Stranger/Stranger/Citizen (#SFWApro)

Bud Foote’s A Connecticut Yankee in the Twentieth Century: Travel to the Past in Science Fiction focuses, obviously, on travel to the past, but Foote’s insights, as I note at the link, apply to other types of time-travel as well.
One of his points is that you can look at time travelers as shifting between the role of stranger (out of place in a particular era, even if it’s their home) and citizen (they’re home, even if it’s 100 or 500 or 5,000 years ago).
I’ve noticed that in parallel-world stories, the usual progression is stranger/stranger/citizen. The protagonist starts out restless and unhappy, frustrated that their life hasn’t turned out the way they planned, maybe wishing they’d married someone else, taken a different job, done something with their degree. Then in some fashion, they jump into a parallel timeline where their dream comes true—and realize they’ve never appreciated their wonderful old life. When they return home, it’s to happiness and a new appreciation for what they have.
In The Christmas Clause (2008), which I caught today, Lea Thompson is a stressed out mother and lawyer, reaching the breaking point in both roles. A chance wish gives her the life she might have had if she’d dumped her boyfriend in college instead of marrying him, but that means her three kids don’t even exist. Needless to say by the time she returns, she’s overjoyed to have her old life back (with a few changes, such as ditching her jerk boss).
Likewise, in Twice Upon a Time (1998), Molly Ringwald is frustrated at work and reluctant to accept her boyfriend’s proposal, especially when her ex is now a superstar ball player. A shift into a parallel world where she’s still with the ball player and much more successful makes her happy—for a while—but she soon realizes she’s picked the wrong man once again.
In Flashpoint Paradox (2013), Flash gets to restore his murdered mother to life, but creates a nightmare dystopia before realizing there are some things even the fastest man alive can’t change.
It’s not a universal rule. In Family Man (2000), Nicholas Cage goes citizen/citizen/citizen. He starts out loving his life as a superstar stock trader but he soon comes to love the alternative life where he married his college girlfriend and works in a tire store. When he returns to reality, he finds his girlfriend (Tea Leoni) and sets to work building a synthesis of both worlds.
In Comfort and Joy (2004), Nancy McKeon appears to be happy as a high-powered executive, but being a Lifetime TV movie, she’s in “stranger” mode, miserable because her boyfriend won’t commit. When she wakes up in the alt.world where she’s a stay-at-home mom, she goes from stranger to citizen, loving her new life. After she comes home, she goes looking for her alt.husband so that she can finally be “citizen” in her own world.
Regardless of the exact structure, the parallel world serves mostly as a personal-growth tool: by living a What If the protagonist learns what they’ve been missing, then returns home with new understanding.