Some of these articles even point out ways that Freakier Friday does a callback to Lohan's earlier movie: The Parent Trap by referencing and even countering the plot elements from that story to create a better narrative that supports blended families. Not to mention this picture redeems the often maligned role of the stepmom/dad's new fiancé.

Overall, this movie is a wonderful celebration of moms, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, stepmoms, stepsisters, angel moms, wives and everyone in between.

Both movies support single moms, married moms, widowed moms, remarried moms and now stepmoms!

The story shows why it is important to find a healthy balance between nostalgia and embracing changes. Sometimes children become their parents whether they like it or not. When you become a parent, it is easy to get carried away in the daily challenges of work, raising kids and romance. But it is never too late to reinvent yourself and take time for self-care. People can grow out of relationships, but they can still be friendly with each other in the future. Sometimes the person you liked in high school is not the same person that you marry as an adult. People can experience "true love" with more than one person in a single lifetime. Tess, Anna and Eric all face different experiences when starting new relationships after a loss or separation from their previous partners. Both Anna and Lily experienced the loss of a biological parent and watched their surviving parent remarry and they experienced the same frustration and grief from these changes, though I wish that we could have seen more interaction between them. We see more communication happen between Lily and Tess.

In the years that passed since Tess and Ryan's wedding, the Coleman family has enjoyed a happy life. Tess and Anna's bond grew stronger after they experienced one day in each other's shoes and Anna is now applying those lessons she learned as a mother to her own daughter. One thing I will point out is that even if the swap improved the lives of this mother and daughter in the first movie, this incident also caused a few issues as well. Since Anna decided to coparent Harper with Tess and Ryan as backup, this decision has led to some complications. Tess and Anna have developed a sense of codependency which has affected their ability to grow separately from each other, and parenting boundaries get crossed. If Tess is raising her daughter and granddaughter than Anna never had a chance to live a fully independent life. Not to mention the fact that Tess and Anna share the same secret that they could never tell anyone else.

When I complete my opinion piece about Freakier Friday, I may examine the following characters and their relationships. Minor spoilers lie ahead:

The Couples
Tess and Ryan
Anna and Eric
Parents and Children
Siblings
Anna and Harry
Harper and Lily
Grandparents
Tess and Ryan

Anna and Tess
Both Anna and Tess get a different experience of being swapped compared to the first time. In the first movie, mom and daughter got swapped with each other. This time they are both experienced moms swapped with teenagers and they get another chance to experience youth. But what did they learn this time? I think the teens Harper and Lily learned more from being adults then Anna and Tess did from being younger girls.
Anna and Harper
Tess and Lily
I identified three key reasons why the switch between Tess and Lily makes sense and builds upon the broader themes of the story. Inheriting wisdom from elder generations and gaining perspective about dealing with loss and change.
Tess and Eric
Both Tess and Eric have first hand experience of raising their children (Tess with Anna and Harry and Eric with Lily) after the death of a beloved spouse. These parents experience conflict with their biological children when they get engaged to new partners (Tess with Ryan and Eric with Anna). As widowed single parents, they have experienced loss, supported their children while in mourning and seek company with new partners to move into a new stage of life. Anna and Lilly both took time to warm up to their biological parent's new partner (plus a new stepsister in the case of Harper and Lily). Ryan didn't bring any new kids into the family when he and Tess got married but Eric and Anna's experience of getting together when they each had one daughter from a previous relationship reveals new challenges of blending their households and mediating conflicting interests.
Harper and Lily
Eric and Ryan
Jake and Eric
One guy is Anna's high school boyfriend and the other is Anna's current fiancé. Some viewers may be disappointed to find out that Anna and Jake did not continue their relationship past high school but sometimes the person you marry is not the same one you loved in high school. Teen couples can grow apart from each other after graduation but they can still be good friends. This arc offers a needed plot twist to people that believed high school romances are endgame. Sometimes people change after graduation and the things we wanted as a teen are different than everything we like as adults. People's interests and feelings can change over time and it is important to allow yourself to grow in different ways with different people. It was easy for Harper to assume that her mom missed her old boyfriend and wanted to reconnect with him but her perspective is skewed because she doesn't want her family to change after Anna and Eric's wedding. Harper's intervention does reveal that what Anna truly wants is a chance to reconnect with her roots. But Anna wants to reinvent herself as a rockstar and carry with her the experience and wisdom she gained from being Harper's mom.