Story Hangovers: The Parent Trap (and the Bad Parenting Trap)

 Remember The Parent Trap? The identical twins who were separated after their parents broke up because they didn’t want to have to constantly switch them between two different schools? There's a simple solution to that. It's called homeschooling.

 I might’ve only watched the movie because my mom made me, but it still made me think. How exactly is their “solution” better? 

Honestly, what kind of parents break up twins and never tell them that the other exists? I don’t have a twin, but I know plenty of them and I’ve asked them about it and researched this topic since I’ve always wanted one. 

Not only is it completely unfair to deny the girls their right to know their sister, but separating identical twins can cause physiological issues later in life. These include a feeling that they’re constantly missing a part of themselves and are alone in the world which can lead them to violently act out because they don’t know how to express these feelings, since the bond between siblings, especially twins, is something you can’t understand unless you have one of your own. That I actually can vouch for. My younger brother might drive me up the wall sometimes, like when he messes up my stuff or eats all the snacks when he gets hungry in the middle of the night, but I don’t know what I’d do without him! 

Another symptom of separated twins is separation anxiety. This is caused by a different reaction to feeling alone. Because they feel like it’s themselves against the world they’re afraid to leave their parents because they feel threatened since they are, after all, supposed to be part of a pair, which makes them feel more vulnerable and they likely will misbehave to hide those feelings. In fact, that’s probably why the two started a semi-friendly rivalry the moment they met. They felt threatened by someone who was their exact doppelgänger and wanted to assert dominance to avoid being confused for each other and/or overshadowed.