Warning: Contains spoilers for How I Met Your Father episode 5.
In How I Met Your Father, Sophie is a little older than Ted was in How I Met Your Mother season 1, but she still has some maturing to do.
At the start of How I Met Your Father episode 5, Sophie (Kim Cattrall) is telling her son about how people can have a blind spot when it comes to seeing problems with their parents. Sophie is talking about her own mother, Lori (Paget Brewster), but her son thinks that Sophie is about to acknowledge her own flaws. Sophie quickly rebuts him, instead telling him that she is “perfect.”
While Sophie’s How I Met Your Mother line is most likely meant in jest, there is clearly an element of belief in there. While in the previous episode, “Dirty Thirty,” she acknowledges that she still had some growing up to do, this episode 5 statement suggests that her character development can only go so far and she cannot really become as self-aware of her own faults as she needs to be. In How I Met Your Mother Ted Mosby (Bob Saget) didn’t always criticize the actions of his younger self (Josh Radnor) as much as he should have, but he did regularly acknowledge the faults of his youth and mention to his kids that he wasn’t proud of how he handled situations.
Even if taken purely as a joke, Sophie’s line in the How I Met Your Father episode 5 intro is still a problem. It plays into the idea that parents, particularly mothers, are always correct and not to be questioned. While prevalent and played for humor, this mindset is damaging to our culture in its own way, as it prevents children from developing their own world views or feeling like they can stand up for themselves, often leading them to only realize relatively late in life that their parents are flawed humans just trying their best.
There were certainly many things in How I Met Your Mother that Ted did not criticize as heavily as he should have done, with many harmful actions played for laughs. However, there was an overarching understanding that Ted was not the perfect guy even in the future, as he questioned his quality of parenting as he told his kids about his sex life and told them that he had done horrible things that he wasn’t proud of. One thing that might have helped in this was the moderating presence of Marshall (Jason Segal) that young Sophie (Hilary Duff) is currently missing. Marshall was ready to call Ted on his nonsense, for example how he would leave upset girls for Marshall to comfort after their breakups, but In How I Met Your Father Valentina (Francia Raisa) does not fill this role, instead being as likely to be a bad influence as a good one.
How I Met Your Father releases new episodes Tuesdays on Hulu.