The day after my 30th birthday, I lost my wallet on the subway. I think I was pick pocketed. As I was trying to figure out how I was going to get home without any cash or credit cards (this was in the days before Apple Pay), I got a phone call. A guy said that he had found my wallet on the sidewalk. He was just a few blocks away so we arranged to meet so that I could get it back. That guy was Mike. Ha. I’m kidding. Mike and I met on J-date. But wouldn’t that have been an awesome story? A “meet cute” as they say in Hollywood.

Even though the way Mike and I met isn’t exactly the best plot for a rom com, we’ve now been together for 12 years and have two awesome kids, so I’d say it all worked out for us. 

I asked everyone in the Remarkably Average Parents Facebook group to tell me how they met their significant other. There were so many sweet, funny, touching stories that I thought I would share a few of my favorites, in honor of Valentine’s Day.

1) “A mutual friend set me up with my husband Sean’s best friend Eric. (I hadn’t met Sean yet). We had only really texted for a week or so, when one late night, Eric texted asking if I wanted to come over. At this point, I knew it was just a booty call. He had made it pretty obvious that’s all he wanted. But, being who I am, I thought ‘Nah, he will like me for more than that.’ We watched a movie and talked. Quickly, he figured out I’m not a booty call kind of girl. That’s when Eric was like, ‘Dude, I’m a man whore and I can tell you are too sweet for that. You would be perfect for my friend Sean.’ Eric was the best man at our wedding!” – Kacie

2) “We met on a blind date through my book club. I had left a red scarf behind in our January meeting. The person who picked it up from the book club wrote that she had the perfect way to get it back to me, by setting me up with her friend. She refused to answer any questions about him (or about me to him), just sent us the date and time to meet. He wore the red scarf. Twenty years later we are still together.” – Meredith

3) “We met at a karaoke bar. Though we had seen each other a couple of times, the night we really started talking was just after he had his tonsils removed. He couldn’t talk, especially over the music, so we wrote notes back and forth to each other on karaoke slips.” – Kathy

4) “We met working at Sonic Burger our senior year of high school! We flirted as friends for what seemed like forever because he thought I was taken. Finally I got ballsy and texted him ‘I really need to find a good guy to date,’ hoping he’d take the bait. And he did! He asked if we could be more than friends or would I rather stay friends, and the rest is history. Twelve years together, six years married, and three kids later, I fall more in love with him every day.” – Tara

5) “I met my husband when he went on a date with a good friend of mine. She wasn’t interested in him but said yes to the date so as to not hurt his feelings. She invited me to come to the movie since she didn’t like him and I had a bad day. Long story short, we really hit it off and started spending time together. I remember my friend saying ‘I’m so sick of your gushing’ to which he replied ‘I like her gushing. It goes well with my gushing!’ We have now been together 16 years and married for 9, with two beautiful daughters.” – Cindy

6) “My mother and my husband’s dad were friends. They introduced us but we (who are 10 years apart in age) weren’t interested. Regardless, we became friends. A few months later, our parents started dating….a few months after that, WE started dating— in secret for 2 years! Eventually, we let everyone know. We got engaged in 4 years and married in 6 years. We then had two kids. 20+ years later, we’re still married and madly in love.” – Karen

7) “I prank called my husband in college (I didn’t know him prior to the call), we met in person the next day and 15 months later we were married.” – Rachel

8) “I met my husband on Twitter. He kept hitting on me on various threads. Over the next 6 months, we moved from Twitter to Facebook to Skype. He was in London, I was in Baltimore. He proposed by sending a ring in the post. (We hadn’t met in person). I said yes and we set the dates. I picked him up 10 days before our wedding date at JFK airport and now we have been married for 6 years and have two kids.” – Khadeeja 

9) “We were 10, at summer camp. By the time we were 16, we were crazy about each other, but lived far apart so never pursued anything. One night, on the porch of Cabin 6, we made a pact to marry at 30 if we were single. We lost track of each other after graduation, but reconnected, both single, 13 years later. We married at 34. A few years late, but he was worth every moment of waiting. I still have the letter from when we were 16 that says ‘I like you more than I’ve ever liked anyone,’ and I couldn’t agree more.” – Amanda

10) “I had just ended an engagement (ok I got dumped, twice, by the same guy). I had a dress and the church booked and was about to send invites. I had already sent Save the Dates. A friend of mine invited me to take a trip with her and on the trip, she convinced me to meet her best guy friend. We met over ice cream. Ten years later and one kid and the rest is history. Not ever getting married though!” – Carmencita

11) “My husband and I met through work. He was on a State EMS Task Force and I was a State Homeland Security grant writer. Co-workers jokingly referred to him as my “work boyfriend” because, out of a sea of men nearing retirement, he was one of the only guys around my age. After two years of reviewing his grant proposals (and lots of red ink), he finally asked me out. He likes to say it was all of the ‘heart-warming’ discussions about chemical antidotes and radiological detection that brought us together!” – Shana

12) “I met my husband when I got hired at Toys ‘R Us for a seasonal position after high school. He was my supervisor, and we both got fired for it, but 7.5 years later (and much, much better jobs later), it was worth it.” – Cassidy

13) “I met my wife at a candy factory. I was managing production at a small, handmade hard candy company in the late 90’s/early 2000’s and she was a sales rep for an industrial flavor manufacturer. She made a cold call while driving past my factory and decided to stop in. We actually were looking for a new flavor supplier, specifically a good peppermint supplier. I took her company’s info, we got some samples and decided to become a customer. We sort of fell for each other while having standard issue vendor/customer lunches and once we realized what was happening, we had to make some quick decisions. I was living in Denver and she lived in Minneapolis. Best thing that ever happened to me.” – Adam

14) “In high school I wanted to ditch class and some random guy said he’d ditch with me. 4 years later, I married him.” – Christina

15) “I was trying to text a friend that I hadn’t spoken to in years. I accidentally entered area code 702 instead of 701 and I ended up texting my now husband. We were both coming out of relationships. We were lonely and bored so we kept chatting even after we realized that I had texted the wrong person. We texted for several days, and spoke on the phone for months. I eventually planned a trip out to Las Vegas to meet him and ended up never leaving. We’ve been together for 13 years in March, and married 12 years in April.” – Krystal

16) “We knew each other from 2007-2009, while we were both in the army, but were just friends. He got out and I moved to a new station. That should have been the end. Fast forward to 2011, he reached out to me on Facebook to chat. He was on a job in Afghanistan and I was in California. We talked for weeks, and then he asked me to meet him in Thailand, and I did. The rest is history. We’ve had a crazy life already, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” – Ashley

17) “My husband and I met when his best friend and my best friend decided we would be perfect together. I was a freshman in high school and he was a senior, and I can honestly say it was love at first sight outside algebra class that day.  We spent the next few months dreaming big dreams about life together, and then he went away to college, which was three hours away. We would write letters to each other on Sunday nights and put them in the mail so we would both get a letter on Wednesdays. We scrounged every penny for prepaid phone cards because this was before everyone had unlimited cell phones! This continued for 8 years as he went to college, I went to college and he went to optometry school. We dated for a total of 10 years before we were married, most of it long distance. Today, 25 years after we met, we are happily married with five beautiful children. It was worth every moment of that 10 year wait!” – Jennifer

18) “My husband and I met when we were about 5 years old! We grew up on different ends of the same street and were friends as children. We grew apart as we aged, but were always Facebook friends once that came about. We reconnected at 24 and 25 and went out for drinks to catch up. Almost 5 years later, we are happily married with our 3 children!” – Rachel

19) “My fiancée and I met on Tinder, but going against the Tinder stereotype, we didn’t start dating (or even kiss) for 9 months. When we first met, I told her I didn’t see things going anywhere romantically. But we slowly got to know each other as friends, until the day I paid for dinner to let her know I wanted more than that. We kissed in the driveway of my mom’s house that night, letting me live out the experience my closeted high school self never had. We’re getting married in three weeks, and I’m so grateful my initial prediction was wrong.” – Molly

20) “Our senior year of high school (we were in different schools), we were both hired as temporary Christmas employees in a video store at the mall. I was a terrible employee because I was (badly) flirting with my co-temp every shift while organizing the VHS. I never worked up the courage to give him my number, and when the holidays ended I was so bummed to realize I’d never see him again. Then in January, I happened to walk right past him at a Mardi Gras parade. My friends gave me the courage I needed to run back and ask him to the Valentine’s dance. Except I said, in my very smooth way, ‘would you mind going with me?’ He replied ‘no.’ My face fell and he laughed and said, ‘I mean, no- I don’t mind!’ Almost 20 years later, it’s still our running joke.” – Becky

21) “I had to pay my (now) husband’s bar tab because his friends left him!!! And I ended up getting him home safely. Not sure how I’m going to spin that for the kids.” – Jen

22) “My husband I met in the Purdue All-American Marching Band. We both marched sousaphone (though we called ourselves ‘Toobahs’) and were in the same rank. Someone broke their arm so I moved into broken-arm-guy’s position which happened to be next to my future husband. We made silly faces at each other whenever we were bored or just to try to distract the other from the drill. He got swine flu, I skipped math class to take him to the Student Health Center, and we started talking for real. I bought him Hannah Montana tissues and orange juice. Eventually the silly faces became flirting, which became dating. All thanks to a broken-arm and swine flu. Over 10 years later, we have two kids and a pretty nerdy/awesome marriage.” – Jacqueline

23) “My husband (David) and I met at work. He was actually my ‘work husband’ for a while. My actual boyfriend worked overnights so I would take David to all sorts of work events. He was a great friend. He was the guy who put every girl in the bar in a cab before he would leave. And he was cute and smart and funny. But for some reason it never occurred to me to like him. Then my boyfriend and I broke up, I told David a few months later and the light bulb finally went off. We met up at a work party, and the next day he asked me out. It turns out, he had a crush on me all along! We recently celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary and our 24th year together.” – Diane

24) “My husband asked my sister, who lived with me at the time, if he could spend a week on our couch. He never left.” – Jenny

25) “We met because of his mom. We were at wedding, and I was dancing with my friends. His mom grabbed me and said ‘you would be great for my son.’ The after party was at the groom’s house (my husband’s neighbor). His mom came up to me and told me I was more than welcome to use their restroom. She set up snacks and drinks for us to talk. Two kids and 10 years later, we still laugh about it.” – Erin

26) “My husband and I met in elementary school. We used to ride the same bus home. At our stop, he used to taunt me and my sisters, so we would chase him and try to hit him with our backpacks. My sisters and I were called to the principal’s office because his mother claimed we were harassing her son and trying to beat him up. Years passed and then in high school, we started dating because I heard him sing and seemed to forget how annoying he used to be. We have now been married for almost 13 years and have three boys who are just as annoying as he was, so I will not fault any young girls who feel the need to beat them with their backpacks.” – Rachel

27) “I was just back in London, after doing my Masters in the U.S. I had no money after traveling round the East Coast for a month and was living back home, so I took a temp job at his office while I tried to find a job I actually wanted. By the end of my first week, he told his friend he was going to take me out to dinner. I bumped into him on the way to work that Friday and agreed to meet him for drinks after work. We talked so long that I missed my last train home. About a month into dating, it was 9/11. The senseless shocking tragedy gave us a real kick in the pants and we got serious pretty quickly, because life was suddenly precious in a way we hadn’t understood before. We were together 18 years, married for nearly 11, with three amazing kids. I was told we may not be able to conceive naturally, but we did, before cancer stole him from us way too early last year. I’ll always be glad I took that temp job. It was the dullest job I ever worked, but man, the perks worked out well.” –  Sarah

———————————–

Tell me your “how we met” story in the comments below!