When the Duggar family's show 19 Kids and Counting came to a close, everyone thought that they would never see the family on screen again. So it was a pleasant surprise when the family made a comeback with their new show, Counting On. The show follows the now grown up, married with kids, Duggar girls, but does not command as big a following as the original show did: 19 Kids and Counting, which followed Michelle and Bob Duggar and their 19 kids. Technically, the family has 20 kids, having adopted one kid.

For some viewers, this family is one to emulate with lessons that most people wish their family would adopt. However, for some viewers, the Duggars' moral compass leaves a lot to be desired and they were more than happy to see the show come to a close.

The new show follows the same rules as the previous one, with the Duggar girls adopting their parents' parenting style and even ideals as far as marriage and children are concerned. While one would expect that the children would by now have forged their own way and beliefs, the Duggars seem to have chosen the path that molded them. Like its predecessor, Counting On has its own set of surprises, many of which were missed by most people.

19 They Still Have Deep Religious Beliefs

The Duggars are a deeply religious lot, but who wouldn’t be? Mothers lose their minds when raising one kid, but Michelle and Bob managed to raise twenty kids and still remained sane. We have to admit, it would take a lot more than just mom power to make that work.

Their religious beliefs, which are mainly paternalistic, leaves a bad taste in the mouth with most of us viewing it as a bit too messed up. The Duggars are still as religious as they were then and it has emerged that apart from those married outside the faith, the rest of them are still rooted in their religion.

18 Joy May Have Been Pregnant Before the Wedding

The Duggar family has very strict rules on dating or rather “courting” as they call it. The family does not permit full frontal hugs preferring side hugs (which we find rather awkward) and they also insist that couples have to be chaperoned on every date until they are married. It appears that someone slept on the job during Joy's courtship. Fans of the program have been speculating that she may have had a bun in the oven during her wedding.

According to Blasting News, “Joy-Anna says she's happy because their [Jinger and Jeremy’s] baby will only be six months younger than hers. Jinger said they didn't know the baby's gender yet, which means she's less than 16 weeks along and looks less than 12. If the babies are six months apart, Joy is due in January.”

17 Jim Bob and Michelle Come Back

Michelle and Jim Bob are not everyone's cup of tea and most of us were so fed up by their moralist views that we had hoped we wouldn’t have to listen to them or watch their “perfect parenting” anymore. For those who love the couple, their comeback is welcome, but for the advertisers, this comeback is not something they are interested in investing in. Even the shows fans are not happy about the two.

According to My AJC, one fan said, “Are they slowly working the lowlife parents back into the show after they slapped Josh on the hand for his wrongful behaviors and then lying about it??"

16 Joseph Proposed at His Sister's Wedding

There is an unwritten rule that governs birthdays, engagements and weddings. The person at the center of it all should be the center of attention with no exception. It is in bad taste for anyone to take the limelight from that person, after all, this is an occasion that only happens once in a lifetime or once a year.

Dressing better than the bride is in bad taste, but nothing is in worse taste than asking someone to get married to you at someone else’s wedding! Joseph decided to use his sister’s wedding as the platform to ask his girlfriend to marry him.

15 Jim Bob and Michelle Taught Their Daughters How to Kiss

Most of us learned how to kiss by kissing a doll or the mirror. It never occurred to us that our parents would sit us down and demonstrate how to kiss! Not only is this yucky, but it is also morally wrong.

The cringe-worthy moments that were televised live on 19 Kids and Counting are the building block for the daughter's prowess or lack thereof in kissing. Even for families that are very close, this is just wrong and we feel the Duggar girls should do what millions of girls before them have done and just kiss the mirror or their pillow; anything to avoid this helicopter character of their parents.

14 Where is the Storyline?

This show seems to have done no better than the earlier one and now that the siblings are older, it is becoming harder to watch with the show revolving around marriage and childbirth, as the older siblings settle down to marriage. The sisters seem bent on making the show work.

According to The Things, “Jessa and Jill, who were both pregnant with their second child at the time, compared their pregnancy bodies. They've even been accused of trying to have babies at the same time just to boost the show's ratings.” Sounds radical and for a family that doesn’t believe in birth control, this would be rather difficult to achieve.

13 Jana and Jessa Can't Stand Each Other

Sibling rivalry is a common occurrence and it is not uncommon to find one or more of the family members not seeing eye to eye. The nicest of the Duggar siblings, Jana seems to also have such an arrangement with her sister Jessa. These two sisters seem to have nothing in common, with Jana single and Jessa married.

These differences are not what brings on their cold attitude, which they developed young and have carried to their adult life with both deleting each other from social media periodically while retaining their other family members. This may not be much to go by, but upon listening to their stories of not liking each other as children, one is left with no doubt that the two still do not like each other.

12 They Are Still very picky about the show's crew

Still, on matters in relation to religion, the Duggars made it obvious that they did not want to have any members of certain communities in their crew nor are they willing to tolerate them, even when they do not interact.

According to In Touch Weekly, “someone who worked on the set of 17 Kids and Counting back in 2008 reported that Michelle was none too pleased when she discovered that one of the crew members was of an orientation they didn't approve of. Michelle pulled a producer over and started yelling at him. The crew member in questions was immediately removed from the set and transferred to a different production set.

11 Jessa and Her Husband "Got together" During their wedding Reception

The Duggar children operate under a lot of tension, a situation that led to Josh's misconduct. With such strict rules where a couple is not even allowed to so much as hug unless it is a side hug, it is no wonder that Jessa and her husband decided to get together for the first time immediately after the priest pronounced them man and wife. According to Fox News, Mary B, who claimed to be a wedding guest, wrote, “Multiple people were discussing that when Jinger opened the door to get Jess for the reception, she immediately closed the door with a look of [surprise] on her face.”

10 Jill's Whining on Central America

Missionary work is a calling that most people are not called for. It takes an exceptional person to wholeheartedly offer themselves to others without expecting any comforts or returns. For Jill, she found the experience difficult, probably because the whole thing was later revealed to be a total sham. When she whined on Counting On about how difficult it is to live there, most of us were left wondering how a person would choose to be a missionary if they cannot hack it.

According to the Inquisitr, “Jill and Derick did not have the right qualifications to be funded missionaries with the Southern Baptist Convention and the International Mission Board.” No wonder they found it hard.

9 Josh Duggar and His Wife Just Had Another Baby

We have also learned on this new series that Anna and Josh Duggar welcomed a new child into their lives. This could be welcome news and it is, as a child is a blessing, but we can’t help but wonder how she could have gone on to have another child with this man whose misconduct keeps going higher and higher.

The Duggars faith makes the women a little more submissive than normal women and it is probably why no form of betrayal seems to faze them. While this is probably commendable, that kind of faith is likely to have people take advantage of them.

8 Claims that they discipline too much

“Spare the rod and spoil the child,” is a verse in the bible that some parents take a bit too far. Under the guise of discipline, they like to bandy about that they are following God’s rule. Religion does not permit excessive force with children, as let’s face it, these are children and not inmates.

Spanking has been overtaken by events with most mothers now opting for the more refined and accepted mode of discipline that is “time out” as well as “grounding.” According to Radar Online, in a police investigation, it emerged that the Duggars use an actual rod to discipline the children, but are careful enough not to leave a mark.

7 Jill Duggar's Husband Derick Dillard Hassled Jazz on Twitter

The one rule of living with other people is to adopt the mantra “Live and Let Live.” A person’s identity should not be used as a way to demean or hassle. Being religious should not also be reason enough to feel superior to other people, nor should it be reason enough to look down upon others. On Counting On, we have seen Jill Duggar's husband take his religious beliefs a bit too far by deciding to hassle Jazz, a YouTuber.

According to ET, he tweeted, "What an oxymoron... a 'reality' show which follows a non-reality," he tweeted in response to TLC promoting the show on social media. He tweeted that her identity was made-up.

6 Duggar Sisters Suing the Police

After Josh’s misconduct, the Duggars' popular show 19 Kids and Counting lost its slot on TLC's primetime. The information on his misconduct that came to light after its release on In Touch Weekly left most of us speechless. This information had been obtained from the Springdale Police department, which was in violation of the privacy.

The sisters have moved to court and according to Ozarks First, “The lawsuit claims that police assured the family that information from the investigation and their interviews would be available only to law enforcement, juvenile court, and child services personnel. But the information was released to In Touch Weekly in 2015, making the story national news... on a large scale."

5 Dating is Expensive for the Duggars

Since the Duggars believe in chaperoned dates, the children charge their dating siblings to act as their chaperone. Michelle believes in giving allowances based on a person’s contribution to the family chores. The allowances are not much and therefore any other source of income is welcome, not that they need it, seeing as they have no social life and their need for luxuries is limited.

The chaperones sleep on the job once in a while and the dating siblings sometimes get away with a lot more than is Michelle and Bob approved. They have managed though to stay on the straight and narrow so far, which means the arrangement is working.

4 Their Children Have to do a Lot of Work Around the House

Michelle and Bob Duggar do not believe in hiring people to do the chores around the house, after all, what is the essence of having a troop of kids if it will not save you some dollars? The Duggar siblings are given chores based on their age with the older siblings doing the major tasks while the younger children are given lighter duties.

This doctrine seems to have appealed to their children who are now doing the same with their own children. Instilling a sense of duty on one’s children is a good thing, but children should also be allowed to be children and play.

3 Jim Bob refuses to speak to waitresses

Everyone knows that they need to keep the people who handle their food happy. These are the people who can put a surprise in your meals, more so when the word hate is bandied around. The Duggars do not believe in dishing out money for meals, preferring to make their own snacks and meals. In this family, takeout is a foreign concept completely unheard of.

On the rare occasion that the Duggar clan goes out for dinner to the local Italian restaurant, Jim Bob refuses to talk to the waitresses unless it is through his wife. And did we mention that the tips are low and takes all the gratuities for large groups to the last dime?

2 Rumors of a Josh Comeback

Josh Duggar requires no introduction with his conduct putting doubt on Michelle and Jim Bob's parenting style and his own religious beliefs. His wayward behavior brought on a lot of backlash from the media with most people appalled, while others said they were not really surprised. Josh left the limelight, but that seems to be a short-lived reprieve.

According to Screen Rant, “Talk of Josh interacting with the family and his sisters again have been swirling around, which includes some rumors about him returning to the show. Although TLC would probably have a bit of a problem letting him back in.”

1 Anna on the Effect of Josh’s Misconduct

Even though Josh is yet to make an appearance on his sister’s show Counting On, his wife Anna made an appearance and shared how the whole issue affected her emotionally, more so in light of the newest allegations of misconduct.

According to The Things, “For the first time since the news broke, Anna commented on her husband's indiscretions and how they had affected her, saying, ’It was heartbreaking to hear what had happened.’ She was joined by Josh's sisters, Jill and Jessa, who insisted that they would get through the scandal and would come out stronger at the end of it.”

References: ThethingsMyajcSheknowsIntouchweeklyRadaronline