13 Nostalgic Movies That Hit Way Harder As A Mom

Clearly I mean the Lindsay Lohan version, but no matter which The Parent Trap you watch, rewatching as a parent will leave you completely dumbfounded. Seriously, these parents split up their babies? They were just OK with not only keeping the twins a secret from each other but just never seeing their other daughter ever again? Y’all really hate each other that much?

And while the ending is sweet and lovely, I do have to wonder how well a marriage is going to work if they previously hated each other so much they had to SPLIT UP THEIR BABIES so they didn’t ever have to see each other again. I hope they’re all in therapy now.

E.T. was always one of my favorites as a kid, but it always left me an emotional wreck… and then I watched it as a parent. You think it’s hard enough watching E.T. die and these weirdo scientists being creeps, but then you put yourself in the mom’s shoes and are just devastated that your son is so upset — and also dying. Not to mention the guilt over having zero idea that your kids were hiding an alien in the house, but that’s beside the point.

Mrs. Doubtfire was one of those movies for me that I watched over and over again. I had the entire thing completely memorized, and it was honestly how my parents explained what divorce was to me when I was about 6. (They did, however, promise that Dad would not be dressing as an old British lady to care for us.)

But oh my goodness, watching it as a parent? Absolutely, Daniel is a menace and I would’ve divorced him too if I were Miranda, but her allowing the courts to just decide he can only see his kid once a week? Why can’t she just let him pick the kids up every once in a while or come over for family dinners? They aren’t that miserable around each other (yet), and it just feels like she was ready to fully cut him off the minute they got divorced. It’s kind of heartbreaking to watch.

You related to the kids when you watched The Breakfast Club as an impressionable teen, but when you’re a parent, you just want to scoop them all up into your arms and make sure they feel worthy and loved and safe. I was not expecting this one to set me off quite so much, but good grief.

This classic baseball movie will give you the same nostalgic feels as it did when you were a kid, but there’s something about watching The Sandlot as a parent that just makes my heart break. You really relate to Smalls’ mom — she just wants her boy to feel loved and have friends — but it also really makes you want to preserve your own kids’ childhood forever because you know that one day they’re going to be grown and off in their own worlds, leaving behind all of this magic. Sob.

Liar Liar was another movie I watched on repeat as a kid, and I always felt so bad for Jim Carrey’s character. How dare his ex-wife move on with a new guy and consider moving out of state! But watching it as a parent? Yikes. Carrey’s character is a horrible dad, and this is one of those classic ‘90s movies where we just excuse poor dad behavior over and over. I still love watching it, but there’s also an extra ache now as I watch the mom — all she wants is for her son to be happy, and he puts so much of his faith in trust in his own father, who can never quite deliver for him. Heartbreaking.

Just go ahead and get the tissues ready for Hook, trust me. This take on Peter Pan’s story was hugely successful in the ‘90s and has always been one of my favorite movies, but watching it as a parent will sock you right in the heart. The growing-up pains and the innocence and the whole “you only have so much time with your children” lesson — it’s pretty emotional. (But Dustin Hoffman as Hook is still 100% worth the tears you’ll shed.)

I once tried to hatch an egg out of the fridge in my own dresser drawer after watching Fly Away Home — that’s how much I adored this movie. The story of a young girl moving in with her estranged father after losing her mom in a car accident (that she also survives) is already pretty deep and sad, but when you add in her desperate love for these goose eggs that she’s watched hatch and fixing the relationship between her and her dad, oof. Fly Away Home made me feel like anything was possible as a kid, and watching it as a parent makes me think I’ll do anything to keep my kids happy.

Try and watch Casper as a parent without getting choked up, I dare you. Will you still get all tingly when Devon Sawa asks Christina Ricci, “Can I keep you?” Sure. But will the heaviness of a movie that’s focused on a young boy who died and his spirit having to watch his father spend his entire life inventing a machine to get his boy back also make you tingly? Very much so.

This Stephen King book-to-movie adaptation was probably a little old for me the first time I saw it, but I loved Stand by Me so much. It’s a complex storyline, and as a kid, I think I loved the horror/adventure aspect of it the most (and that pie-eating scene, blech). But watching it as a parent honestly makes you want to sob. It’s like a knife in your chest hearing these boys’ home lives, and you just want to give your kids a childhood they aren’t ready to run away from all the time.

Another movie where you realize, “Wait, maybe the dad really does suck,” The Santa Clause is just full of painful — and heartwarming — parenting moments. As a kid, I could not believe the lengths Scott Calvin’s ex-wife would go to keep her son away from his dad, but as an adult, you kind of get it? What parent wouldn’t be concerned if their previously non-Santa-believing kid came home completely convinced that their own dad was Santa and that they had been to the North Pole with him?

But the Christmas magic in this film can not be overstated, and rewatching all of that as a parent is pretty incredible.

One of the absolute best Disney “princess” movies ever, Mulan was a sensation in 1998, and it has honestly stayed at the top for me ever since. I was 10 when this movie came out, and I really wanted to be as strong and brave as Mulan. Watching it as a parent, I want my girls to be this strong and brave. I never want them to feel like they aren’t enough or that they have to prove their worth, but the courage and strength? I hope that finds its way into my girls, too.

You get so caught up watching this classic thriller and spotting all the ghosts in the background and trying to piece together Bruce Willis’ story that it’s hard — until you’re a parent — to see the absolute fear in the eyes of the mom. Played by Toni Collette in The Sixth Sense, the mom in this movie is doing literally everything she can to protect her son Cole. She’s scared, she’s worried, she’s embarrassed, but throughout all of it, you see her deep, deep love and protectiveness shining through. It’s heart-wrenching, and watching it now as a parent, all I can see is how hard she’s trying to help him.