Tater tot casserole, homeschool and a family bus — all markers of growing up in the Duggar family home chronicled on TLC's former reality tv series, "19 Kids and Counting." Viewers might also remember the rules of "modesty" for females and devout religious beliefs that governed the extremely large family from Arkansas.
Now an adult, the sixth child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, Jinger (Duggar) Vuolo, has revealed the different path she is taking as an adult in her new book, "The Hope We Hold," which she co-wrote with her husband, Jeremy.
On having a large family
Vuolo said in chapter 15 she was never the kind of girl who always offered to babysit or asked to hold babies.
"I was happy to comb my little sisters' hair or help my younger siblings with their music lessons," Vuolo wrote. "I liked kids, but the thought of having a child of my own made me nervous. How in the world would I take care of a kid twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week?"
Jinger and Jeremy are now parents to Felicity, 2, and Evangeline Jo, 5 months.
On wearing pants
When Vuolo married Jeremy, a pastor, her world was opened to new interpretations of the Bible.
"I realized that not everyone interpreted different passages of the Scripture the way I always had and I wanted to find out why," she wrote. "Growing up, I had a set of standards that I took as givens. Now, as I reexamined and compared them to Scripture, my convictions were changing."
Vuole divulged that her mom had always dressed girls in skirts and dresses, citing a passage in Deuteronomy that says, "A woman shall not wear a man's garment," and modesty was foundational in the Duggar home.
"I never found a passage specifically forbidding women from wearing pants," she wrote. "Once I found certainty from the Bible, my heart was free. I felt no inner conflict as I started wearing pants for the first time," she wrote. “I felt emotional as I worried that my parents would think I didn’t appreciate how I was raised.”
On religious guilt
The star of TLC's "Counting On" said that after she gave birth to her first daughter, Felicity, she battled tremendous guilt.
"I'd enjoyed spending time in the Bible since I developed a hunger for it at fourteen," she wrote, "Now, I was so exhausted that if I had a free moment, all I wanted to do was sleep. I shouldn't be taking a nap, a voice nagged at me. I should be reading the Bible."
Vuolo shared that she felt like she was failing, because she could not focus "her heart on Christ" in the way she was able to before the birth of her daughter.
She credits her husband, Jeremy, who reassured her it was OK to nap and there was nothing to feel guilty about.
"I learned that I could delight in the Lord simply by cuddling my baby, folding laundry, making dinner, or doing any of the tasks I normally would do as a wife and mother."
On J names
One tradition the Vuolos are not carrying on? J names. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar gave all of the nineteen children a name that begins with the letter 'J'.
"We never considered naming her with a J name," Jeremy revealed. "Especially since all the good names were taken by Jinger's family... basically the only names left were Jezebel and Judas. And yes, that is a terrible dad joke."
Jinger Vuolo is not the only sibling to find her own path after leaving the Duggar household. Earlier this year, sister, Jill (Duggar) Dillard, revealed she has not visited her parents' house in recent years.
"We haven't actually been over there in a while, probably, like, a couple years, other than once ... like, to check the mail," Dillard said in a video alongside her husband, Derick.
Following older brother Josh Duggar's arrest on April 30, 2021 on charges related to child sex abuse images, the Vuolos were the first to speak out, posting identical statements to social media.
"We are disturbed to hear of the charges against Josh," the Vuolos said. "While this case must go through the legal system, we want to make it clear that we absolutely condemn any form of child abuse and fully support the authorities and judicial process in their pursuit of justice."
Related:
