Freaky Friday

One of the most important lessons Annabel learns from swapping bodies with her mother is that adult freedoms come with adult responsibilities. Annabel chafes against the rules Ellen makes for her, feeling that Ellen is being unfair and controlling when she tries to get Annabel to take personal safety seriously, eat nutritious meals, do her homework, and keep both herself and her room clean. Annabel characterizes Ellen as needlessly strict and accuses her of “pushing [Annabel] around and telling [her] what to do” (6). What Annabel does not see is that, at her age, she is not ready to make all her own decisions. Because she can be impulsive and self-centered, she does not always connect her choices with their long-term consequences for herself and others, and she needs an external authority to guide her while she develops these abilities.

Early in the novel, Annabel imagines that her mother, Ellen, spends her time “[going] out to lunch with [her] friends, and [watching] television all day long, and [eating] marshmallows for breakfast” (6). She imagines carefree days full of self-indulgence. The purpose of the body-swap that forms the novel’s premise is to show Annabel what her mother has not been able to make her understand through words: that while adults are comparatively free to make their own choices, an important part of being an adult is using that freedom responsibly—that is, making self-disciplined choices that benefit the self and others in long-term ways.