Will Robin Have Kids on 'HIMYM'?

It's down to the wire. Six episodes left of How I Met Your Mother, and the HIMYM theorizing is at a fever pitch. And sure, this week's episode "Rally" may have disproven "The Mother is dead" theory with a flash-forward of Ted and The Mother in 2022, but it practically teased its audience in another flash-forward to a few years later when Barney and Robin awoke hungover in a hotel room in Buenos Aires with a crying baby. Sure, the baby was revealed to be someone else's, but it does raise the question: will Barney and Robin ever have kids?

Many believe the show has settled that question long ago. And were this any other show, it might have been. But this is How I Met Your Mother, a show that loves to find loopholes, play with timelines, and give audiences a twist or two. So here's a veritable pro and con list of how Robin should or should not have a baby:

Robin Doesn't Have Kids

The show has more or less spelled this out for us in the heartbreaking episode "Symphony of Illumination." In the episode, Robin discovers that she's not able to have kids. She's too afraid to tell the gang initially and instead tells them she'll never be able to become a "pole vaulter." At the end of the episode, old Bob Saget Ted narrates that Robin never did become a "pole vaulter" but had an incredibly fulfilling life nonetheless.

And until this point, she didn't particularly seem to want kids, so much so that she had an entire argument with Ted about it while they were together. Once she learns that she can't have kids, she's pretty upset about it, although she may just be disheartened that she no longer has the option.

Not to mention that it would be pretty great to have an alternative to the whole "get married, have kids, live in the suburbs" trajectory that's so common on television. Sometimes, like Robin, women just don't want to have children, and there's nothing wrong or weird about it. And sometimes (also like Robin), women just can't have children, and that doesn't mean they're broken women. These women deserve to have their stories told, too.

Robin Does Have Kids

At the same time, Robin has definitely warmed to the idea of kids in the past few seasons, as has Barney. In "Not a Father's Day," both Barney and Robin longingly grabbed a cute little baby sock. Robin has also really warmed to Marshall and Lily's baby, Marvin.

And while Robin can't have kids, there's nothing that says she can't adopt them. The whole "pole vaulting" analogy might be vague for a reason — maybe Robin never has kids, but she still becomes a mom. If Monica did it in Friends, why not Robin? And hey, maybe Robin is able to have kids after all... stranger things have happened (seriously, have you ever watched an episode of I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant?). This show isn't beyond finding a loophole in its own mythology.

But mostly, it's hard to forget how heartbreaking it was watching Robin say goodbye to the kids she'll never have. This is a show that realistically tries to give everyone a happy ending, so why not give Robin kids if she wants them?

Kids or no, this is still a huge conversation that Barney and Robin have yet to have. What will their family look like when Ted finally sits down to tell his own kids how he met their Aunt Robin? In six episodes, we'll have to find out.