How to Dad Jordan and Jody Watson’s meet-cute: ’I just love the giggly-ness’

How to Dad Jordan Watson and his wife Jody on their wedding day.

Jordan Watson, best known for his How to Dad YouTube videos, is co-host of The Parenting Hangover podcast with ZM’s Clint Roberts. The Bay of Plenty-based father-of-three is also the current world record holder for the quickest 100m sprint in jandals – 13.62 seconds – wearing his own brand of Golden jandals. His wife, TV production manager Jody Watson, is on Instagram as @howtomumnz. The couple met as 18-year-olds in 2006 and got married in 2012.

Jordan says … When I finished school, I did 7th form at Morrinsville College, I had no idea what I wanted to do. The careers teacher said, “Look, you’re always doing speeches, why don’t you look at going to Bay of Plenty Polytech and do a five-month radio certificate?” I had a friend who was already going over there to do a sports course, so I jumped at it, because I knew we could flat together.

On the first day saw this attractive young lady come down the stairs. She was late to the class – the last one to arrive. She caught my eye. Within a few weeks, we were kicking it off and hanging around with each other. We were giggly-into-each-other pretty much straight away.

[I was drawn to her] good looks and giggly-ness. It sounds so cheesy to say “bubbly”, but it’s the bubbliness that she has, even to this day, with such a positive outlook on everything. We had this older, blind guy in our class. We were in the polytechnic library, and we were flirting, but we weren’t a couple yet. The blind guy said in his radio voice, “I can hear love in the air over there.” He’d picked up on it before we’d even said to each other that we were into each other.

After two weeks, it was official. I had this old crappy ute, a single-cab, old, 1980s huge thing. I’d taken Jody somewhere. When she was about to hop out, she stopped and looked at me. “So, are we going out now?” I thought, “I thought we were already, but okay.”

We were giggly-into-each-other pretty much straight away, says Jordan.

There was never any other thought [other than the relationship was going to be long-term]. “This chick’s pretty damn awesome. Don’t stuff it up, Jordan.”

When we were dating and 18, I took Jody to the Mount [Maunganui] beach. I remember Jody picked up a shell that looked like a ring and I jokingly chucked it in the sand and buried it with my foot and said, “Ahh, not yet, but one day, maybe.“ I took her back to the Mount beach [to propose]. We sat down on this log, and I dropped the ring in the sand and kind of buried it, freaking out. And then I said to her, “Hey, do you remember when you dropped that shell in the sand?” And then I dug up the ring and proposed.

What do I love and respect about Jody? Her amazing arse. Let’s leave it there. Nah, I’m in awe every day of her bubbly, positive outlook. I tend to think I’m a pretty fun, cruisy guy, but she just takes it to another level and gives just so much time to me, to the kids, and everyone around. I just love the positive outlook, the giggly-ness, and the beautiful arse.

Jody says … When I first saw Jordan, I felt comfortable that he was there, because I knew straight away that I would probably gel with him. I do remember walking in and thinking, “Who’s this older guy?” He looked older, like he was 23, even though we were both 18.

When we got together, I always thought it would be long-term. I never thought it would be anything other than that, really.

During the course, our tutor said that afterwards we could find a job in radio or go to Auckland to study TV or go to Christchurch to study broadcasting. Straight away, I said, “I’d like to study TV,” and I didn’t even talk to Jordan about it. And then we were sitting around a table in the library and the tutor said, “Okay, who’s doing what, we’ll go around the circle.” And I said, “Well, I’m going to go to Auckland and study television.” [Jordan says, “I followed her to Auckland because I was head-over-heels.”]

Jordan's made me laugh every day, says Jody.

We moved up to Auckland and studied full-time together and lived in a flat together. It was quite a shock because I had been living at home in Tauranga. And this was my first flatting experience. Well, kind of. Actually, I’ve never had flatting experience, not even now!

We struggled to find a flat that was just regular our-age flat people, and we ran out of time. [Jordan adds, “So, we ended up living with a 45-year-old woman, her teenage son, and a 55-year-old man who never left his room. I remember Jody calling her mum, gently crying, saying I didn’t fold the towels right.”]

I love that from the first day, Jordan’s made me laugh every day. We always have a laugh. He’s loving, he’s caring. He’s a great parent. We are very much a team. Everything we do, we do as a team, especially with the kids.

- As told to Penny Lewis