Even before 19 Kids and Counting was canceled by TLC, it was difficult as a fan to keep tabs on all of the kids matriarch Michelle and Jim Bob had produced over the years. Some names like Jill, Jessa, Jinger, the now-incarcerated Josh, and Jana always stood above the fray, but it was hard enough to keep tabs on then-littles like Josie and Jordyn. Now, however, grandchildren have started entering the picture and middle sister Jinger Duggar Vuolo is the one having a really hard time with it.
There Are A Lot More Than 19 Kids And Counting Now
Jinger’s been sharing some behind-the-scenes information about growing up Duggar on her YouTube page while she's away from the reality TV circuit. Though she's admitted in the past it's a bit "hard and scary" to talk about her famous family, she worked through that during a recent Q&A with sister Joy-Anna Duggar Forsyth and opened up about how family dynamics are years after Counting On ended and she moved on to new things.
The two spoke about how it’s hard to really find time to connect when you have so many siblings, many of whom also are already partnered up and have kids. When Joy-Anna mentioned “39 grandkids” running around these days, Jinger admitted remembering everyone's name, much less little details, can be hard.
You said 39 grandkids. I struggle to remember all the names of the grandkids. I have most of them down, but there are just a couple — and the newer ones, there are more added, you know, all the time.
Both Joy-Anna and Jinger are away from their family home base right now and are currently living in California. (Joy-Anna and her husband are reportedly away for work. For her part, Jinger and her partner Jeremy have lived in California since 2019.) So, the two sisters are currently a little closer in location than they normally might be, which is likely how this interview came about in the first place.
Why Jinger Feels So Much 'Pressure' With The Big Duggar Family
It’s clear the two siblings are making an effort to spend a bit more time together and reflect on their family dynamics, but Jinger also said during their Q&A that family time is precious.
So I feel that pressure in, like, no one else is putting it on me. It’s me because when I go back, I’m like, ‘I feel so bad. I didn’t get to connect with them.’ Then, it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, I guess it makes sense.’ We have Facetime but I’m not Facetiming everyone every day. I Facetime the older sisters … and I will just stay in contact with them more, and James calls a lot.
She also admitted to Joy-Anna that when she, her husband and the kids, do get back to Arkansas it's incredibly hectic and she feels like she is constantly dropping balls. Part of this has to do with the fact her parents are still in Arkansas and a slew of her siblings are still in that state. Plus, many of them have families of their own now. There's a lot to see and do.
She'll hop from brunch with one family, to an afternoon meet-up, then to another activity and to dinner. In short, she ends up exhausted, whether she goes home for three days or a full week. Full family reunions are rare, so there are a lot of micro interactions she ends up having to set up.
Honestly, there's a lot about having a big family we got to see during the Duggar years on TLC, but as they've expanded their families, life has gotten more fractured for the Duggar siblings. Still, I'd never thought about how much work it would be to not only foster relationships with 19 siblings, but to also remember details about their 2, or 3, or in Jessa's case, soon-to-be six children. Having a lot of family is a good problem to have, but I can totally see how this gets to be intense.
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