John David & Abbie Duggar Spill Details On Different Courtship Standards

The new season of TLC’s Counting On is almost here and John David Duggar and his wife of three months, Abbie Grace, will be front and center. Their wedding proposal will be a huge focus, as well as the couple’s whirlwind romance leading up to the wedding. They moved quite fast once they knew they wanted to be together for the long haul. They also had their own set of dating rules that were different from the rest of the Duggar siblings.

TLC has been sharing a few clips leading up to the new season premiere on February 11. One of them had John David and Abbie sitting down to discuss how they did things differently. The video that was posted on Counting On’s official Facebook page revealed that the newlyweds had different standards for themselves. John David said that each of the courting couples gets to choose their own set of rules when it comes to how much touching they decide to do until marriage.

The Duggar son went on to say that he and Abbie were okay with some touching instead of absolutely no touching. As viewers have seen in past episodes of the reality show, most of the other couples only gave side hugs and barely touched each other. Only after they were engaged did they hold hands. It seems that John and Abbie trusted each other enough to give full hugs and put their arms around each other during courtship.

John, 29, and Abbie, 26, are considered an older couple, at least compared to John’s brothers and sisters who had already gotten married before he did. He mentioned that things are a bit different when you start courting in your late twenties.

“We felt like it is appropriate in where we are in this stage of life. We are about 10 years older than most of my siblings when they start a courtship so it feels like we are a little further down the road when it comes to maturity in some areas.”

As the couples always do when courting, John and Abbie sat down to make a list of guidelines on how much touching that they deemed appropriate for them. The one thing that they do have in common with the rest of the Duggar couples is that they waited until they were pronounced husband and wife before they had their first kiss.

John David went all out when it came to their first smooch. He took his time before his lips met hers. It was a well thought out process that took fans by surprise. You will be able to see that and more on the new season of Counting On coming up on Monday, February 11, on TLC.