3 Lessons On Family ‘Freakier Friday’ Gets Right, By A Psychologist

Do you feel like your family drives you crazy and is impossible to deal with? Freakier Friday brings back waves of nostalgia and hits home with lessons we all need.

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With Freakier Friday hitting theaters, we’re all bound to be hit by a wave of nostalgia. Freaky Friday, the original body-swap comedy had us laughing, maybe even cringing and tearing up just a little in the midst of it all.

Both movies remind us just how chaotic family life can be when different generations and personalities share the same space, and this is only amplified in blended families.

The movie franchise brings to light that these messy and unpredictable moments can also teach us some powerful lessons about bridging differences and finding common ground.

While Freaky Friday gave us the hilarious chaos of a mother and daughter body-swap between Tess, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, and Anna, played by Lindsay Lohan, in Freakier Friday we see the mayhem upped a notch with a four-way switch.

This time, Anna, now a single mom, swaps bodies with her teenage daughter, while Tess finds herself in the shoes of Lily, Anna’s soon-to-be stepdaughter. Four lives are thus turned upside down, with each person suddenly navigating the responsibilities, challenges and quirks of someone else in the family.

Suddenly, the teen is in charge of making dinner for six. The step-parent is navigating high school social politics and the grandparent is figuring out TikTok.

What emerges from all the drama is a deeper kind of respect that doesn’t erase their differences but makes space for them. You realize in their journey that family isn’t about perfectly fitting together but about learning to stand side by side, even when your perspectives clash. The chaos then starts to feel a little less like a battlefield and more like a shared adventure; one where everyone’s quirks and flaws have a place.

The movie leaves you with plenty of takeaways for real life. Here are three lessons Freakier Friday gets right to help you navigate family chaos.

1. Everyone’s Perspective Matters

In both movies, one of the central themes is perspective-taking. Once they literally walk in each other’s shoes, they realize neither story is completely right nor completely wrong.

In many families, especially blended ones, this perception gap is real. Teens often feel parents “don’t get it.” On the other hand, parents think they’re being perfectly reasonable. Step-parents and step-kids may feel like they’re living in different worlds entirely, and in all of this, somewhere the chance to understand and connect with each other gets lost.

The body-swap does the work of helping them see life through each other’s lens. Perspective-taking, even without a magical body-swap, can help bridge the gap between what you think someone means and what they’re actually experiencing. This skill can dissolve resentment before it builds.

Research published in The Japanese Journal of Experimental Social Psychology explores how much perspective-taking within families is shaped by individual traits versus the specific relationships between family members.

Researchers conducted a triadic survey involving 380 undergraduates and their fathers and mothers. They focused on 166 families where all three members completed the questionnaire, which allowed them to analyze patterns at the family, individual and relationship levels.

Researchers found that perspective-taking in families is influenced by multiple layers: the overall family environment, each person’s empathy-related tendencies, the specific role of fathers as partners and the unique dynamics between each pair of family members.

Importantly, the relative weight of individual versus relationship factors was different in parent–child relationships compared to marital relationships.

These findings suggest that improving perspective-taking in families means working on both individual skills, like empathy training and relationship-specific changes, such as strengthening communication between a parent and child or between spouses.

It highlights that understanding isn’t just a personal trait but something shaped by the unique history and dynamics of each relationship.

In Freaky Friday, the body swap makes perspective-taking unavoidable. However, in real life, it’s a choice. This research finding highlights that truly understanding each other means building both the skill to empathize and creating a relational environment where empathy can flourish.

Families that build both skills and relationships have a much better chance of bridging the perception gap and giving everyone a real chance to feel understood.

2. Flexibility Beats Control

It’s clear in the movie that much of the conflict comes from how tightly each character clings to their own way of doing things, whether it’s a parent enforcing “the right” rules or a teen refusing to budge on her plans.

Once they’re forced into each other’s lives, they realize that moving through life together and truly understanding each other means loosening those rigid expectations.

The same holds true in the reality of every family in real life. When members in blended or multi-generational households stay flexible about routines, roles and responsibilities, they create space for cooperation instead of conflict.

A 2025 study examined factors and interventions that strengthen family cohesion across diverse cultural and socioeconomic contexts. The researchers did a systematic review drawing on 41 peer-reviewed studies from 2015 to 2023. They analyzed how emotional bonding, adaptability, communication and support contribute to cohesive family functioning.

They found that families that are adaptable experience less conflict, stronger trust and better overall well-being. Flexibility can help reduce tension and allow members to adapt to each other’s needs.

3. Shared Challenges Create Stronger Bonds

The body-swap mix-up in both movies can only be resolved and undone when the characters begin to work together. Each of their individual strengths and their willingness to adapt become quite essential in navigating the day.

In real life, it’s no different. Whether blended, multi-generational or traditional, families tend to grow stronger when they face challenges together. Even everyday obstacles, like coordinating schedules, managing household responsibilities or resolving conflicts can become opportunities to build trust and a sense of teamwork.

Classic research published in Family Process explored the concept of “family resilience,” referring to how families withstand and recover from crises and persistent stress, shifting focus from individual traits to the family as a dynamic system.

The researchers examined interactional processes over time, considering how communication, shared beliefs and collaborative problem-solving contribute to collective coping and hardiness.

They found that families who maintain flexible roles, support one another and cultivate shared narratives develop stronger competence, coherence and confidence in navigating challenges.

These findings highlight that resilience isn’t just an individual quality but a family-level process that helps enhance cooperation and teamwork. It also enables families to face adversity more effectively, creating a foundation for lasting trust and unity. Shared challenges, when tackled together, help families build stronger connections.

It doesn’t have to be a big crisis that brings you together; even small and everyday challenges tackled together as a family can prevent frustration from building up.

So, when you’re bothered by something, instead of bottling things up and ending up in unnecessary arguments, try sharing the load with someone in your family who you think might relate or understand your perspective.

You might feel like no one will understand, but if you don’t give them the chance, you’ll never know.

Finding Growth In Everyday Chaos

Freakier Friday is a reminder that family life can be full of clashes. However, those same clashes can be transformed into deeper connections with a little effort and understanding.

Remember that no family is perfect, but by learning to navigate your own dynamics in ways that work best for you, those same challenges can help build stronger bonds — bonds that may even become the very support system you rely on.

Breaking routines together or trying new approaches can help deal with disagreements better and reveal hidden emotions and needs if approached constructively.

Family life can feel messy, unpredictable and even frustrating. But, it’s possible to learn from one another and grow alongside the people you love, no matter what generation you’re from.

Curious how well you really understand your family’s perspective? Take the science-backed Cognitive Empathy Scale to see how empathetic you are.