- Alternate Character Interpretation: The revelation that Kevin and Lindsay’s real father had abandoned them. Though we’re supposed to take for granted the fact that he did it because he is a selfish jerk who never cared about them, it isn’t hard to imagine the possibility that Kevin and Lindsay treated him the exact same way they treated Nick, which is presumably the true reason he abandoned him. The fact that they gave every man their mother met the same treatment as Nick does nothing to help their case, even if it was because they wanted to see their father again.
- Jerkass Woobie: Kevin and Lindsey are jerks, but when they see the real reason why their father doesn't pay them visits, they become pitiable. Even Nick feels sorry for them.
- Strawman Has a Point: Throughout the film, Nick is portrayed as an asshole for not opening up to Suzanne's kids. While Nick was wrong for being a Child Hater, Lindsey & Kevin aren’t the kids you would want to be around if you were trying to get yourself to love children. Even the trailer goes as far as to make it look like "no man was good enough" for Suzanne, when really the kids were acting like assholes to every man their mother tried to date.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The movie is not fondly remembered by most people, due to how mean-spirited the story is. All the trouble Kevin & Lindsey put Nick through for their own spoiled and selfish reasons does nothing to make either character entertaining or amusing to watch, and only makes the film more tedious and painful than anything else. The fact that in the end, Nick ends up marrying their mother and becomes a father figure to the two kids, along with the fact they both never receive any comeuppance for their treatment of Nick throughout the film is all the more bewildering, since realistically, any normal man would want nothing to do with kids like that.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Both Lindsey & Kevin. While the film tries to justify their horrible treatment towards Nick by revealing they had been wanting their mother to get back with their father, who is revealed to have abandoned his kids, many viewers have written this off as a weak justification, since the amount of crap they put Nick through makes it impossible to see them in a remotely sympathetic light.
- The Woobie: Poor Nick goes through so much undeserved torment from Kevin and Lindsey. He also counts as being Unintentionally Sympathetic, because the film wants to try and paint him as this grumpy jerk who apparently deserves to go through what Kevin & Lindsey do to him throughout the film, despite the fact that he never actually does anything bad towards either of them to even warrant their treatment of him. If anything, he actually tries to take care of them as much as possible, even if he is (initially) not happy about it, which only makes the two siblings look even more rotten and impossible to root for.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Ymmv/AreWeThereYet2005
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