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Jill Duggar is the rebel of her family. The former Counting On star has made it clear she’s not afraid to go against some of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s strict traditions. She’s ditched the modest dress code she had to follow as a kid and now dons pants and shorts on a regular basis. And she remains close with her cousin Amy, even though Amy has spoken out against some of Jim Bob’s conservative beliefs.

When it comes to raising her own kids, Jill is also doing things differently than her parents. However, there’s at least one parenting rule she learned from her mom that she’s implemented in her own house. 

Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard are raising their kids differently 

Jill and her husband Derick Dillard don’t appear to feel they need to follow in Jim Bob and Michelle’s footsteps when it comes to raising their kids, Israel, 5, and Sam, 2. 

When Jill was growing up, most secular TV was off-limits. But she and Derick apparently let their two sons watch popular children’s television shows such as Paw Patrol. The couple also let their kids dance — another big no-no in the Duggar household, as Jim Bob and Michelle believe dancing can invite temptation.

But the biggest sign Jill is breaking free from some of her parents’ rules came early in 2020, when she announced she had enrolled her oldest son in kindergarten. Like all of her siblings, Jill was homeschooled, so choosing a traditional school is a big change for her. Even more surprising to some Duggar family watchers was that she and Derick opted for a public school education for Israel rather than sending him to a private Christian school. 

Jill still follows this parenting rule from Michelle  

Jill may not parent in the same ways as her mom and dad, but there is one lesson she learned from them that she is passing on to her own kids: how to handle disagreements among siblings. 

With 19 kids, conflicts were bound to arise in the Duggar house. Rather than step in and mediate every disagreement, Michelle devised rules for her kids to help them work out many issues on their own, as Jill related in a recent blog post. Rule no. 1 was “talk sweet.”  Rule no. 2 was “Go and tell,” which meant a child should go and tell an adult if following the first rule didn’t resolve the argument. 

“If we came running to her with our little problem without having applied these two rules in the correct order, then we would be reminded of them and might be asked if we would like to ‘try again,’” Jill shared. 

Jill says the rule works for her kids

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Michelle’s rules “dramatically cut down on tattling and highly encouraged us to work things out on our own,” the 29-year-old explained. Now a mom herself, Jill encourages her boys to solve their problems in the same way. 

“[W]e’ve used these two rules with our kids,” she wrote. “I believe that not only do our kids benefit from them right now as they learn to work through problems with others while still young, but I believe these rules will likely help them later in life too when problems arise.”

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