michael. They now serve thousands of families each year.
And yet, one of the greatest ironies of her story is that the woman who wrote the book about helping families reduce their dependence on devices first found her own transformation through one. Mansfield lost more than 110 pounds through mindset and lifestyle changes while posting videos of her workouts with her children on social media—a journey that was later featured by TODAY Parenting. What began as a tool for accountability evolved into a platform for impact, helping her build a community of more than 15,000 followers and content that has reached millions of views. She is now writing her second book, Mind Over Fatter. “Technology is an incredible tool,” she adds, “but tools should serve people instead of replacing the experiences that make life meaningful.”
A personal loss put weight behind the message. “Recently, I lost my father unexpectedly. He was my biggest supporter and my best friend,” she says. The experience changed how she thinks about time. “The moments we think we’ll have later aren’t guaranteed.” Families do not get unlimited summers with their children or unlimited conversations with their parents, and she stopped procrastinating on the things that matter most.
Her philosophy fits in two sentences. “Children don’t need perfect parents. They need present parents,” Mansfield says. Build a fort. Take a walk. Read a story. Sit and talk. The biggest lesson she has learned is that connection never happens by accident; someone has to choose to put down a distraction and engage with the people around them.
That reframe is the heart of her work. She wants families to stop asking “How do I get my child off screens?” and start asking “What can we create together instead?”
She sees The Day the Devices Disappeared growing beyond a book into a resource for parents, educators, and communities that want practical ways to encourage screen-life balance. She pictures family events, reading programs, and outdoor experiences built around real-world play. Her goal is to normalize things that should never have become rare: kids playing outside, families eating together, parents being present.
Readers can follow Kasey Mansfield on Instagram and on Facebook.
