Growing up in a family with 19 children, Jinger Duggar thought that was her future.
“That was something that I was always kind of a little bit afraid of,” Jinger, 31 explained on the Wednesday, June 12, episode of the “Unplanned” podcast. “I was never the one who was like, ‘Give me your kids. I’m gonna go babysit your kids for you.’ Some of my siblings are more geared that way. They’re all about watching everyone’s kids, holding their kids.”
Instead of interacting with the children, the 19 Kids and Counting alum recalled volunteering to do the chores around the house, including laundry and grocery shopping. But Jinger clarified that she still wanted to be a mother one day.
“I just was really afraid of the thought of having as many [kids] as possible, but that was my destiny. That was gonna be it. I was gonna get married and have a lot of kids,” she said. “Even on the show, if you watch those shows, I’m sure I probably said multiple times, ‘I’m just gonna have as many kids as possible.’ I just say it over and over. But I was afraid. I was so afraid.”
Once Jinger realized she had control over her baby plans, she felt a “massive weight” lift from her shoulders.
“I think it can be a sweeter situation where they’re coming in when you’re like, ‘Oh, we’d love to have a kid now, let’s have a kid,’” she said of welcoming a child into the family. “Instead of the burden of kid after kid.”
Jinger recalled seeing many moms being “down” while having multiple children and being placed on bed rest. While the mom was sick during the pregnancy, siblings within the family were having to look out for one another.
“As soon as she was done, three months later, she gets pregnant again,” she said of the moms. “It happens perpetually until she can’t have kids anymore.”
Jinger herself had two siblings to look after within her own family, helping with their schoolwork, music practice and ensuring their completion of chores.
“I think that looking at that system, it is imbalanced,” she said. “I think that parents should take care of their kids. If you have them, you should take care of them. Kids can help out, learn responsibility in other ways, but maybe not in the motherly aspects of what moms or dads should be doing.”
She continued: “You have all these imbalances of kids raising kids. I think that I saw that a lot in the system and I think that that is unhealthy.”
When Jill wed Jeremy Vuolo in 2016, the couple received several questions about their baby plans from her parents and show producers. While Jeremy, 36, was thrown off by the interrogation, Jinger said she “expected” it.
The twosome eventually welcomed their first child, daughter Felicity, in 2018. They expanded their family in 2020 when they welcomed daughter Evangeline.
As for whether the pair intends to add more to their brood, Jinger teased, “We’ll let y’all know.”
