‘Wild’ and ‘Strange’ — Jinger Duggar Breaks Silence on Visiting Her Parents

Jinger Duggar can admit things have changed at her childhood home. The 19 Kids and Counting alum, 31, detailed a recent trip to Arkansas to see her family on the Wednesday, July 2 episode of The Jinger and Jeremy Podcast, which she cohosts with her husband, Jeremy Vuolo. She prefaced their story by saying the last time she saw her large family was around Christmas, and that in hindsight, she wished she and her husband “would’ve planned better.”

Agreeing, the former soccer player, 37, called it a “logistical burden” to ask all of the Duggars to make the trek to California, which led their family of four, with one on the way, to do so instead. “It was the most special trip. I think it meant the world to me in that season,” Jinger said.

The reality star welcomed her third child, a son named Finnegan Charles, in March. She and Jeremy are also parents to daughters Felicity Nicole, 6, and Evangeline Jo, 4. Their most recent trip back home, while “amazing,” was definitely different.

“I love going back to visit and at the same time it’s overwhelming,” Jinger explained. “And this is why, because we live away there are a couple siblings who live away now, just a few, and when you live away from family and then you come back then everybody wants to see you everybody wants to connect with you and it can be so tough to juggle all of that because when you have so many siblings and their families.”

The growing number of nieces and nephews and more don’t make things any easier.

“Trying to coordinate stuff is hard, especially when you’re just there, even if you’re there for a week. To be able to see everybody, to be able to, like, connect individually is hard,” Jinger said.

“It’s kind of crazy though because when we first walked in, I thought this was so cute. We walked in and Felicity, she’s like walking in [and] everything’s clean. It’s like perfectly clean. And I’m walking in thinking, okay, I know typically when you show up at the big house, it’s kind of messy,” she continued.

However, seeing it more organized than usual was a surprise. “I thought, okay, this is a different season of life because you have, maybe five kids who live there now, and they’re all grown. I mean, I say all grown. Josie’s what, 15? But she’s the youngest. And so that’s strange,” she said.

While discussing her siblings later in the conversation, Jinger added, “I love seeing how they’ve grown and matured, what they’re into now, because when I left, that was a long time ago. It was eight-and-a-half years ago. And those little kids are all grown up. And it’s hard for me to picture the little kids as teenagers and as adults now,” she said. “It’s kind of wild.”