Carla, the kids' mother, who has recently been released from prison, reunites with her children and meets Pete and Ellie.

Carla's visits disrupt the Wagner household; the children become more unruly, leaving Pete and Ellie demotivated and frustrated.

The Wagners express their feelings to the support group, but the social workers slip up and tell them about the reunification process in front of everybody instead of in private.

When arriving home, Pete and Ellie are horrified to discover Lizzie exchanging naked pictures of herself with Jacob, her boyfriend at school.

They confront and beat up Jacob, and he is arrested, as are Pete and Ellie, resulting in Juan and Lita being left in the car unattended.

Returning home after posting bail, Pete and Ellie are told by Sandy that they need to reassure Lizzie that they love her.

Carla told them she's not ready to take her kids back, and it is revealed that Lizzie filled out the paperwork to reunite the family.

[6] Isabela Merced co-stars alongside Mark Wahlberg for a second time, after previously working together on Transformers: The Last Knight in 2017.

[7][8] Instant Family was originally scheduled for release in the United States on February 15, 2019, before being moved up three months, to November 16, 2018.

[2] In the United States and Canada, Instant Family was released alongside Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Widows, and was projected to gross $15–20 million from 3,258 theaters in its opening weekend.

Deadline Hollywood said the opening, compared to the $48 million budget, "isn't spectacular, but there's hope that [the] film could leg out...over Thanksgiving.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Instant Family may not quite capture the complexity of real-life adoption, but fittingly for the unconditional bond it honors, this flawed yet well-intentioned dramedy is ultimately worth the investment.