ROLE-PLAYING SCENARIOS
What would you do? How would you respond?
Moral dilemmas for children.
Parents: Get together with your child and role-play the following scenarios. Act out each scene with him or her and discuss the appropriate responses.
• You open up a birthday gift from a relative and it is something that you really didn't want.
• You are in a convenience store with a friend that has no money. While you are paying for your soda, you look over and see your friend steal a candy bar.
• You are watching some friends play a game of soccer and notice that the goalie for one of the teams is rolling around on the ground moaning in pain.
• You are playing at a local park with a friend and an older teenager tells you that he has some "neat stuff" in his car and he wants to show it to you.
• You are walking home from school and notice a suspicious man climbing into your neighbor's window. You know that your neighbors are away on vacation.
• You have a friend that is constantly telling lies to other people and now he is telling you a lie.
• You loaned a friend five dollars and now he is avoiding you.
• You are out at recess and notice a group of older kids picking on a classmate who is crying and asking for his hat back.
• A classmate is bragging that his older brother steals electronics from various stores and sells them on the internet. He then says that his brother was able to steal a $700 laptop last weekend from a local store.
• While spending the night at a friend's house, your friend talks you into sneaking out of the house. The two of you walk to a park, and while you are there, your friend pulls out a cigarette and offers to share it with you.
• You are playing football and you catch a pass close to the "out of bounds" marker. The other team says that you were "out of bounds" but the players on your team think you were "in bounds."
• You're with a group of friends and a teacher walks past you and drops a bundle of papers that go all over the floor. It is a teacher that you don't really like.
• You are at home with your mom and she is not answering you when you call for her. You go into the other room and see her lying on the floor unresponsive. She is bleeding from her head.
• You are walking home from school and notice that a man driving a van has gone around the block three times. He appears to be following you.
• You are home alone after dark and the electricity goes out.
• You are talking to a friend on the phone and she mentions feeling really depressed. Your friend then says that she can’t go on and plans to "end it all" really soon.
• At lunchtime you see a classmate walking around with a jacket that was stolen from you the previous week.