After so many years of watching the Duggar family on 19 Kids & Counting and Counting On, we've come to expect a certain kind of behavior from them. They're very buttoned-up and conservative, despite their league of rambunctious kids. Michelle and Jim Bob always seem like patient and kind parents, and there's a rule and a procedure for everything — down to the way everyone dresses and how the chores get done and when each child gets one-on-one time with their mom and dad. And in a family as large as this, it's hard to imagine it running so smoothly any other way.
Despite her upbringing, we can't help but notice that Jessa Duggar does it all a little bit differently. While she's definitely taken some of the things from her own childhood that she loved and applied it to her own life as an adult, wife to Ben Seewald, and a mom, we've seen her do things her own way a lot — especially recently — and we love seeing her come into her own like that, even when it involves a bit more sass than we've seen from Duggars in the past.
Read on for all the times Jessa hasn't acted like a Duggar. We can only imagine more instances like this will come up in the future!
Wedding Drama
After appearing on Say Yes to the Dress with Ben's sister, there seemed to be a rift between her and some of the Seewalds. Jessa thought the dress wasn't modest enough, and Jessica wore it anyway … and her sister-in-law, Michelle, later got married in a similarly revealing dress. Later, it was discovered that Jessa had unfollowed Jessica and Michelle on Instagram, despite the fact that she seems to be on good terms with his fam in general.
Handling Henry's Speech Delay
Though we'd hope any parent would get their child the help they need when they need it, the Duggars have always been all about home schooling and figuring things out among themselves. So when Jessa got professional help for Henry's speech delay, fans were surprised that she took the initiative — and these days, Henry seems to be doing great.
Amazon Shopping
This may be more of a sign of the times than anything else, but the mantra in the Duggar fam was always "buy used and save the difference." Though Jessa Duggar does talk about going to consignment shops here and there, she is a big fan of shopping on Amazon, which means she's buying a lot of things for her and her kids brand new.
Swim Look
Way back when Jessa was pregnant with her first child, she went swimming in this ensemble — which, at the time, was totally unheard of for a Duggar. Here she is in a tank top and shorts, two pieces of clothing that were usually off limits for Jessa and her sisters. Of course, it was summer and she wanted to be comfortable — and most of us swim in much less — but it was still pretty striking.
Ivy Wears Pants
Pants were off limits for a long time in the Duggar family, and for many of the women (and girls) they still are. But so far, Jessa has been dressing her daughter, Ivy, in plenty of outfits that happen to include pants, which is a bit of a rebel move … and we have to wonder if that will continue as Ivy gets older.
Sassy Comments
Though the Duggars pride themselves on "keeping sweet," sometimes, Jessa brings out the sass — like she did when defending sister Jana Duggar on Instagram in 2018, when haters were wondering why, as a grown adult, she didn't have her own account (yet). She's since signed on to the app, but Jessa didn't mind jumping in to fight for her sis.
Sharing the Messy Side of Parenting
While Jessa's parents might have always tried to make it look like they had their (giant) family together on 19 Kids & Counting, Jessa has never been about that life! She's always told it exactly like it is on Instagram, showing the messier side of what parenting three children can really look like.
Wearing Pants
It isn't nearly as often as some of her sisters do, but every so often, Jessa is spotted in pants — usually in sweatpants — when she's hanging out at home with her kids. This in itself is a pretty big rebel move, and we have to wonder if this is a gateway to her wearing skinny jeans like sisters Jill and Jinger have been known to do.
Wardrobe Has Been Getting More Scandalous
In spring 2020, Jessa was seen wearing pants and a shirt with a low neckline when her friend Sierra dropped some tacos off at her house. In Sierra's Instagram story, Jessa could be seen wearing the risqué outfit (well, by Duggar standards, anyway), which definitely ended up blowing some fans away.
Watching TV
TV wasn't much of a thing in the Duggar household growing up — at least, not as far as they showed the TLC cameras. But Jessa's family watches football at home, and the kids Henry, Spurgeon, and Ivy, look like they get more TV time than Jessa did growing up.
Financial Scandal
In 2018, Jessa was accused of being shady when a piece of land that was owned by her and Ben came up for sale. According to Radar Online, Jessa's late grandmother, Mary, had sold the land to her for $1, but it was reported that Jessa and Ben were trying to sell it themselves for $200,000.
Yikes.
Jessa's Wedding Ceremony
One of Jessa's first big rebel moves happened at her wedding ceremony. As most fans know, the Duggar kids don't generally kiss their fiancés until the wedding, but in Ben and Jessa's case, they opted to do things a little differently. Instead of having that big moment in front of everyone they know, they didn't kiss during their wedding ceremony at all. They saved it for a private moment.
Chemistry Between Jessa & Jeremy
After seeing Jessa and Jinger's husband, Jeremy, on camera together, fans are convinced that Jessa would make a better match with Jeremy … and they've even noticed some chemistry between the two of them. Uh, that's definitely not Duggar-like behavior, and hopefully, it ultimately means nothing.
PDA
Once that wedding kiss was behind them, Jessa and Ben were all about the PDA — and they've been that way ever since. At the beginning of their marriage, they didn't hold back when it came to sharing steamy smooching photos on Instagram, which was definitely a bit of a shock for fans who came to expect something different from the Duggars.
Not Caring What People Think
We totally can't see Michelle doing things like this, but Jessa's ready to pull out the sass when she knows the mom-shamers are coming for her, like she did when she made this post on Instagram and could anticipate being called out for her boys being dangerous.
"Yes, we're barefoot, and we kept away from the roll of barbed wire, and he didn't get to keep the prized nail that he found. There. Beat ya to it," she wrote.
