***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”.
OK when the mother is like a teenager cause they will have to show her as a teenager for flash backs or something she should be play by Sophia Bush ! I know she wont be but it would be cool !
btw i what ?
What episode was this?
Watching the bump scene look in the background and there are 3 other girls wearing the same jeans
But the kids say Dad and call him dad
In the Episode the Pineapple incident, Trudy is sitting at a table with 3 other girls, Is it possible that when Trudy comes back in Third Wheel she could introduce Ted to one of the girls that was sitting a the table
How can you know that?
Yeah the kids call him Dad
or just a white foot
and the kids repeatdly call ted Dad
And in the 100th Episode Girls versus Suits The mother is the roommate of ted’s date and robin is most definately not that roommate
Below the Yellow Bus in the background and slightly behind the hand in clay is a wedding picture and that shows a girl with short black hair and to the right the 3 people picture you mentioned appears to be Robin Lily and Marshal or Ted i can’t make out the guy
Sorry but I disagree with this theory. Correct me if I’m wrong, but just because that woman was holding the yellow umbrella, doesn’t mean it’s hers. She could have been standing next to her friend, the mother.
Is it a possibillity that Ted is the uncle of the kids he’s talking to? Or did I just imagine that so Ted and Robin could still be together? Because I can’t remember Ted calling the kids ‘son’ or ‘daughter’.
PS. My name is not Ovide,………
but I heard that guy is awesome
Yeah!!!!!!!
Who is Ovide ??
Hi
In the first season the episode BEFORE he meets Victoria, he says something like “the day before I met your mother”… I will research this again, but I am pretty sure he says that…
Well if you ask me i think its some random Girl ! Cause he wouldn’t have broke up with all the other girl if they were perfect for each other which they are cause in one episode it says shes in the band and shes reading the same book as him or something !
If Victoria was the mum one of the kids would of said something like “that’s my mums name ! ” or ” That’s how you met her ! ” but if that was how he met her he wouldn’t continue would he !
Your worst nightmare
That IS the mother, why would they even include that if they aren’t going to reference that later… i thought exactly the same thing when i saw that. I cant believe anyone is even considering it being anyone else. Imagine you directed the show, why would you even shoot that scene? Then they try and distract you with the rest of the story and i still haven’t seen any reference to that brief scene since.
WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH???? I AM 100% SURE!!!!!
i have seen every episode of how i met your mother. i have also come to the conclusion that despite countless attempts to reiterate that robin is the childrens aunty…… THEY ARE CORRECT. yep that is right.
Robin is the childrens aunty.
However, i ask every person who doubts this theory to go watch every episode. at what stage in the show does ted say that those are his kids???
THAT’S RIGHT.
ted is telling the story of how he met YOUR MOTHER. he also refers to robin as AUNT ROBIN. therefore my final theory is this.
those are somebody elses children, perhaps a relative or cousin or relative of robin. ted is telling them the story of he met THEIR AUNT ROBIN.
(bit messy explanation, sorry, got pretty excited and just kept writing)
isn’t it stella because it annouced she was the mother, but i haven’t yet seen the episode after that so i’m probaly completely wrong.
I think Ted is the father, but he is divorced from his kid’s mother and with another woman, like maybe robin for example?
it would be both a good twist and a good ending.
YOU R WRONG!!!!!
in one epp ted goes on a date with the mothers roomate and he tells the kids that he falls in love with her and that she is their mother.
jeremy: That’s a great theory! I’m rooting for that one! 🙂
Haha it would be so cool if it actually were Wendy! 🙂 haha
Nope, not the same girl, sry
i think ted was telling the story because he knew nothing about his parents life. he says so in one of the episodes.(in which he comes to know that they are divorced).
is there a possibility that ted lost the phone when he bumped into that girl??
Yeah, the kids say, Dad, can’t we just skip to when you meet our mother. And, Dad! hen they don’t believe that thing about that wedding.
I think they can include this scene to throw people off so that we are having conversations just like this and bam… also about the Tracey theory it could go either way, or the kids could be shocked and just think the mom gave a fake name again. so I don’t think the writes wrote themselves into a corner
init he always cracks me up lol lmfao
maybe he adopted them and they dont know it? or they are just pulling a prank on him calling him father
he can be a dad to robins kids? or someone elses?
maybe she is not talking to ted?
sure aunt robin to them. not to him??
by that i mean he refers to their aunt. still can be his wife. to them aunt him wife 😀 happy ending
”Ted will not be with the mother of his kids” wtf haha?
lilly is married to marshall remember?
hmm also i saw in a episode that he said that their mother was in the classroom. thats when teds teaching architecture for the first time and he went wrong. in the wrong classroom their mother is. go ahead and compare her to other episodes people.
I know you guys are just trying to figure out who the mother is but the writers didn’t specificly make the show to try and get you to figure out who it is. i respect all of the theoiries but most of the episode are pointless to the story of how he met the mother. so most of these theories could just have been other pointless things the writers included
with the st pats ep ted goes back to the bar to look for his phone and steals the yellow umbrella. when he tells his kids that the short version was the thing with the umbrella, the umbrella was possibly not the mothers, ted could have just used it again and thats when he met his mother.
It is not Robin, coase in the one episode where he dates the mothers room mate, Robin is still room mates with Ted
THAT MAKE SENSE 100% – I BACK THAT
@ jeniiFer – i agree, but he could just met their mother, but never actually dates her, maybe it is not his kids at all?
Given how crap the Lost finale was the other day, I’m not holding out much hope for there being a proper, non red-herring, non cop-out explanation of who the mother finally is. Wrapping up a long-term mystery on a TV show based around said mystery is never going to turn out well when it has such rabid fans as you and I 🙁
How I Met Your Mother is framed by the year 2030, when Ted Mosby (voiced by Bob Saget) gathers his daughter and son to tell them the story of how he met their mother. Flashback to where the story begins in 2005 with Ted (Josh Radnor) as a single, 27-year-old architect living with his two best friends from Wesleyan University, Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), a law student, and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), a kindergarten teacher, who have been dating for almost nine years when Marshall proposes. Their engagement causes Ted to think about marriage and finding his soul mate, much to the disgust of his friend Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), a womanizer with an unnamed corporate job. And thus, Ted begins his search for his perfect mate.
Guys…….. This is really ridiculous…………… I never want to be part of this ……….but my room partner Manish forced me to watch this episode and I watched and I really seduced…adictive to be in part of it and you know I completed it in a week all the 5 season 124 episodes without sleeping well and at last after season 5 the last episode ………excited ….there are more episodes to be comes part …………. Guys really grrrrrrrrrrr……….I want to know who is the *********** mother here……………………… Well I know ……….she is Robin ……………no one else…………………….. well we listened aunt robin but its mystery,miracle, writers unbelievable thought and ………………………the mother is robin……………. what to say…………………..post me reply………………………………….
Well now guys you excited to know who is mother……………………………….Please watch how i met your mother episodes without any interupts……….. This is Vishwas I am writing onbehalf of ****** writer who is yet to publish the remaining episodes …………..its ********** ….. This is really embarassing,
*********** ,