Parents need to know the film includes jokes concerning a 13-year-old boy's burgeoning sexual interests, as well as his anxiety about "becoming a man" via his bar mitzvah. Using broad Jewish, uptight-suburban, and "hippie" stereotypes, the film establishes a series of conflicts to be resolved by the end. The film includes mild language, several sexual allusions (as 13-year-olds begin to notice the opposite sex), and some underage drinking (three boys steal liquor from parents' cabinet, get tipsy, and then one throws up, whereupon his grandfather covers for him, understanding that "boys will be boys"). A grandfather and his younger girlfriend appear naked in a pool (the grandson sees their naked behinds). The grandfather pulls out a sword to fight off an angry driver.

Families can talk about the tension between Irwin and Adam, as this is premised on Irwin's abandonment of his family 20 years before: How can Adam forgive his father? (And how is it hard for him to accept that his mother forgives his father?) How can traditional rituals (like bar mitzvahs or birthday parties) simultaneously be exciting and stressful?