Over the course of How I Met Your Mother’s run, series lead Ted Mosby did a lot of terrible things, but one of these incidents stands out among the rest. From dumping Natalie on her birthday (twice) to cheating on Victoria, there’s a plethora of bad boyfriend traits to pick from for Ted. However, nobody suffered more from being Ted’s girlfriend than Robin Scherbatsky.
Ted and Robin were set up for a series romance early on, with seeds being planted in season 1 before they eventually got together in season 2. Throughout their relationship, Ted and Robin had no shortage of their ups and downs. However, in one HIMYM season 2 episode, Ted asked Robin to do something that many would consider a dealbreaker when it comes to a long-term relationship.
In season 2 episode 16, viewers bore witness to the worst thing Ted ever did to Robin: he asked Robin to get rid of her dogs, 5 of them to be exact. As if asking someone to get rid of their pets wasn't bad enough, Ted’s reasoning behind the demand made it even more unhealthy. Ted asked Robin to get rid of her dogs since most of them were presents from her ex-boyfriends, and he felt they reminded him of her relationships with exes, a roadblock that stood in the way of their own relationship growing. However, while he clearly framed this argument to himself as perfectly reasonable, Ted failed to recognize just how special and important dogs can be to a person.
Ted tried to paint the issue of Robin’s dogs as complicated. Robin asked Ted earlier in the episode to dispose of some of his gifts from ex-girlfriends after he began confusing things he did with exes with things that he’d done with Robin. Ted obliges after the group sides with Robin on the argument, however, the argument was rekindled when Ted learns that the dogs were mementos of Robin’s exes, of which she had many. However, Ted refused to realize that dogs should be treated differently from objects, and were more akin to Robin’s family than gifts.
Additionally, at the time, Ted and Robin’s relationship was relatively new. Though by the end of the episode, the pair resolved to move in together, prior to that, the pair hadn’t even celebrated a one-year anniversary. Asking a partner to get rid of beloved pets after less than a year of dating felt to some fans like a step too far for a boyfriend to ask of a girlfriend, particularly when Ted and Robin’s relationship was already turbulent.
Ted and Robin’s relationship was always complicated, if not occasionally fraught. Over the course of the series run, even their friendship grew increasingly difficult to maintain, despite the series ending which saw Ted and Robin end up together somewhat unceremoniously. However, while Robin was the main victim of many of Ted’s outbursts and despite his very mixed behavioral record on the show, his asking her to get rid of her dogs was far and away the worst thing Ted did on How I Met Your Mother.