You know how the old love story goes, right? Boy meets girl (or girl meets boy, girl meets girl, boy meets boy), sparks fly, they date, and eventually marry. Is this that kind of story? Yeah, No. Whether you wanna admit it or not, and clearly I’m admitting it, because A) I love telling this story, and B) I think it’s fun to think about, you’ve thought about an arranged marriage for your kids.

I bet you guys, all two of you reading this, are like ‘what in the hell is he talking about, again?!” FINE, I’ll tell you! It’s called being patient, you guys. It’s about that time that I agreed to an arranged marriage for Sophia…I know, I KNOW. Arranged marriages don’t work. They are archaic and barbaric. And other words that end in “ic”. But this was too perfect. And, the story is silly and funny and weird.

Back when Sarah was pregnant with Sophia, one of my best friends from college and his wife were also pregnant. They were about two months behind us in their pregnancy. So, when my buddy Zach called me to let me know that he and his wife would quickly follow me and Sarah into parenthood, an idea was born. ARRANGED MARRIAGE!!

We didn’t actually talk about it. It happened over that summer, around August. How do I remember that? Because Sarah and I were in the car driving to Washington, DC for my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding when I told her my idea. This is how the conversation went:

Me: If we and Zach and Jen have kids that are the opposite sex, we’re doing an arranged marriage.

Sarah: …….. ::laughs::

10 Minutes later….

Sarah: umm… Zach just texted me. And he just said the same thing you did about an arranged marriage. Did you guys talk about this already??

Me: WHAT?!?!?!?! No, we didn’t, but that is awesome!

That’s more or less how the conversation went. (I’m correcting this post after seeing Zach over the weekend and both he and Sarah told me I was wrong in how I remembered it, because ya know, memory) I had no idea he was going to text Sarah the same exact idea that I had. Let alone, literally 10 minutes after I finished telling her the story! To this day, it’s one of my favorite moments, because of how funny the timing was. It was pure perfection.

So, fast forward about 4-1/2 years later… Why am I telling this story now? Well, for one, it popped in my head because we see them this weekend for their son’s fourth birthday party. We don’t see each other that many times a year, maybe four to five times, but Sophia and Bryson get along like they hang out all the time and are best buds. So, clearly, our plan is working… Now, if they could just do exactly as we say for the next 20-plus years, attend the same college we did, and then get married, that would be grrrrreat.

I’ve written before about how much more fun being a parent is when you have your best friends going through the same things that you are going through. And stories like this make it that much better. I honestly wish I had a screenshot of the texts and an audio recording of the conversations, for those that may not believe it’s authenticity. It happened, it was hilarious, and it still is.

Are we going to hold them to our “arrangement”? Of course…. we won’t. I mean, unless they want to get married one day. That’d be kinda cool.

What about you guys? Do you have any weird parenting stories or ESP-type moments? Share them in the comments, on Facebook, or Twitter!