The main focus of this book is the parent/child relationship and the importance of parents providing their children with information and guidance to equip them with the life skills necessary to make the right choices in today's world. The book endeavors to get its basic message across to readers by way of simple script writing, using dialogue and short essays. While it does not go into intricate detail as to exact settings, locations, timelines, and character behaviors, it instead focuses on the messages and issues highlighted in the dialogue and short essays. Many other topics, and many other ways of exploring them, could have been discussed in this book; however, the writer focuses on the essence of specific problems and demonstrates how they can be prevented in an effort to broaden the reader's perspective and present new approaches and ideas for confronting each issue.
The book does not elaborate on the consequences of all scenarios presented, but tries to illustrate for readers that in life there are consequences for our actions, and that most of the time we think about them not before but after we act, when it should be the other way around.
The goal of this book is to get readers thinking, "Scenarios . . . ?" The writer aims to influence the reader's consciousness to the point where considering an action's possible aftereffects becomes as natural as saying "Please" and "Thank you."
The book also demonstrates to families and parents in particular how to communicate useful information to children so they become better judges of character; parents will learn how to illustrate to children that every choice has a consequence, and that whether the outcome is good or bad depends on that choice. The book simply tells parents, "Your children are the adults of tomorrow; prepare them by imparting the basic principles of life: respect, manners, understanding, and appreciation."
In addition to highlighting the importance of parents talking to their children, and especially sharing their past experiences to help their children make better decisions, the book emphasizes that once children understand that their mother or father (or both) went through a similar experience, they will be better able to deal with the issue by drawing upon the experiences and guidance of their parents. According to this book, empathy is the best course of interaction between parent and child.
The book does not endorse parents "talking down" to, abusing, shouting at, ignoring, covering for, or keeping information from their children; nor does it support parents doing their children's schoolwork or anything, for that matter, that deters growth. Instead, it endorses the opposite-that through positive parental support, children will grow up to be responsible, respectful, and right-minded adults.
This book can be used in parent/child discussions, teacher-student discussions, drama-class exercises, sociology studies, and a variety of other settings.
The individual chapters are divided into three parts: Scenario 1, Scenario 2, and the Future Scenario. Each part looks at a different approach to the same situation.
The characters will vary depending on the topic being discussed, but the children and teenagers in the scripts range from 13 to 17 years old unless otherwise specified.