For over a decade, the Duggar family has fascinated fans of 19 Kids & Counting and Counting On, thanks to their insane number of children and all of their ultra-strict rules. This family is far from ordinary, and one rule, in particular, has shocked many fans – the Duggars have a code word.

So, what is the code word and why does it exist? According to Cheat Sheet, the Duggars believe that women should dress modestly and should never tempt men with their clothing. So, when the family is out in public, and a woman nearby is dressed provocatively, they use the code word “Nike” to let the boys know they need to look at their shoes.

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In their book Growing Up Duggar, the four oldest daughters – Jana, Jessa, Jill, and Jinger – explained that they have a responsibility to help their brothers avoid their desires. And, they said that they whispered the family code word if they saw a woman who wasn’t dressed according to their standards.

The Duggar daughters say that “Nike” was a signal to the boys and their Dad that they should nonchalantly drop their eyes and look down so they wouldn’t see things that they shouldn’t be seeing.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar require the women in their family to wear high necklines, long skirts and dresses, and loose clothing, and the family matriarch once explained her rationale in a blog post.

“By keeping those private areas covered, there’s not any ‘defrauding’ going on. My kids are taught the definition of defrauding as stirring up desires that cannot be righteously fulfilled. We don’t believe in defrauding others by the way we dress.”

However, once the Duggar girls get married, their wardrobes change, and they seem to have a much more liberal dress code. Jinger was the first to start wearing pants, short skirts, and sleeveless shirts, and Jill and Jessa have followed with pants, tank-tops, and heels.

Duggar family rules say that when a woman gets married, their husband is the one who decides what is appropriate, so it looks like the girls are picking less-traditional men than their dad.

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The family continues to grow, with eight of the 19 children now married and with six of them having children of their own. If you add the two grandparents, 19 children, eight spouses, and 12 grandchildren, the family now has 41 members.

There are still six unmarried Duggar sons and five unmarried Duggar daughters.

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The Duggar family returns with new episodes of Counting On later this year on TLC.

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