Joy-Anna, Jinger, and Jana Duggar will seemingly play larger roles in tonight’s Jill & Jessa: Counting On series premiere than they did during last year’s trio of specials with the same title. However, John David-Duggar recently hinted that the Duggar daughters who are still living at home don’t do much that’s TV-worthy. According to Jana’s twin brother, the girls’ lives are so dull that they “love” doing his laundry.
According to Entertainment Tonight , 26-year-old twins John-David and Jana Duggar appeared on Good Morning America yesterday, and they were joined by five other adult Duggar children: 18-year-old Joy-Anna, 19-year-old Josiah, 21-year-old Joseph, 22-year-old Jinger, and 23-year-old Jessa Duggar Seewald. The family was doing an interview to promote their new TLC series, and, even though it’s titled Jill & Jessa: Counting On , John-David did a lot of the talking. After the seven Duggars revealed that all of them lived at home except Jessa, they were asked if their mother, Michelle Duggar, still does their laundry. John-David responded by saying that Jana, Joy-Anna, and Jinger are responsible for this chore, and he thinks they actually enjoy cleaning their brothers’ dirty drawers.
“Sometimes I do my own [laundry], but a lot of the time, the girls love to do it. At least, I think they do,” John-David said.
“Raise your hand if you love to do laundry,” the girls were instructed. No hands shot up in the air.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have been strongly criticized for using their older daughters as live-in nannies and housekeepers. As the Inquisitr previously reported, they’re likely followers of a patriarchal religious movement that encourages parents to keep daughters at home until they find husbands that their fathers approve of. Sometimes unmarried eldest daughters like Jana Duggar—who has been dubbed “Cinderella Duggar” by concerned critics of the Duggars’ beliefs—never move out at all because their parents become so dependent on their help at home.
Stay-at-home daughters like Jana Duggar are discouraged from going to college or pursuing careers, and they’re expected to help their parents out at home until they get married. As the Inquisitr previously reported, the Duggar girls have said that they’re hoping to find husbands who are just like their dad .
Jana and the other adult Duggar girls who are still living at home have to deal with a heavier workload than most stay-at-home daughters because they have so many siblings. Many of the responsibilities of running the Duggar household fall on Jana, and a source close to the Duggar family told Radar Online that she’s been living the life of a stressed-out “sister mom” to her younger siblings for over a decade.
“She looks so tired and worn down sometimes. You can’t help but feel bad for her, having to take on all that responsibility at a young age,” the source revealed. “It’s like she’s been a parent ever since she was 13!”
Jana Duggar isn’t just expected to help out at home—most of the Duggar daughters and sons also work for the family real estate business. During an interview for the Duggar Family Blog , Jessa listed the various jobs that she and her siblings perform.
“Jinger, Joe, and Joy make a dynamic tile-laying team; Jana has a particularly good eye for interior design; Josiah and I have helped my dad with the business bookkeeping and accounting; John is skilled in operating heavy equipment; several have gotten their Commercial Drivers License (CDL) so they can drive big rigs like the dump truck and rollback; and many of my siblings have learned framing, siding, roofing, as well as how to deal with plumbing and electrical issues.”
During the Duggars’ Good Morning America interview, Jessa Duggar joked about Jana’s love life by saying that Jill & Jessa: Counting On viewers will get to see Jana and her twin brother getting hitched at the same time during a double wedding ceremony. However, according to Moviefone , the first episode of the new series won’t feature any romance. A description of the premiere says that viewers will see Jessa enlisting the help of her sisters to “prepare a fall feast for the whole family.” Tonight’s show, which airs at 9 p.m. ET on TLC, will also check in with Jill Duggar Dillard and her husband as they continue to adjust to life in Central America.
Do you think Jana Duggar will ever move out of her parents’ house, or is she destined to be a stay-at-home daughter forever?
[Image via Duggar Family/Facebook ]