Parent Experience: The Man Cave x Guiding Growing Minds

What’s going on for him? How do I get him to talk to me?

That is the question we hear most from parents. Across hundreds of parent responses collected since 2023, the same things keep coming up:

• Conversations close down at “fine.”

• Parents want to connect without lecturing.

• Boys are taking in mixed messages about what it means to be a man, and the online world is shaping their ideas faster than any of us can keep up.

This evening is a joint event from The Man Cave and Guiding Growing Minds; hosted by our generous and ever-accomodating partners MECCA at their epic new MECCAVERSITY space, and is for parents and caregivers of boys aged 10 to 19.


Al Green, co-founder of The Man Cave, will be joined by Dr Billy Garvey. Billy is a developmental paediatrician with more than 25 years’ experience, the founder of Guiding Growing Minds and co-host of the Pop Culture Parenting podcast. He is also the author of Ten Things I Wish You Knew About Your Child’s Mental Health and Ten Things I Wish You Knew About Raising Boys.

What to expect

Part one: Inside the Cave

The Man Cave is Australia’s leading preventative health organisation working with teenage boys and young men and has worked with more than 120,000 boys in schools across Australia.

You’ll then learn simple communication tools we use with boys in our workshops and practise them with other parents in the room.

This will be a blended experience, presentation and Q+A. You’ll take part, but nobody will be asked to share anything they don’t want to.

Part two: Conversation and Q&A

An extended discussion with Al and Dr Billy, bringing together frontline work with boys and decades of clinical experience. The floor is open to your questions.