When it comes to the Duggar family from TLC's Counting On, I think everyone has Jinger pegged as the rebel. She was the one sister who moved away from the family compound in Tontitown, Arkansas when she married Jeremy Vuolo. She was also the first sister to start wearing pants despite her parents' apparent aversion to them. And she was also the only sister who waited a full year after getting married to have a baby. But it seems this Duggar sister is more vulnerable than fans might have guessed. Jinger Duggar confessed she found parenting daughter Felicity "intimidating" in the beginning, and she is definitely not alone there.
Jinger married Jeremy Vuolo in November 2016 and welcomed her first child, daughter Felicity, on July 19, 2018. Her little girl is now nine months old and getting bigger all the time, as Jinger's many Instagram followers are well aware. These days a scroll through the proud mom's Instagram feed reveal sunshine moments spent with her perpetually smiling baby girl, the pair always dressed adorably and looking as though they're ready for their next grand adventure. But, as Jinger told Little People, Big World's Audrey and Jeremny Roloff on their Behind The Scenes podcast, this was not always the case for her. In the beginning, motherhood was actually quite frightening for Jinger, apparently.
As Jinger told the Roloffs, she was quite nervous of being left alone with her daughter in the beginning, as per Good Housekeeing:
I was intimidated by 24/7 care of an infant. It was definitely overwhelming.
This might seem rather surprising coming from a woman who was raised in a house with 19 children. After all, Jinger was expected by her parents Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar to help out with her younger siblings when she was still living at home. But this time around things were different.
Jinger now lives in Laredo, Texas with husband Jeremy, far away from the women in her family. And while her sisters Jana Duggar and Jessa Seewald were on hand with mom Michelle for Felicity's birth, as per People, eventually they left and Jinger and Jeremy were on their own with their little girl. Which meant, as she explained to the Roloffs, that if the couple wanted to head out for a date night they would end up having to bring their baby along with them. Fortunately bringing Felicity along for date nights has turned out to be very "sweet" for the couple.
And as nice as it might have been for Jinger to have some family living closer to give them a hand, being able to focus on her marriage to Jeremy in Texas has made their marriage much stronger. The couple told the Roloffs that they are always working on making their marriage "better" and trying their hardest to be present for each other.
And present for their little girl. Because the reality is, as Jinger knows full well, parenting is a constant learning process. And sure, it can be pretty scary.
But it can also be pretty great.
