This year, Jill Duggar (along with husband Derick Dillard) has truly opened up about what it was like growing up under parents' Jim Bob and Michelle's thumb — and under the strict guidelines of the cult-like Institute in Basic Life Principles — and it looks like she's not done yet. This week, Jill and Derick appeared on the Sounds Like a Cult podcast to talk about her very unique childhood. According to her, the reality TV cameras she grew up surrounded by only made the pressure to follow every rule of the institute to the letter even more intense for her and her siblings.
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One of the big draws to '19 Kids & Counting' was how different the Duggars lived their lives.
Not only were TLC audiences fascinated by the fact that Jim Bob and Michelle had 19 children and what their day to day life would be like but also the ultra-religious IBLP-imposed rules that made their situation unique. Unlike many other children in US families, the Duggar kids weren't allowed to watch TV or movies and were taught that even something as innocent as dancing to music was forbidden.
Then there were the courtships and the rules about how the women needed to dress, and many people found they just couldn't look away.
It seems Jill believes their rules were even stricter because of the TLC cameras.
While talking to Sounds Like a Cult host Amanda Montell, Jill said she thinks that Jim Bob and Michelle felt a "more intense" pressure to make sure none of the rules was ever broken because with such a big audience, people were sure to notice if it happened.
"I will say that, yes, I think that these rules and things that IBLP taught were emphasized more because then you have a platform and a reputation at stake," Jill said.
Jill's family was expected to 'protect' the IBLP's platform.
In fact, she went on to say that her family believed that they would be "attacked" if they were caught not following the church's teachings to the letter, and Derick said the cameras' presence "fed the control" that Jim Bob and Michelle held over their children.
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If someone broke a rule, it would have to become a storyline on the show.
"If one of the main themes is like, we all wear this type of clothing and then someone pops up not wearing that type of clothing, that would put the pressure on her dad because you’re maintaining that theme of this is how we act and we don’t wanna be asked to address it," Derick said.
Knowing this, a lot of choices the adult Duggar children have made recently makes a lot of sense.
After all, when Jill's sister Jinger did start wearing pants, her conversation telling her parents about that choice ended up being featured on Counting On, so it's no wonder many of them decided to start making different choices after that pressure was off.
Hopefully, they are all able to feel a bit more relaxed now that their time on reality TV is officially behind them.
