The Duggar family has dominated the fundamentalist, conservative reality TV landscape for over a decade with their TLC shows 19 Kids & Counting and Counting On . However, there is another mega-family with a show on the UP network that also has 19 kids, and they happen to be close friends with America’s favorite baby-making family.
Gil and Kelly Jo Bates are the mom and dad of the Bates family, stars of the show Bringing Up Bates . The series features the Rocky Top parents and their 19 kids, five sons- and daughters-in-law, and six grandchildren.
In the latest episode, one of the family members made a surprise pregnancy announcement, and Tori Bates went on a shopping trip for a wedding dress. Alyssa Bates Webster took the opportunity to tell the family that she and her husband, John, were expecting baby No. 3 in April. This makes her the second member of the family who will be delivering next month, with Erin Bates Paine also expecting baby No. 3 in just a few short weeks.
According to Knox News , the next day, the Bates sisters plus in-laws Kelly Jo and Whitney traveled to Renee’s Bridal in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky , to try on dresses for Tori’s upcoming wedding.
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Tori got engaged last September and tied the knot in December, but because the episodes are shot well in advance, fans are just now getting to see the details of her big day.
“I was excited that all my sisters could be there because I knew that they would be honest with me, and if it was something that was bad, they would tell me, and so I was glad to have them there,” said Tori.
She ended up choosing a long-sleeve gown with champagne satin underneath a lace layer on top and changed her fiance and his groomsmen suits to blue instead of gray to avoid any possibility of clashing.
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For many fans, the Bates are the “cool version” of the Duggars. While they do share many practices like wearing modest clothing and not believing in birth control, there is one area where they are very different: dating.
While the Duggars are known for their strict courting rules of no kissing, hand-holding, or any physical contact before marriage, the Bates have taken a different approach. They do not require their children to have chaperones, and the parents do not monitor phone communication.
Instead, Gil and Kelly Jo believe that if someone is old enough to think about getting married, they are old enough to make their own decisions.
Another difference between the two families is that while the Duggars get married and have children immediately after finishing their homeschooling, the Bates children all go to Christian universities to further their education instead of rushing into marriages.
To find out more about the Bates family, you can visit their family blog or watch them on Bringing Up Bates Thursday nights on the UP network. Meanwhile, new episodes of Counting On return later this summer.