Meredith wasn’t a gold digger so much as she was an opportunist. Which is, coincidentally, just what her parents taught her to be. In a telling scene, Meredith introduces her stodgy old parents to Nicky, as she calls her fiancé. “Be nice, Daddy,” Meredith says. “He's everything you ever wanted for your little girl...plus millions more.” With her slightly cloying, slightly desperate tone, Meredith's age shows — she's just a 26-year-old girl fulfilling parental expectations. Put simply, The Parent Trap is a movie about children trying to make their parents happy. Hallie and Annie are raised to be wildly precocious poker-playing kids who are at ease with adults. They use their skills to reunite their parents because they, wise beyond their years, think they know better than Nick and Elizabeth. After this scene, it’s clear Meredith is acting in line with her upbringing — just like Annie and Hallie are.