During a recent Q&A on ET’s Spilling the E-Tea, Jinger Duggar Vuolo and husband Jeremy joked that they’re “slacking” by only having three children– 16 fewer than Jinger’s parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.
The former Counting On couple spoke about Jinger’s slew of siblings while asking each other a series of fan-submitted questions, including one that had Jinger ask her husband to reveal what surprised him most about her “childhood experience.”
“Oh man, after getting [past], like, the initial 19 kids part– because that’s surprising … I was surprised at how normal that was, not just for your family, but for your family’s friends– but everyone is so kind,” Jeremy said.
Jeremy admitted he was unable to name the birth order of his brothers/sisters-in-law, before reminding Jinger that 19 kids is “a lot of kids.”
“We only have three, we’re slacking,” Jinger joked.
“I know,” Jeremy said. “Don’t you feel bad some days? ‘Cause you’re like, we only have three kids and this is a long day and you go, ‘How did mom do this?’”
Jinger then praised her “amazing” and “incredible” mom for being able to parent 19 children, revealing that her mom is often a source of inspiration for her on days that are particularly trying.
“I pause and I remember my mom, and I’m like, ‘Come on, Jinger, this is nothing. You got this,’” she said.
As fans of ‘Counting On’ know, Jinger and Jeremy were married in 2016 and welcomed their first child, Felicity Nicole, in 2018. Their family grew again in 2020 with the arrival of their second daughter, Evangeline “Evy” Jo, followed by the birth of their son, Finnegan Charles, in 2025.
While Jinger isn’t the married Duggar sibling with the fewest children at the moment, many of her sisters and brothers seemingly subscribe to the Duggar adage to have, “as many kids as God will allow.”
Case in point: Jinger’s younger brother Jeremiah and his wife Hannah also welcomed a child in 2025, though it was the couple’s third child in just three years. Jeremiah’s twin brother, Jed, and his wife Katey also spawned in 2025, welcoming twin daughters that brought their offspring count to four. Meanwhile, Jinger’s older sister Jessa Seewald and her husband Ben became a family of eight last year following the arrival of their sixth child.
As The Ashley previously reported, during an October 2024 episode of The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast, Jinger spoke about her religious upbringing and how it once made her believe that married women were required to “have as many kids as possible.” Jinger also revealed on the episode that, as a child, she “definitely” thought she would one day have a supersized family of her own.
“I think whenever I was super-young, I thought that that was just what I was gonna have,” she recalled. “If you get married at a young age, then you’ll just have as many kids as possible. I didn’t think that there was any other option to honor God and to be in that place. Like, if you’re married, you’re gonna have as many kids as you can until you can’t have kids anymore, and so I thought I would probably have a ton of kids.”
Jinger went on to say that it wasn’t until she “came out of that theology” that her mindset changed and she realized that “just because children are also a gift from God, doesn’t mean that we have to have as many as we can.”
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(Photos: Instagram; TLC; YouTube)
4 Responses
Your mom didn’t do anything besides getting pregnant and giving birth. You and you sisters raised your 15 younger siblings. You were all parentified and that’s not ok
I would also like to point out her younger brother Justin. Married (very) young and still doesn’t have children. (I’m pretty sure if they were struggling, we would already know it, Michaela and Brandon said about a year) So he is another sibling who isn’t buying in the whole “be fruitful and multiply” thing.
No, we wouldn’t know because they see infertility as a sign of God being angry at you. Guarantee they have fertility issues, having been married for a number of years without kids, considering they don’t “believe” in contraception
The way the Duggars talk about children is so dystopian. Children are people, human beings, they are not a commodity. Making as many people as possible just because you can is not okay. The most important thing should be that they are able to provide for those kids. And by provide that includes time and energy.