Josiah Duggar and his new girlfriend, Lauren Swanson, may have only been courting for a week or so, but that have already been accused of breaking their courtship rules.
Although the Duggar family claims that all of the children create their own rules surrounding relationships and courting, all of them seem to follow the same formula. Thus far, all of the adult children when courting have been banned from front hugs until marriage and only allowed three second side hugs when courting. The pair can progress to another level of physical intimacy, hand holding, when they become engaged. Kissing and and sex are reserved for marriage.
Lauren Swanson and Josiah Duggar, however, have been caught in what appears to be real violations of the family courtship rules while on their vacation in New Zealand. According to some pictures obtained by Radar Online, the pair are touching each other in ways that are supposed to be reserved for relationships that are further in the process.
The pair, at one point, stood within kissing distance of one another, though the photograph taken didn’t make it immediately clear if the pair were caught kissing or not. At one point, Lauren appears to be resting her head on Josiah’s shoulder, which is definitely out of the realm of appropriate physical contact.
Josiah, however, has already done one thing any other Duggar hasn’t: courted publicly more than once. In 2015, he announced he and family friend Marjorie Jackson were courting, though four months later, the pair called it quits. Marjorie has gone on to create a blog and published several books about living a Christ-centered lifestyle.
Other Duggar children have been “caught” breaking the courtship rules as they waited until they were married. Jill Duggar Dillard and Derick Dillard, for example, accidentally front hugged after an emotionally charged time apart while Derick did missionary work in Nepal.
Joy-Anna Duggar Forsyth and her husband, Austin Forsyth, have admitted that when they made their engagement official, they accidentally front hugged due to all of the excitement of the moment. It is also rumored that Joy-Anna and Austin conceived the baby they are expecting out of wedlock.
