So Ted told his kids a lengthy story how he loved another woman more than their mother?

This is true. Ted is a bit of a douche. I mostly watched the show for the supporting cast.

I started re-watching Ted is a douche. Lily is the "grinch" Ted called her. Robin is a lost soul. Marshall is a nice goofball and too good for Lily. Barney is the most honest of them all.

Nailed it.
Ted is a classic sociopath, he not only ignores his obnoxiousness and selfishness, but he thinks he is such a great person.
I really hated this character for his need to force himself on others. I hate people like that in real life, why put them on tv?

The wife is incidental to the story. She is barely in the story and could be eliminated entirely. If the producers had stuck to the premise she would have only been in the last episode.


The story is his never ending obsession for Robin

You missed the last three minutes of the final episode.

For 8 seasons, the fact that the show wasn't about the mother at all was just the central conceit of the story, a frame for the narrative. It was also kind of part of the running gag. So this didn't bother most people when the show started or as it was going on.

I wasn't at all surprised that the show wouldn't actually cover the relationship between the father and the mother...it would just lead up to meeting her. (Although admitted, clearly some ppl expected that it would have more of the mother at the end, which is partly why so many ppl were upset. It's just like Twin Peaks...people just HAD to know who killed Laura Palmer.)

And then it just so happened that it was a season 9 twist that this narrative device was actually directly linked to the story; the father is unconsciously looking for his children's permission to date his long-time friend years after his own wife had passed away. Which I thought was kind of a neat, and unnecessary justification for what's really just a sitcom.

(But that upset ppl too, kinda like OP, who actually thinks this ending means that the narrator loved Robin more than the mother, which is ignorant not only of the ending, but of many of the guiding themes throughout this show, but that's an another story.)