***Thanks for all the comments, but I’m closing down commenting on this article. It’s at over 650 comments and that’s a ton to read, People are saying the same things over and over. In the spirit of keeping the conversation going, I’ve summed up the bulk of the post and what people are saying here and have started a new thread called More on Who is the mother from HIMYM.
Like most posts tat I really enjoy it’s overly in depth, check it out and let me know what you think!
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I feel that a big question for How I Met Your Mother fans has always been “Who is the mother?” And while we don’t have a definite answer, we can take what we do know so far and begin to formulate some ideas. This is a long one so go grab a drink and pull up a chair. By the way, HIMYM returns to us on March 17th! So hopefully soon there will be more to add to this list! Disclaimer: I love theories, but I have not posted anything here that cannot be backed up. Enjoy!
Who we know is NOT:
1. Robin is not the Mother. We learn this in the first episode and and it is reconfirmed countless times in all 3 seasons. No matter how much people “want it to happen, ” it just won’t. Get used to disappointment. In fact, for those still
letting the thought wonder in the empty space in your head let me share the best explanation / recap on the subject from tv.com forum user RUdaPs:
To explain the surprise of the “…and that’s how I met your Aunt Robin.” line in the pilot…
If you pay attention throughout the pilot, Future Ted always says things like “…and then I went to her apartment.” The assumption is that the kids are thinking the whole time that “she” and “her” are their mother because Future Ted says that he’s telling the story of how he met their mother. The only thing is, he doesn’t say a name. So at the end when he says “…and that’s how I met your Aunt Robin.” the kids are surprised.
It’s like watching “The Sixth Sense” for the first time. (If you haven’t seen it and would like to you should stop reading this and skip to the next paragraph.) You always assume that Bruce Willis is alive but it is never clearly stated. Then if you go back and watch it again, you realize that only the kid talks to him throughout the movie. Even though you thought it was obvious the story was about one thing it was clearly about another and you can go back and see what it was really about
2. The string of possible girls throughout Season 1. There was Natalie (Return of the Shirt), Ted’s old girlfriend, who knew Krav Maga. Coat Check Girl (OK Awesome), that Carter Bays even joked that if the writers strike ruined the show for good, she was the mother. Even though we never meet her (which would be a great idea for this season…hint, hint), the Slutty Pumpkin (from oddly enough the episode called the Slutty Pumpkin). Dr. Sara O’Brien (Matchmaker), the engaged 9.6 match found by love solutions. Trudy (the Pineapple Incident), who came back in the Third Wheel…let me side track here for a moment. Ted only says “I left Trudy a message, but she never called me back”…to me this implies he never saw her again, but I suppose that was the way around things for that episode (that and “Some stories you tell, some stories you don’t”…seriously, would would ever tell their kids they rode the tricycle)…anyhow moving on. There was Victoria from episodes 12-18, she was great, would have been nice, but she won’t be back (at least not as marriage material). Let’s not leave off Mary the Paralegal (and that is a shame…but when you don’t laugh it just seems mean). And I can sum all these up as “not the mama” because in the episode Lucky Penny from Season 2, Ted says:
“My destiny was to stay in New York. Because if I hadn’t, I never would have met your mother.”
Thus saying that up to this point, he has not met the mother yet, so we have not seen her. Take a moment and let that sink in if you need to.
3. Ted’s soul mate. Let’s camp on this one for a moment. Season 1 episode 21, Milk, the dating company finally comes through and finds Ted’s soul mate. Now if #2 is true then she could be included in that group. However, Ted never actually met her in person. Will this be a loophole? Will she ever play back in? I leave it to you…personally I feel, the “Soul Mate” is out of the picture or at very least not the mother…I just felt she needed to be mentioned.
4. The girls form Season 3 (so far). Well Season 2 was a wash as far as “the mother” because Ted was with Robin the whole time. And in Season 3 so far I don’t think we have seen any potential for a “mother character”. In some of the recent interviews with the creators of HIMYM they confirm this thought (more or less). In the Platinum Rule, Ted say something about that being all with Dr. Stella for now…but I seriously doubt she is the mom…and here is why….
WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW SO FAR:
1. Her name. Now this is just a theory but it seems to be a pretty strong one. The mother’s name is Tracy…don’t believe me? Season 1 Episode 9, Belly Full of Turkey, at the end of the episode a “burlesque entertainment artist” approaches Ted and says what he did was sweet… She says “I’m Amber”…then says “Actually, I’m Tracy”… then future Ted’s (Bob Saget) voice pops in and says “And that kids is the true story of how I met your mother.”
The kids are blown away surprised. He does say he is kidding…however ponder this if you will…why would the kids even believe it for a moment if their mother’s name was not Tracy?
*Update: Here is some more info on the Tracy Theory.
2. They meet in New York. This is a slight assumption too, however in Lucky Penny he says if he wouldn’t have stayed in New York he would have never met her.
3. The Yellow Umbrella. Season 3 episode 1, Wait for It, Ted says, “Kids, there is more than one story of how I met your mother. You know the short version, the thing with your mom’s yellow umbrella…” So we don’t know much, but we do know there is a yellow umbrella involved (You can thank Captain Obvious for that one).
Also if this is your first time here be sure to check out the How I Met Your Mother Show Reviews for the latest info on “the mother”.
Well… Lily is the mother of those two kids…
Ted marries Robyn…
Lily and Marshall die in a car crash…
Ted and Robin adopt Lily and Marshall’s kids…
Barney? Still wearing his suits…
hahahha
P.S im gonna burn my TV if this really happens…!
Oh wait… Could cindy be the mother? hmmm
Could Cindy’s room mate gave her the yellow color bus toy?
hmmmm….
So what you’re saying is that he’s been lying all this time?
I don’t mind being childish, it works for me.
I’m sure the writers are fucking with us in many ways, but I doubt they would do this entire show just to turn around and punch us in the face, figuratively speaking.
But then again, you could be right. Let’s just hope you’re not.
Hahahah u silly guys, i live in the netherlands and i read all of your comments. just have patience and you”ll find out…
I think these are the theories which sum up till now –
– yellow umbrella
– the mother was in an economics class – (the one which Ted thought was Architecture 101)
-the mother is the roommate of Cindy (a girl he dated also from the Economics class)
-He meets her in NYC
-He has seen her leg
-I don’t think its Victoria bcoz shes away in Germany. the possibilities of other girls are limited because all of them had flaws. If you can drag this series for 5 seasoms, then there must be a really awesome girl waitin who would be the mother.
– He says this once – in the Three Day’s Rule – “Once I got your mother’s number, I called her up immediately”. I think this also rules out Victoria and all the other girls. This girl is new…………. completely new
– I checked out S6E1 and well- He meets her at a wedding and hes pretty darn nervous abt something. He has to give a speech or smthn according to wikipedia and Lily is the one who calls him in the end
I got a feeling we’ll know her before the end of the season
guys got anything else to pitch in? Add in your views
if we want to know who is the mother, we first need to find out WHO IS THE FATHER!
Listen to my theory. I think that Robin is not the mother, but he is teds wife. Why? Well.. because ted is not the father. he is telling the story about how he met ”your” (kids’s) mother, but that doesnt make him a father, he could be the uncle telling them a story. BUT BUT BUT, listen to this. if we want to find out who is the real father, we need to take a look over the whole episodes and find out who of his friends he is not calling uncle or aunt. SO, we know that robin is not the mother cause he’s calling her ”aunt robin”, so my questin is:
1. Does he calling marshal and lilly aunt lilly and uncle marshal in front of the kids or not?
2. does he calling the barney uncle barney in front of the kids?
so when we find out who does not have the ”uncle” or ”aunt” name in front thats the real dad:)
and if he calling them all aunt and uncle, then unfortunatly ted is the father, and robin is not teds wife…
I am pretty sure Ted has addressed all his friends by either Uncle or Aunt.
Furthermore, Ted probably is the father of those kids because if the kids were of either of his friends, and he fell in love with their mother- then that is a really messed up story which the producer’s have enough sense not to create
it can’t be her because the girl with the yellow umbrella outside the club is wearing jeans.. the one he bumps into is wearing a dress
she looks like the daughter?? come on! you can’t fit actress so much! so it’s kinda fake theory!
ur theory of those kids nt being teds kids is absolutely wrng coz in the very 1 ep when ted say i am abt to tell ul the stry of how i met your mother the son says are we being punished fr sumthin and den the daughter says whether is gonna take sum time he says yes and strts bfr 25 yrs old dad had a diff life
so that proves they are his sons
he is tokin abt their mum
who is unknown
which is killing me
i think its stella cuz whe ted was telling the story he says if i hadn’t of decided to go that way i would never have met your mother and theres this woman with her back turned and then she turns around to face ted and then he goes and that is the story of how i met your moher
I think that writers have some big ace in their sleeve. So I like to think that maybe those kids, the boy and the girl, that he’s talking with, are not Teds kids – so that is why Robin is their aunt, but Ted’s wife. My point is that Ted always refers to the boy and the girl as “kids” but we don’t know for a fact, that that boy and that girl are his children. So I want to listen what do you think about this.
OK, first a few things that are DEFINITE (proven, without a doubt facts):
-Ted IS the father of the two kids he is talking to
-Neither Robin nor Lily is the mother
-The “present” is shot in 2030, the kids are 16 and 14 (that was mentioned somewhere in the dvds, i forgot which. But that is a fact as well), so the older child was born in 2014. That means Ted find this girl sometime before 2014 (obviously)
-Stella is not the mother (Proven on a few accounts: Where is Lucy in 2030? Also, there’s an episode where you see the kids if Stella was the mom. They were blonde. Ted’s kids are NOT blonde, so Stella is out)
-The mother was in Econ 101, the classroom that Ted thought was his Architecture class
-The mother is Cindy’s (Rachel Bilson) roommate and we see her foot (so she’s white, at least)
-The bass guitar, cd, bus (and I think one other, can’t remember off hand. Was it a book?) in Cindy’s apt are all her roommate’s
There are a few theories going around:
-The “Bump Girl” from the Episode “No Tomorrow” at the St. Patrick’s Day party (possible, not too likely)
-The mother’s name is Tracy, from when Ted fools his kids for a second into believing their mother was that stripper (possible, but I think that was either a slip by the writers that people are looking too far into)
-The mother is either no longer married to Ted or has passed away (I guess technically possible, I don’t remember anything directly disproving either, but personally I think it’s a long stretch…)
-Probably some more, but this thread has so many repeats, I skipped quite a few
Now, here’s what I think:
I think it’s possible that the date from Love Solutions that he passed up on in the episode “Milk” (when he goes to help Lily fix a flat on the Fiero, then Robin drives him back to MacLaren’s only to have him skip the date anyway) is the mother. Nothing to my knowledge disproves this idea (yet, at least) plus, she was everything Ted’s looking for AND she fits the (albeit limited) description of Cindy’s roommate (who we KNOW is the mother). Plays bass, for one… It’s just an idea
Also, I find the season 6 opener very teasing and it hasn’t been mentioned much here yet. We find that Ted’s at a wedding. It’s not his, he’s the best man. He does say however, “The day I met your mother was the day of the wedding”. For Ted to be the best man, it’s probably either Barney or Robin’s wedding. THAT (at least to me) is very interesting! I’m thinking more along the lines of Robin’s because if it’s Barney’s I would think Marshall is the best man too. But then again, if it was Robin’s wedding, how would she (the bride) get to pick who the best man is? Isn’t that normally the groom’s job? Also, if Ted meets the mother at the wedding, like he says (we have to accept that as a fact), how does she know the couple to be married? I think there’s a LOT of information in this episode, and a lot of ideas that aren’t addressed here yet
I do like how at the end, Ted and Marshall run inside the church because it starts to rain. Ted says he didn’t bring an umbrella. I think that ties into the whole “Yellow Umbrella” thing. Ted no longer has it (left it at Cindy’s, and the mother’s, apt). Maybe he sees the mother at the wedding with the yellow umbrella and puts 2 and 2 together? I’m so curious and excited to see where this all goes!
no cos tht would be just stupid.
i agree with the dont agree with the uncle ted theory.
and who calls their mom aunt???
it cant be robin.
lol do you even watch the show? He said that she was in the same class as him when he went to wrong classroom, i think Robin would have said anything while he was in there..
is it at all possible that one of the women that ted sleeps with is the yellow umbrella girl who then has the children who live with the yellow umbrealla girl and a step dad. then ted marrys robbin, and that is how he meets there mother?
i dont think the writers have decided yet i think they just keep going and going intall the last episode then they will decide! thats my thery at least lol hahaha :@
Sorry, Sean, check again. The girl he bumps into IS wearing jeans! Of course this girl is the mom. If she’s not, not only will I be disappointed, but the show makes no sense.
does robin have a sister? I just started watching this….reruns on lifetime lol…. do we actually know yet or are they still writing? it’s an interesting show but completely out of order so Im trying to get the plot line here and of course about who the mother is!
Robin does have a sister. I think most have ruled her out though.
And I can tell you as a fan up to speed, you probalby know aas much now as you will when you get current! We still love HIMYM though!
Thanks for visiting! Let me know if there is anything we can o to help catch you up to speed!
Well now this is quite confusing… the apt they were in watching the superbowl….wasnt that the married couples apt? and he says “kids…. we were all at my apt”
other question: If ted is the father: Maybe he just gave up and adopted or got one of his friends to be a surrogate mother for him! Because I dont think the kids even know who their mom is after reading all of these internet theories! LMAO!!!!!!!!!!
It’s Ted’s appt and Marshall & Lily’s appt. They both live there.
There are a ton of internet theories… I mean just read through the comments and you will see a lot. But from some things old Ted had mentioned I would say the kids definitely know their mom.
Mother is brunette (at least dark red). Wedding photo in the first season standing on the desk of the table while camera zooms on the kids in 2030.
as to the Tracy name theory….Maybe the kids gasped because that’s NOT their mom’s name and not because they believed it?
I think the mom is the woman that lived in the apartment before he moved in that he got to let him up to the party. They have a lot in common & get along well it would stand to reason she would also be the “match” from the match making company and just hadn’t signed up yet. The mysterious woman that lived in the apt seems to come up in passing in a few different episodes and the apt is always in every episode. So that would explain how he can get away with saying it’s all about how he met the mother.
Now I am just trying to catch up since I only caught this on lifetime reruns and don’t even know if this theory has been disproved yet. Let me know.
Dude, children call him “Dad”. Don’t you think that indicates that he is in fact their father 🙂
she has brown hair cause in the one with teds and Stella wedding he sees the alternative future with the kids having blonde hair as dose stella
guys trust me am a big fan would love to know and keep guessing who the mom is but they will only be telling us who it is when the ratings are really going down and it is time to wind up the show… and whenever ratings go down they don’t even have to reveal her just rumor and we will all be back on it. hope one of the theories that they will meet at least by 2013 is on the dot
Lol Thats so true. Its her.
I think the mother is Stella
maybe the wedding you mentioned is stella’s and her ex husbands?
The mother has’nt been seen yet, because the show’s called how i MET your mother, so that means he hasn’t met her yet
The question also is, what if he is not a part of the nuclear family, what if he got married had kids, and then realized that the mother of the children, the woman with the yellow umbrella, was not the love of his life, so divorced her (amicably of course) and got together with robin
WOW!!!!!!!! anthony r u retarded
SE6 E1 shows Ted at a wedding, nervously waiting outside.
SE6 E4 ‘Architect of Destruction’ shows a girl who Ted falls for but figures out that she is already engaged.
I don’t know about the upcoming episodes but I think the wedding scene in Episode 1 is the girl’s wedding who Ted fell for and thats why he is so nervous….
SHE COULD BE THE MOTHER
I have a hinch that the hooker from 1 season that barney hooks him up with she likes star wars and all that crap but remember she wasint a hooker.
The next episode is when zoe enrolls in his class, so it’s possible if she was lying about being engaged
the show is called how i met your mother not who is your mother totaly
I think we all know, that robin is defintely NOT the mother and I doubt that divorce will be part of anything, because if you follow the series for almost a decade and find out, that the misterious mother is now the ex.. that’s depressing! and for all robin fans: I’m positive she’s marrying barney. in the first episode of the sixth season ted seems to be the best man and barney wasn’t there and lilly’s dress could be a dress of a made of honor… I don’t know, but why should ted bore his children with a story about his ex- wife???
ok guys I have been recording all the shows on DVR and have came to the conclusion that the kids on the couch are definitely at least teenagers and NOT over 18(no adult child would sit for that long listening to their dad ramble on) if the year is 2030 that means the oldest kid couldn’t have been born before 2013! most of these shows haven’t even made it past 2008 yet that I have seen! I could be wrong but I haven’t seen them!
He hasn’t met the MOM yet or at least hasn’t let on to yet and he won’t until the LAST episode! I don’t think it’s going to be fruitful to start guessing at the mother until the shows start saying it was the year 2011 or 2012! I don’t think with as desperate as he is that he will wait that long to get married and have kids! Or He won’t need to wait because he already knew her from WAAAYY back like Victoria or the lady who used to live in the APT or some other barely mentioned/short lived character. Like the annoying lady that talked too much~Hey that would make sense he seems to have taken a liking to talking too much and the kids seem used to it! LMAO!
Ted and B-*#$@ are gay, Robbin is the surrogate,
I cant give anymore info than this
robin cannot be the chidren’s mom because ted refers to her as ‘your aunt robin’. the children are def his because he always says ”how i met your mother” not ”how i met your aunt robin” common sense.
what if he meant ‘meet again’ years later… maybe he is going to go ”hey aren’t you the woman i met at the bar?” or something
dude he calls her your mother not your aunt
robin cannot be the mother because in episode 12 s3 he says ‘your mother was at the party” but dude robin was not at the party she was with marshal and lily!! as much as i love robin, she might not be
the mommy
imagaine if ted was gay with barney and the kids are adopted
“yeh, cause I’m awesome” “it is going to be legen…wait for it…dary
I reckon it will be quite a while before we meet the mother. In the first episode of season 6, Ted mentions he meets the mother at a wedding where he is the best man. At the end of the episode, Lilly clearly says “best MEN” (I listened carefully) when talking to Ted and Marshall. This means they are both best men. Now who could they be best men to? Currently (November 8 in 2010) it can only be Barney. So currently it means that Ted meets the mother at Barney’s wedding. As there is as yet no girl in sight who Barney would get married to, there is a whole story arch still waiting for us about Barney meeting his future wife. The alternative is that it is some other guy who is about to get married and who owes a big favour to both Ted and Marshall (like they save his life together or so) so that they are both his best men and the story is speeded up that way, though in my opinion this is unlikely, as Barney getting married and Ted meeting the mother at the same time is the perfect ending to the HIMYM series. Still, at the moment, unless Barney hooks up with Zoey (who already is married to The Captain, so this is unlikely) the current main storyline leads us nowhere near to Ted meeting the mother. Enjoy anyway!
Ain’t Robin…Cause its repeatedly stated across the show that Robin is the Aunt. She shows up in the kids paintings and grew to like Ted’s kids (she was not comfy about kids in the beginning, remember?) I believe that Robin ends up with Barney. The proverbial ‘mother’…well, she hasn’t appeared yet. All the hype about the St. Paddy’s day Gal is just a diversion inscribed by the writers. Being a writer myself, I can attest to that. Though when it happened, I nearly missed a heartbeat 🙂 Again, the gal that he bumps into seemed very petite and nothing out of the ordinary…I would expect the ‘mother’ to be a bombshell…Common, look at the group dynamics here…the new Chika must be comparable in the looks department. Well..thats just me 🙂
Cheers.
Who is Zoey?