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Jill, Derick & the Kids: Moving On!!

Chris Knight

By Chris Knight
in Counting On

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scriggle
scriggle

Wait, she needed a friend to tell her taking kids outside to play is something she could do to tire the kids out? Seriously?

wait.what
wait.what

If my parents supported the person who sexually molested me as a child AND also profited from a show that portrayed them as God fearing, loving, better than everyone else parents AND then shunned ME? 

jennblevins
jennblevins

If I didn’t know any better, and I bothered to think about it, I’d look at that picture and see, from left to right: - Polyamorous group of 4 - Straight couple - Lesbian couple with tod

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crazy8s

crazy8s

20 minutes ago, BetyBee said:

Didn't Derick once talk of writing a book? If that's what he's up to, I could see him starting a rumor that his book contains dirt on the Duggars. Then, surprise! It's a political screed! 

He also once talked about going back to Missionary work. I just can't see Jill ever functioning in a mission setting. SOS was a joke. JB buying them a/c. Jill terrified of everything.

 

  • Like 12
EmeraldGirl

EmeraldGirl

Of course Jill says it’s a welcome change of pace because she’s not home alone anymore with the kids. Geez, that’s not how it works. Somebody has to have a job in the family.
 

And why is the picture of them looking at a map? Are they taking some long trip? Relocating? A personal endeavor does kind of sound like writing a book of something.

  • Like 13
CalicoKitty

CalicoKitty

I have always believed that he is a Perpetual Student-type person and it does not surprise me that he is on to another career.  He has a specialized set of skills now, and I always thought he would make a good forensic accountant.  Maybe he will set up some kind of attorney/CPA business at home so Jill won't have to be alone.  The kids can go to school, and he will have Jill duty.  Just my hope for the kids, and I really have no idea where he is headed.  But it will be interesting to watch.

  • Like 15
StPatricksDay

StPatricksDay

(edited)
7 hours ago, CalicoKitty said:

I have always believed that he is a Perpetual Student-type person and it does not surprise me that he is on to another career.  He has a specialized set of skills now, and I always thought he would make a good forensic accountant.  Maybe he will set up some kind of attorney/CPA business at home so Jill won't have to be alone.  The kids can go to school, and he will have Jill duty.  Just my hope for the kids, and I really have no idea where he is headed.  But it will be interesting to watch.

Leaving the ADA job in January could mean he is trying to set himself up as a tax attorney.

Edited by StPatricksDay
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BetyBee

BetyBee

2 hours ago, StPatricksDay said:

Leaving the ADA job in January could mean he is trying to set himself up as a tax attorney.

That would make too much sense. I think Derick has some loftier goal in mind. He thinks he is smarter than he actually is, imo. I agree with those who say that he doesn't stick with anything for very long and that his wife is in need of more assistance than most. 

  • Like 16
StPatricksDay

StPatricksDay

16 minutes ago, BetyBee said:

That would make too much sense. I think Derick has some loftier goal in mind. He thinks he is smarter than he actually is, imo. I agree with those who say that he doesn't stick with anything for very long and that his wife is in need of more assistance than most. 

Does anyone remember if he worked in the tax dept. at Walmart? For some reason I think that; could be my imagination.

  • Like 5
Minivanessa

Minivanessa

(edited)

His entry level job in a small DA's office in Oklahoma was a 'first step on the ladder' position for a new lawyer. Some people take those jobs as the first step in a career as a prosecutor, but most people move on to other positions, not involving criminal prosecution, either in government or the private sector. 

The work he was doing was useful and necessary, but routine low-level stuff that's not usually exciting or high-status. Also I think the salary wasn't generous even considering that he could get health insurance through probably a good group plan. (We know that they live in a nice house without a mortgage, which is a significant advantage for the breadwinner of a young family.)

IMO his leaving the job is not a big deal. That he did so after only a year? That's sooner than I'd have expected, especially since he's being coy about what he's doing next. 

Hmm . . . 

I'm editing this because @ginger90 and @AstridM have brought the receipts: Derick held the job for two years and nine months. That's IMO not an unusually brief tenure and as I've said, it's an entry level job from which people move on. 

Edited by Minivanessa
Correction as to his tenure in the job
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AstridM

AstridM

7 minutes ago, Minivanessa said:

His entry level job in a small DA's office in Oklahoma was a 'first step on the ladder' position for a new lawyer. Some people take those jobs as the first step in a career as a prosecutor, but most people move on to other positions, not involving criminal prosecution, either in government or the private sector. 

The work he was doing was useful and necessary, but routine low-level stuff that's not usually exciting or high-status. Also I think the salary wasn't generous even considering that he could get health insurance through probably a good group plan. (We know that they live in a nice house without a mortgage, which is a significant advantage for the breadwinner of a young family.)

IMO his leaving the job is not a big deal. That he did so after only a year? That's sooner than I'd have expected, especially since he's being coy about what he's doing next. 

Hmm . . . 

It was 3 years, I think?

  • Like 5
Minivanessa

Minivanessa

I'm happy to be corrected. His leaving after almost three years isn't surprising or a sign of something wrong. 

Not all - or even most - people who take entry level prosecutor jobs in their local DA's office end up becoming career prosecutors. Career prosecutor is the straight line career path from that entry level job: get promoted within the office to handling the felony cases, etc., probably make lateral or promotional moves to other district attorney offices in the state or jump into the US Attorney's Office doing criminal prosecutions.

For most lawyers that entry level job gives them experience in handling cases, and doing courtroom work including hearings and trials. It's a foundation from which to move on to the private sector or other kinds of legal positions in the public sector. 

Anyway, I'll edit my original comment above. Staying at that job for almost three years is not unusual. 

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andromeda331

andromeda331

1 hour ago, Minivanessa said:

I'm happy to be corrected. His leaving after almost three years isn't surprising or a sign of something wrong. 

Not all - or even most - people who take entry level prosecutor jobs in their local DA's office end up becoming career prosecutors. Career prosecutor is the straight line career path from that entry level job: get promoted within the office to handling the felony cases, etc., probably make lateral or promotional moves to other district attorney offices in the state or jump into the US Attorney's Office doing criminal prosecutions.

For most lawyers that entry level job gives them experience in handling cases, and doing courtroom work including hearings and trials. It's a foundation from which to move on to the private sector or other kinds of legal positions in the public sector. 

Anyway, I'll edit my original comment above. Staying at that job for almost three years is not unusual. 

I hope your right. 

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Minivanessa

Minivanessa

4 minutes ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

It's not him leaving the job. It's more like him leaving without something else lined up. Most people leave jobs and have another offer lined up. He seems to have left his job and is now unemployed with a wife, 3 kids and a mortgage. That doesn't sound like him leaving was voluntary..

Actually, I don't think they have a mortgage. Although I agree he's being coy about his next career move. 

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Lisa418722

Lisa418722

(edited)

I saw on Reddit where he listed Dillard Law Firm on his LinkedIn, but I think that is more of a placeholder to make it look like he's working. Since with LinkedIn's algorithms,  you can start a job on May 31st and on June 1st it shows you've worked for two months.  I can't find anything for a Dillard Law in Oklahoma or Arkansas. A few years ago, I worked for an attorney who went out on his own, and he immediately had a website.  He also created an LLC with the Secretary of State.  

Derick has a history of working for a few years and then trying something else because he gets bored, or decides he doesn't want to work, or whatever goes through his mind.   Jill said he was taking a "sabbatical."  I don't know why he needs a sabbatical when he's only worked for a few years.  

I don't know if the DA's office asked him to leave or if he left voluntarily.  I would worry more about insurance with three little boys. I'm sure they are probably on the Scramatarian insurance, but that would terrify me if anything serious happened. 

Edited by Lisa418722
  • Like 12
EmeraldGirl

EmeraldGirl

I agree that it’s not unusual to leave those jobs. I’m assuming they have a stash from the book money. They did buy a house, but they are very frugal otherwise. No trips like some of the others take. No real furniture or decor besides the basics. So I’m sure he has a little time to figure out what he’s going to do.
 

Everyone knows that a tell-all would blast everything out of the water. I don’t know that Jill would be on board with that though, since she still seems to have contact with her siblings and mother. But that would certainly blow Jinger’s lame books off the charts.

  • Like 6
Zella

Zella

(edited)

I don't really think there's the market for Derick's book that he thinks there is or really interest in him outside of, quite frankly, snark circles. LOL Ultimately, the Duggar story is far more his wife's story than his.

He also has a history of biting the hand that feeds him and, as others have noted extensively today, moving on to new endeavors after a couple of years.

Regardless of how he claims his time on TLC ended--his version doesn't really match some known facts--he was extremely unprofessional about it, and he can be very petty, as his social media presence has often proved.

I'm not sure that people who could make a book happen look at him and think "Gee I'd like to collaborate with that guy and tell his story." (I also doubt a publisher wants to revive interest and attention in what happened with Jazz, which any media interest in Derick will eventually generate.)

I do think Jill is more likely to get interest because it is her family, but even then, I think the public already got that with her book.

And my biggest takeaway from that is she seems to have very complicated feelings about everything--understandably--and I am not sure she'd be on board with a full-blown tell-all, if only because I do think she values having whatever semblance of a relationship with her siblings and possibly her mom that she does have. A no-holds-barred tell-all is almost certainly going to endanger that. 

I meant to add, my guess based on some of Jill's own posting is that she is feeling fragile right now, and Derick is at home for now, possibly trying to set up his own firm and maybe even dabbling in a book.

But I am not sure how successful he will be at either, even beyond the stuff I already mentioned. I've said this before, but he reminds me of a lot of people I went to school with who seem to do well with the structure of academia but not so much in the real world. He may well have responded well to the structure of being a prosecutor, even if he eventually got bored with it and decided to move on, but to run your own business, you have to be really self-motivated and disciplined and you can't just flake out because you're bored or not feeling it that day. 

Edited by Zella
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BetyBee

BetyBee

My speculation on IF Derick's writing a book: Derick's style is to put out a rumor that a book he writes will be a tell all. He will NEVER write a tell all, because Jill doesn't want that. If the rumor took hold, he would then scold the public for thinking he'd ever write a tell all. I could see him starting a whole kerfuffle in order to call attention to his book, which would turn out to be a boring nothing that fails. 

  • Like 10
EmeraldGirl

EmeraldGirl

I didn’t even think of a podcast! Everyone has one now so that really makes sense. But I don’t think anyone would be interested without Jill also. And what the heck would they talk about? Jeremy and Jinger kind of have that topic all covered.
 

I still think there would be interest in a book, because Jill and Jinger sanitized everything in their books. Nobody ever got down to the nitty-gritty of prayer closets, blanket training,why they stayed up all night and slept all day, etc. And if there was any kind of abuse (definitely when you think about blanket training). But yeah, I said also that I don’t know that Jill would be willing to take that chance and alienate the rest of her family. 
 

He just needs to join a private practice and bring in better money. Maybe he could get into something conservative in DC. Or I’m sure Arkansas has plenty of options. Jill does seem to be a mess right now mental health wise. I hope she has gone back to seeing someone, because she really is seeming rather dull and depressed. Or they should look into a lawsuit regarding the car accident. It sounds like she has had many problems since then with her health.

  • Like 5
ranchgirl

ranchgirl

When I read what Jill wrote about Derick's employment, I immediately thought that he was needed at home to help Jill.  She cannot seem to function successfully without another adult present.  She looks good and seems to love her life through her social media (except for the heartbreak of losing her daughter and the recent car wreck pain) but she was never alone when being raised or even encouraded to handle something by herself, and it is showing.  And when she did try to handle something on her own, i.e. her eldest brother, she was blamed, ignored and ridiculed. 

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emma675

emma675

1 hour ago, EmeraldGirl said:

I still think there would be interest in a book, because Jill and Jinger sanitized everything in their books. Nobody ever got down to the nitty-gritty of prayer closets, blanket training,why they stayed up all night and slept all day, etc. And if there was any kind of abuse (definitely when you think about blanket training). 

The only thing is, those are Jill's stories, not Derrick's. He wasn't there for any of those experiences, so he would essentially be stealing those memories from Jill and making them his own if he wrote a book about them. The only things he could write about that would truly be his own experiences with JB and the Duggars are after he and Jill met and married. And I feel like Jill already covered that in her book, so I don't see Derrick rehashing that from his own perspective to be very compelling. 

I just don't see many, if any, publishers being interested in a book from Derrick. Maybe I'm wrong. I just think he's an arrogant yet terribly boring jerk and I'm not interested in his story, I'm more interested in Jill's.

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GeeGolly

GeeGolly

(edited)

Its so sad. Jill and Jessa were so confident growing up. They wrangled and 'educated' their siblings with ease. Jana too. Jinger, not so much.

Since Jessa is recreating her childhood, her confidence is still there. Jana seemed to maintain her confidence throughout. Jinger is continuing to build confidence. And poor Jill is stuck. I think she thought the results of the book were going to be empowering, unfortunately it seemed to have the opposite effect.

IMO, Derick is repeating many of the behaviors of JB&M that gave Jill little confidence beyond her Fundy circle.

Every time Jill has gotten her feet grounded, Derick shook(shakes) things up. Jill barely adjusted to marriage with a working husband and they up and went full on missionary. When that crashed, Derick quit the show, fractured Jill's relationship with her family and floundered around in some Fundy educational program. Then they bought the house and Derick attended school and things seem to be getting a wee bit better. Then they move farther from the family and Derick jumps into full-time employment. Jill's world is upended again. Then the book, the interviews and the documentary.

Every single change they made was for Derick with little to no consideration for Jill.

IMO, Derick is not supportive of Jill and her needs. He, himself causes much of her turmoil.

Edited by GeeGolly
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Is Everyone Gone

Is Everyone Gone

(edited)

I have a soft spot for Jill, as needy and exhausting as she might be to deal with on a regular basis. Something I've noticed about a lot of fundie women is they tend to be rather stern and cold. They're like Jessa and Jana. Or Nikki from Big Love (miss that show so much). It's a survival mechanism for sure. 

Jill strikes me as ... idk, more sensitive? Fragile? Someone whose personality was ill-suited to being a fundie matriarch. 

Idk what happened that made Derick join the funemployment line, but I wish there was a world where Jill could just go out, get a job, hold down the fort financially while Derick tries to get a job at a right-wing think tank or join an alt-right podcast. But she's completely tethered to a guy who:

1) Doesn't seem all that nice

and

2) Has issues sticking to one job for long

Edited by Is Everyone Gone
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Zella

Zella

7 hours ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

Jill said Derick "went out with friends" and she was alone with the boys last night. Idk, I sensed a passive aggressiveness about her IG stories. Like she was pretty resentful of it.

I watched to see if I could detect it. I could see it going either way, but she certainly was very detailed about all the things they did without him. LOL My main takeaway was how horribly congested she sounded, especially when she was speaking the next morning. I assume she has allergies, which are pretty nasty this year here. 

  • Like 9
Is Everyone Gone

Is Everyone Gone

1 hour ago, Zella said:

I watched to see if I could detect it. I could see it going either way, but she certainly was very detailed about all the things they did without him. LOL My main takeaway was how horribly congested she sounded, especially when she was speaking the next morning. I assume she has allergies, which are pretty nasty this year here. 

I just thought the way she kept listing everything she was doing when he was gone had a tone of passive aggressiveness. Like maybe he had said that he wanted a night out with his friends because "I'm always with you" and she was trying to prove she could have a good time without him.

idk, I could see him breathing a sigh of relief as he pulled out of the driveway.

4 hours ago, precious pupp said:

There is such a disparity in their educations.  I wonder if that difference is an ongoing problem with them?  

 

Not just education. Also life experiences. He went to public school, college, law school, worked outside the home. 

  • Like 9
Zella

Zella

1 hour ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

I just thought the way she kept listing everything she was doing when he was gone had a tone of passive aggressiveness. Like maybe he had said that he wanted a night out with his friends because "I'm always with you" and she was trying to prove she could have a good time without him.

I've never watched one of her stories before so don't have a comparison point, but it was definitely detailed. LOL I could see it being a "Look at all the fun we, your family, had without you!" I am curious if he hung out with friends from his university days or law school days or perhaps high school. 

  • Like 5
leighdear

leighdear

(edited)
On 5/24/2025 at 1:05 PM, Is Everyone Gone said:

Jill said Derick "went out with friends" and she was alone with the boys last night. Idk, I sensed a passive aggressiveness about her IG stories. Like she was pretty resentful of it.

"Friends" for Derick probably means his weird brother and one of his homophobic ex-scoutmaster buddies, or their stepdad.  

Edited by leighdear
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