Many single parents will tell you that dating and having kids can be tough. Plenty of people want to have a family and don’t mind dating someone with kids, but that’s not always the case. Chelsie Dort joined Tinder in 2013, when her son, Jaxden, was 2 years old. She realized quickly that many men told her they didn’t mind that she had a child, and then bolted when things started to get serious. That is until Chelsie decided to change her dating strategy completely and took her toddler on a first date.
The mom explained in an Instagram post on her account, @lifewiththedorts, that when she started talking to a man named Bedford, she told him she’d be bringing Jaxden on their first date. He agreed, and that first date led to a marriage and four more children. Taking Jaxden to meet Bedford may have been the best decision Chelsie ever made.
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Chelsie figured Bedford was like the others before him.
But it turns out she was completely wrong. She told Today as a 22-year-old divorced single mom of a toddler, she had little luck with men. Once she began talking to Bedford online, she made a bold move. She told him Jaxden would join them for their first date. Bedford agreed, but told Today, at 26, he didn’t want to be a father figure.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is going to be a one-and-done thing. We’d go out and that would be it,’” Bedford said. The trio met at the Black Bear Diner in Sandy, Utah.
That first meal changed all of their lives.
Chelsie said that when they got to the diner, her son did all the things she expected. “Jax was sticking his fingers in jam packets and he kept crawling under the table,” she told Today. “Then he refused to eat the food that Bedford had ordered for him. He was like, ‘No, no! I don’t like it.’ And I was like, I’m never going to hear from this guy again.”
But she was wrong. Her now-husband proposed six months later, and they started an amazing life together.
They are now a family of seven.
Bedford told Today that Chelsie let him know how life would be from day one, and it’s perfect for them.
“She made it real right off the bat. I’ve never known anything but Chelsie with a kid,” he said. “We’ve always had Jaxden. That’s how our relationship was built.”
Today, Jaxden is 13 and has four siblings, Ryker, 10; Mya, 7; Naomi, 5; and Sloane, 3.
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Every year, they go back to the Black Bear Diner to reminisce.
Chelsie explained on Instagram that she and her family have been back to the diner on July 24 every year since their first date, minus a year she was pregnant and on bed rest with her daughter. For their family, it all started right there, and Chelsie hopes to continue the tradition for years to come.
She shared on Instagram, “I wouldn’t say we lived happily ever after because I don’t believe in that but we’re living. Sometimes it’s happy, sometimes it’s sad. Sometimes its blissful and sometimes it’s really hard. But we’re living all of it together.”
