All in the Family

Parents playing cupid for their children is a common occurrence; picture the archetypal interfering mom saying, “Have I got a daughter for you!” upon meeting someone else’s son.

But it isn’t every day that you find teenage children who do the matchmaking for their parents. And it is even more unlikely that those same teenagers would end up together as well.

Lauren Blaylock and Sean Teare were 18-year-old college students who, while developing a new interest in each other, decided to set up a blind date with his dad Barry and her mom Allison. They never imagined both pairs would later get married, causing their family relations to become a little confusing, but very loving.

In December 1999, Lauren was attending the University of Texas at Austin and Sean was attending nearby at Southwest Texas University (now Texas State University). They met while on winter break, socializing with friends at a bar in Houston. One evening, Lauren learned that Sean’s dad, Barry Teare was single.

“I told Sean that I had a very cute single mom, and Sean wrote my mom’s number on a napkin and gave it to his dad,” Lauren said. “I told my mom to expect his call, and somehow she thought that his dad and I met at a bar, instead of Sean and me, and she didn’t want to go out with someone who would be at a bar with single people my age!”

Although Barry lost the number at first, and Lauren’s mom Allison was more than skeptical, eventually Lauren and Sean saw to it that their parents had their important first date.

“I had been a widow for 14 years and I wasn’t interested in another blind date,” remembers Allison. “Then our first date got canceled. But when the date finally happened in January or February, we stayed out til four in the morning, which I never do, making the kids nervous. We just talked and talked, and Barry told me that night he was going to marry me.”

Barry and Allison Teare (Photo: www.solarisstudios.com)

“We had both been single long enough to know what we wanted and we just connected instantly.”

Meanwhile, instead of Sean and Lauren just staying friends during their parents’ courtship, things were heating up for them as well.

“When I told Lauren that we were engaged she just cried and cried, and I couldn’t figure out why,” Allison said. “She was so happy for me and didn’t want to come in the way of my happiness, but by then she was in love with Sean, which I did not know. She didn’t tell me because she didn’t want me to change my mind.”

Less than six months later, Barry and Allison were married on July 27, 2000. Lauren waited until after the wedding to tell her mom that she and Sean were dating and that she was in love with him. They both transferred to finish college at the University of Houston.

Although they met well before their parents did, the technically step-brother and step-sister planned to get married as soon as they graduated.

“I hate when people mention some hillbilly place and say ‘ewwww’ when they hear that our children are married to each other,” Allison says.

Sean and Lauren married in August 2005, in the presence of their blended family that includes grown children Nell Teare, Annie Blaylock, Hannah Teare, and Cameron Blaylock.

“I will be both the paternal and maternal grandmother when they have their children,” Allison, the combined step-mother and mother-in-law laughed.

The family’s closeness extends to step-sisters Annie and Hannah who are planning to move out of their parent’s home and become roommates in an apartment.

But the twists to the story don’t end there.

After more than a decade of being fiercely independent, Barry and Allison decided that living together under the same roof was a bit challenging. They wanted to remain married, but maintain separate residences. Home base for Barry now is in Bellaire, on the same street as Lauren and Sean. Allison lives in Highland Village, although she is with Barry just about every day.

“To my mom, that seemed like the best of both worlds—like they were just going to date forever,” Lauren said.

“We are still very much married,” Allison emphasized. “It just works better for us this way, with each of us having our own space. But we’ll see what happens. Barry is already talking about retirement, so we may eventually live in the same place again.”