The Duggars have made no secret of the fact that they lead their lives in strict accordance
with their Independent Baptist faith.
That means the children can't date: They "court," and only when the time is right.
What's more, they don't court without a chaperone:
"I was just wondering if you wanted to make it official and wanted to officially court
me."
Beyond that, the Duggar children don't use any form of birth control, and they don't
wear clothes that might lead the opposite sex astray.
But those rules didn't seem to apply to John David Duggar and Abbie Grace Burnett when
they were courting.
As Abbie revealed in a February 2019 episode of Counting On, they laid down some ground
rules at the very start of their relationship:
"John and I sat down and kind of made a list of guidelines for ourselves to keep in relation
to how much we touch."
Their ages could have been a reason: John David is 29, and Abbie is 26.
As John David explains:
"We all get to make a decision on what our standards are."
He goes on to explain:
"We chose to be able to have some contact versus no contact."
This begs the question: Given that John David and Abbie are already known for rewriting
a few rules here and there, what can we expect when Abbie is ready to go back to work?
The Duggars' conservative Christian faith stresses the importance of the patriarchy.
As such, the Duggar women are encouraged to take on the role of housewives... and housewives
who view their husbands as authority figures.
Michelle Duggar herself is a stay-at-home mom and homeschooled all 19 of her children.
In a blog post from 2015, Michelle shared what she called her "Marriage Advice for Newlyweds,"
writing:
"You are the only one who can meet that special need that he has in his life for intimacy...So
when you are exhausted at the end of the day...don’t forget about him because you and he are the
only ones who can have that time together.
No one else in the world can meet that need."
Well, being the so-called "perfect housewife" and fulfilling all your husband's needs probably
doesn't leave a lot of time for work outside the house.
So while Jill, the second-oldest daughter, is a certified midwife, and Jinger dabbles
in photography, it appears the girls don't have full-time jobs: Both Jessa and Joy-Anna
are stay-at-home moms.
The practice of becoming a stay-at-home mom extends to the other Duggar daughters-in-law:
Anna, Kendra, and Lauren.
But just because they don't hold full time jobs, that doesn't mean the Duggar girls are
averse to money.
They likely earn very decent paychecks for appearing on Counting On.
But things might be different with Abbie, who is a certified nurse.
John David and Abbie had the typical lighting-speed courtship, but they were both well into their
20s when they married.
At the time, Abbie was already on the career path.
Though she quit her nursing job to plan her wedding, she seems rather reluctant to walk
away from her career forever.
In fact, she recently became licensed to practice in her new home state.
In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, she explained,
"I’ve got my license transferred over to Arkansas so that I have that availability
if I want it.
I know I’m planning to keep up my license by doing the continuing education hours.
We’ve talked about looking at some options of getting a job.
We just haven't yet...So we’ll just keep it as an option and see what happens."
Abbie is currently pregnant with her first child; she's having a girl, but she's not
having an easy time.
In October 2019, John David Duggar told Us Weekly that his wife was diagnosed with hyperemesis
gravidarum and was hospitalized a few times because she couldn't eat or drink.
As he explained:
"She was actually on IVs and had IVs at home.
So that was a pretty scary time."
With Abbie's struggles, it's easy to see why the couple is waiting to decide if and when
she can put her nursing career back on track.
As John David told Us Weekly in November 2019,
"I think [we’ll] wait until the baby’s born before we make any big decisions for
us…Then maybe several months down the road after the baby’s here, we can look at…different
places for options for her to even work part-time or something like that."
If Abbie does return to work after having her baby, she'll be a trailblazer for all
the Duggar ladies behind her.
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