How To Date When You Have 17 Siblings

The Bates live an old-fashioned lifestyle, without much use of technology/the internet. All 18 of the children live at home, including the four who are currently in college. But that won’t be the case for long if and when a “suitor comes calling” for their 21-year-old eldest daughter, and she embarks in a process they like to call “courtship.”

We’re not talking about a “regular” relationship filled with dinner dates and making out at the movies: the courtship process for these families consists of a man asking a lady he’s interested in if they’d like to “court” — as the whole family looks on. They’ll then get to know each other on a series of outings and dates where they cannot touch, as they wait for any kind of physical expression of love until marriage.