When Jeremiah Duggar and Hannah Wissmann announced their engagement, the news didn’t come as much of a surprise.
After all, Jeremiah and Hannah had been dating for several months, and the match had Jim Bob’s approval from the very beginning.
In the Duggars’ world, that set of circumstances usually means an engagement is not far off.
And so, Jeremiah and Hannah did what was expected of them — but it seems like they’re not interested in completely conforming to Jim Bob’s expectations.
As we reported earlier this week, fans believe Jeremiah and Hannah broke the Duggar courtship rules with their engagement photo.
The pic shows the young couple embracing one another and smiling at the camera.
That might not seem like a very big deal, but Jim Bob’s regulations prohibit just about all forms of physical contact between partners who are not yet married.
Until they say “I do,” couples are not permitted to be alone together.
They’re also not allowed to kiss, hold hands for more than a few seconds, or engage in “front-hugging,” which Hannah and Jeremiah appear to be doing in their engagement photo.
And if Jim Bob was upset that these two didn’t follow the rules by “side-hugging” before, then he’s probably not gonna like their latest pic either.
The photo above appeared in Hannah’s Instagram Story earlier this week.
“Hot chocolate with a toasted homemade marshmallow on a cozy Sunday evening… yes please!” she captioned the pic.
Jeremiah later shared the photo in his own Story, writing:
“Loved getting to hang with my fiancée this weekend!”
Obviously, most engaged couples are well beyond the “wanna hang out this weekend?” stage in their relationship, but the Duggars do things differently, and that’s fine.
Unfortunately, couples in their community are not allowed to decide for themselves what level of physical affection they’re comfortable with.
They’re forced to conform to arbitrary standards set by earlier generations, which is why Jeremiah likely received a stern lecture from Jim Bob over his latest post.
For one thing, he and Hannah were hanging out at night, but they didn’t indicate that there was a chaperone with them.
There probably was one present, but in the past, Jim Bob has made it clear that he doesn’t want the public getting the wrong idea.
And while we have no way of knowing how long Hannah and Jeremiah embraced while taking that picture, if we had to guess, we’d say it was longer than the 15 seconds they’re allowed.
Yes, the rules are really that specific.
On Reddit, commenters have been having a field day with Jeremiah’s apparent disregard for his father’s rules.
“It’s an outrage! A scandal!” one user sarcastically remarked, according to UK tabloid The Sun.
“Straight to hell,” another joked.
“So are they gonna skip the aggressive hand holding?” a third person asked.
“He’s like, ‘I f–king dare you to say something about this hug, Dad,'” a fourth person chimed in.
It’s a good thing that Hannah lives in Nebraska.
Because she and Jeremiah might want to relocate far away from Jim Bob after their wedding.