There is a good reason that Denmark is listed as one of the happiest countries in the world, they know how to enjoy hygge. This is nothing like the relaxing and happiness that many of us have come to know. In fact, it’s all about a new kind of lifestyle to create balance instead.

Find Nature

Copenhagen is filled with green parks and peaceful spots. This is an important aspect of hygge as it’s all about losing yourself and letting your mind unwind and forget all of the thoughts of the day.

Enjoy Coffee

Yes, it turns out that Danes love to enjoy a warm coffee on a cold day, and now it’s time to find a cup of your own in the city center. Whether it’s settling in with a book or watching the world go by, it often feels better with a coffee.

Take A Technology Break

Learning the art of hygge means you need to be in the moment and not focused on something else – like your phone. Board games, cooking, conversation, reading, and making crafts are all fun ways to take part in hygge instead.

Find A Home

This might sound strange, but hygge is about being at one with yourself and a home – not a hotel room. There are plenty of places to rent in Copenhagen that can help to make you feel at one with the city.

Indulge

Yes, that means enjoying those pastries or throwing yourself into the conversation you have been desperate to have for so long. It takes a specific skill to enjoy these indulgences without feeling guilty.

Hygge is an art that can take a moment to learn and a lifetime to master. However, surrounding yourself with some of the happiest people on the planet in Copenhagen is one way to learn how to change your mindset.

Perhaps the most unique family TLC has brought to us is the Duggar family from 19 Kids and Counting. Along with their conservative beliefs came some rather strange rules and facts about the Duggar family. We have compiled a few of the most interesting and unique facts for you below.

Michelle Duggar doesn’t believe in birth control, so with this belief, it is easy to see why a good chunk of her life has been spent with a child.

In fact, from the oldest Joshua to the youngest Josie, Michelle has been pregnant for 12 years in total.

The relationship between a daughter and father is special. Most dads are protective of their little girls, and Jim Bob is no exception.

Known as the “gatekeeper” of his daughters, he has to give his approval before a guy can take any of his daughters out. In fact, he is very opinionated and will even try to play matchmaker with guys that he likes.

Taking that monitoring to the next level, both Jim Bob and Michelle are tied into a group chat with all their girls. This way, they can keep track of what is going on in their relationships and watch for any unacceptable interactions.

That could be awkward for some families, but for the Duggars, this is just a way of life, and the girls don’t seem to feel that it’s that strange.

As we said before, the Duggars do not believe in birth control, but that wasn’t always the case. At the beginning of their marriage, Jim Bob and Michelle used the pill. This was because they planned on only having a few kids at first.

Somewhere along the way, though, the couple opted out of the contraceptive. Why? The stated reason is because they came to believe that the pill causes miscarriages.

It used to be commonplace to have a chaperone on your first date, so this isn’t too strange, we guess. However, the fact that any first date has to have either siblings or the Duggar parents along for the ride is a little more strict than most families.

This is to ensure that nothing goes on during that date that would break any of the parents’ very strict rules.

The Duggar patriarch and matriarch met each other in the ’80s through their church. It didn’t take long for the two to figure out that they wanted to spend the rest of their life together, and they were wed in 1984.

At the time of their marriage, both were fairly young. Jim Bob was just 19 and Michelle was 17, so they never got to be young single adults.

If you have ever watched the show, you probably noticed that there is a bit of a strict dress code for the kids. This is especially true for the girls, who are not permitted to wear pants. The girls have been taught that they need to dress modestly, and that means skirts or dresses.

The young women of the family follow the rules until they are adults, but a few of them have later stepped away from that rule and sported some slacks.

Hugging doesn’t seem like an intimate act to a lot of people. It’s a greeting and something that we all do. However, if you are a Duggar child, this is not how a hug is looked at. When dating, they are not allowed to hug from the front, only from the side.

The Duggar parents feel that this is intimate and that those moments should be saved for when they are married.

When a Duggar is dating, they are not allowed to be in the same room with their partner without parental supervision. This is part of the idea that girls and boys shouldn’t be left alone with each other.

The thing with this rule, though, is that it extends not only to relationships but to sibling relationships, as well. That makes for a different type of sibling relationship, that’s for sure.

There are a lot of rules and beliefs that are present in the Duggar family, especially when it comes to the girls of the family. These rules and guidelines all come from the very conservative beliefs of the family.

On top of that, Michelle likes to give the girls some marriage advice. One of her biggest is to always be there for their men, even when you are tired or aren’t feeling the best.

19 kids is a lot, and one mother couldn’t possibly take care of all these kids by herself. After all, it takes a village to raise a child, right? To be able to handle this, Michelle has her older girls help her out.

The older girls are expected to help take care of and teach the younger kids. In fact, there’s a team system where each older girl is responsible for select siblings.

Most people have a registry when they are getting married, so when Jessa and Ben were set to get married, they didn’t give a second thought about asking for gifts. The controversy, though, came from the fact they didn’t only ask friends and family but fans, too.

The couple let their fans know that they would be willing to accept any money or gift cards that they were willing to send.

Due to the strict dress code, there are a lot of places that are off-limits. One of those is the beach, seeing as how the girls aren’t allowed to wear clothes that show skin, and the boys are not allowed to look at girls that show skin, either.

Thus, it makes sense that the beach is one of those vacation destinations that are not on the list of approved places to spend their free time.

Many people across the globe believe that homeschooling their kids is the only way to go, but the Duggars take it to the extreme. In fact, Michelle homeschooled all her kids using one school system, and she has asked that her grandchildren use the same program.

Not all the girls have followed this suggestion. Jill has sent her child to public school, which has gotten some flak from the family.

In most relationships, by the time you got to the altar, you would have already kissed. Thus, the final act of the ceremony may not have been as stressful. However, the Duggars aren’t allowed to kiss before marriage, so when it came to Jessa’s wedding, she felt a lot of stress.

When it came time to kiss, the bride was a little shy and didn’t want to have her first kiss in front of everyone.

We bet that when you get your chore list at the Duggar family, you are crossing your fingers that laundry is not on it. With over 20 people in the house, you can imagine how many dirty clothes and other things there are.

In the Duggar house, they have four washers and dryers if that gives you any indication. On average, the family does 40 loads a week.

The family is very strict with their rules and beliefs. This strength in beliefs makes it hard to live with those who have developed their own thoughts or ways of doing things.

If this happens in the Duggar family, the rest of the family is instructed to break ties with that individual. For this reason, Jill Duggar has had a strained relationship with the family since leaving the show.

Dancing is not a big thing in the Duggar household. The biggest reason is that it promotes contact between girls and boys that might lead to impure thoughts and desires. Although there is no definitive rule against dancing, it is not done very often.

Once again, this thought is one that comes from their strong values and beliefs. Of course, once you are married, it is permitted, but before that, it is frowned upon.

The family is ultra-conservative and very devout, hence all the rules when it comes to physical contact and dating. This structure will make the next fact not surprising at all. Even when old enough, the kids are not permitted to read romance novels.

The kids don’t seem to miss it, and that is probably because they have been raised without them. This is a relief to Jim Bob and Michelle, for sure.

One of the rules that the family lives by is “always use soft words.” This is one of these rules that may be left up to interpretation. In our minds, this means no hate words or curse words. The family seems to try to be teaching the kids not to speak in anger.

This is one of the least strange facts and rules that we have talked about and is actually something that more parents might consider adding to their parenting kit.

You might think that finding a house with enough bedrooms for everyone is quite difficult, especially with 19 children. That might be the case if you needed one per child, but this family shares.

That’s right, the boys share rooms, while the other bedrooms are shared by the girls. Even still, these rooms have to be very large, as each holds four kids. Though there is no privacy, it is probably quite fun, as it is like a sleepover every night.

Speaking of amazing numbers, you can imagine what the grocery bill looks like when having to feed 20+ people. Just as an example, the family goes through roughly 16 boxes of cereal and 7 gallons of milk in one week.

When it comes to the total sum, the final grocery bill tends to range somewhere around $3,000 per month. That is a lot of money!

Dating a member of the Duggar family comes with a lot of rules, and the biggest is that there is absolutely no premarital funny business.

This is very different from the majority of the world, but this rule is all part of the very devout beliefs the family has. The girls have said they know it is strange, but only if you haven’t been raised with these rules.

When you have more than one child, it is very typical that there are bound to be some sibling rivalries and tension. When you add 18 other children to the mix, it seems to us that the chances are heightened.

The Duggars are not exempt from this. In fact, Jana and Jessa are always at odds. The younger, Jessa, is always wanting to question her older sister’s authority. It seems like there are some normal things about the family!

Jim Bob is best known for his real estate business, but this was not his only profession. In fact, for three years, he was a representative in the Arkansas House of Representatives. After that term was over, he even ran for senate but didn’t win.

Not winning brought him back to his original career…real estate. He is still active in politics, just on the behalf of others.

Speaking of discipline, Jim Bob and Michelle also make sure their kids follow the rules and learn boundaries by using what the children call the rod. Though both parents have never discussed this or even admitted to using physical punishment, the use of it has been proven through investigations done by the police.

The use of spankings is controversial, but the couple feels there needs to be some form of discipline taught to their brood.

You would imagine that, in a household that’s so devout in their beliefs, meals are a place for everyone to get together and give thanks. With a family this large, the dinner table has got to be something.

The Duggars’ dinner table measures 18 feet long. That is a long way to pass the butter or to share your day with everyone.

There are a lot of things that have to be taught as you grow up. Some of these things, like kissing in a normal teenager’s life, are learned through the media, but not in the Duggar household!

This skill is actually learned from your parents if you’re a Duggar girl. Some might find that weird, but many of the Duggar girls have said it’s not as strange as you might think.

Many of the rules and guidelines in the Duggar household are direct reflections of their faith. Because they hold such strong convictions, there is no room for other faiths in their family.

That is why every member, whether a Duggar or married into the family, must follow Baptist teachings. This way, there is no chance of opposing beliefs getting in the way of living their lives according to their faith.

The Duggar family is very religious, and that means that they follow their understanding of the verses in the holy book. Because of this, another one of the big no-no’s in the family is getting tattoos.

In fact, this offense is right up there with getting intimate before marriage. You will not see any Duggar with a tattoo, and that is just how Jim Bob and Michelle like it.

The Quiverfull Movement is a movement in the Christian community that is an ultra con and has some radical beliefs. The Duggars have been rumored to be affiliated with this offshoot of the Baptist faith.

Though the family may share many of the same beliefs, they have said that they do not consider themselves a part of this group at all.

If you have watched the show or read anything about this clan, you have probably noticed they have some interestingly spelled names. In fact, all the children have names that start with the letter “J.” This is not by accident, and it is probably no surprise that the idea came from their faith.

The first boy was named Joshua. Then, when the twins came, they started with the boy and gave him the name John. Wanting to honor a friend, they tacked a “J” onto Ana, and so the tradition was born.

Like many devout believers, the Duggar family believes in the sanctity of marriage. This belief leads them to also believe that separation is not an option no matter what happens. Because of this, when John Duggar’s scandals came out, his wife stayed with him and even stuck up for him.

John was not only accused of serious accusations when it comes to several young girls but was also outed as having a profile on a very well-known site used for finding individuals to have extramarital meetings with.

Wearing your mother’s wedding dress is a tradition that many families have, but what do you do when you have so many kids that one dress just won’t do? This is a question that the Duggar family had to address.

The solution was that each girl uses some part of Michelle’s dress in each of their wedding gowns. Whether it’s a handkerchief or an actual part of the dress, each girl will walk down the aisle with a little piece of their mom’s dress.

Their belief is so strong that it extends to their careers. One example of this is when Jill Duggar was learning to be a midwife, and she was asked to help a friend of hers out. This friend was unwed and that posed a problem.

In the end, she was not allowed to help her friend because of the status of her ring finger. That must have been a hard conversation to have with a friend.

It is hard to protect your child from the world and all the dangers that reside in that world. Michelle and Jim Bob realize this, and this has spurred them on to create a safe word for their kids. This safe word was designed for the family to use when an immodest woman strolls by.

To protect their boys from impure thoughts and temptation, the family knows to yell out “Nike!” when what they deem an immodest girl is present.

There is a lot of debate on when it is appropriate to let children have access to social media. Many people try to wait until their kids are older, but in the Duggar family, it doesn’t have to do with the number but rather your relationship status.

The kids are not permitted to have social media until they are married. This sucks for the oldest daughter who is still unmarried and is a 30-year-old with no social media.

Dating and other rules are not the only aspects of life in the Duggar house that seem very odd to many looking in from the outside. One of the things that most find a little strange is the parenting techniques that are taught and used in the household.

One of the discipline methods used for younger children is blanket training. In this, the baby is sat on a blanket, and if they move off of it, they get swatted with a ruler.

With 19 kids, you would imagine the house would be in a state of disaster at all times, but that is not the case. Once the kids reach the age of three, each child has a list of chores that they are responsible for.

Those chores are how the house remains in order, but the kids don’t do this for nothing. They get an allowance. For each chore, they earn three cents.

Even with two children, you need to have the right amount of bathrooms. Otherwise, there will be a lot of banging and screaming. This is even more so when you are working with 19 kids.

The house the Duggars live in is equipped with plenty of bathrooms and showers. In total, there are nine bathrooms and seven showers. Even with that number, we are sure that there are still arguments in the morning about people taking too long.