What would you do if you found out you had a long-lost twin that has been living with your other parent you have never met across the world? Switch places! The plot of The Parent Trap is one wild ride, and we are along for it. The Parent Trap has quickly become a staple for many of our childhoods, and the heartwarming reunion of a family is something we all definitely felt when we watched it for the first time. However, how about we question why all of this happened in the first place?
A 1998 remake of the original 1961 movie, The Parent Trap follows the separate lives of twin girls Annie and Hallie (Lindsay Lohan playing dual roles). The girls get sent to the same summer camp one year, and when they cross paths, they are undeniably twins. Now, confronting the confirmation that they were separated, the girls come up with the only solution they could think up: Time to switch places! That in itself was probably not the best move on their part. But, is it really their fault? Can you believe that this was not the worst decision made in this movie? We must consider that this all started when the two parents, Elizabeth (Natasha Richardson) and Nick (Dennis Quaid), decided to split them up.
A Life of Longing for the Twins
Time to address the biggest reason why the decision to split up the twins in The Parent Trap is a bad one: Look at what they missed out on. These twins are forced to swallow the idea that they had lived their entire lives not knowing the other one exists, as well as knowing that they do not have a relationship with their other parent. These parents are preventing both Hallie and Annie from exposure to the other halves of their lives, keeping them from experiencing sisterhood. They went so far as to live on opposite sides of the world to keep them apart, which is somewhat cruel if you ask us. If the girls had not been at this summer camp at the same time, they would have never known and a reunion would have been impossible. At least when they do reunite, we can give some much-deserved credit to fate's role in it all.
A Selfish Plan on the Parents' Part
The Parent Trap is a movie full of weird, outlandish, and plainly bad ideas (per Ranker). However, splitting the twins up has to be one of the worst. We are taught in society that parents do what they think is best for their children. There is absolutely no way that Hallie and Annie were the first thought in their separation. This decision was selfish. These parents could not stand each other so much that they erased each other from their children’s lives and lived across the world. It already does not seem like they thought about what would be best for the twins, just what would be easier for them. Also, how could both of these parents be okay with not seeing the other twin for the rest of their lives?
Look What You Made Me Do
Decisions are like dominoes. Each one you make will lead to the appropriate consequences. In The Parent Trap, the twins deciding to switch places is their parents' fault through and through. Hallie and Annie are two creative and bold young little girls. In the context of the movie, it is easy for us audiences to swallow this kind of plot. However, it is absolutely incredulous that these two children decide to switch places, adopt each other's identities, and live across the country with people who are essentially strangers for a few months. To them, they felt as if they had no other choice to get their family back together but. They felt like they had to do this, and we only have the parents to blame.
Here Are Some Alternatives
Now, we can't criticize this poor parenting decision without offering up some solutions or alternatives ourselves. When deciding to split up, Nick and Elizabeth should be making decisions based on the best interest of their children because it is not just them that will be affected by the split (as outlined by Parents). In fact, they came up with some perfectly reasonable and practical solutions themselves: When the parents reunite, divide up holidays and vacation seasons. If they had done this from the very beginning, their children would not have had the burden of their separation on their shoulders. Also, they would not have had so many questions about their past. They would know and have a relationship with the other parent as well as their other twin.