10 Most Heartwarming Moments In How I Met Your Mother
5. Barney And His Mother
Following on from the last point though, there'll always be one ultimate parent in How I Met Your Mother, and that's Loretta Stinson, played by the brilliant Frances Conroy.
Going back a few episodes of Season Six before Barney meets his father, he and James are sifting through items in their childhood home in the episode 'Cleaning House'. They find evidence of Barney's lonely childhood, which Loretta covered up with elaborate lies - for example, giving him a letter from the 'postmaster general' on his birthday, apologising for not delivering his invites, when none of his friends turn up to his birthday party.
When Barney realises this, he decides his mum is the only parent he ever needed, and there's an emotional moment between the pair in his room, when he calls her both his 'mother and father'. It shows a real raw and vulnerable side to Barney that we hadn't seen much of up to this point, and it really brings out his caring side.