When Will the Duggar Wedding Air on TLC? And 17 Other Questions About the Big Family

Michelle Duggar announced her 20th child, Jubilee Shalom Duggar, was on the way in 2011, but miscarried shortly afterwards. Michelle actually had her first miscarriage in the 80s after the birth of her first son, Josh. Michelle and Jim-Bob decided named that child too, and even though they never knew the sex they ended up choosing the name Caleb. (The only non-J name!)

After her second miscarriage, when asked how many kids she has Michelle answered “21. Nineteen here, and two in Heaven,” making sure to count the two she miscarried.

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Simple! Michelle and Jim Bob named their first three children Josh, John-David, and Jana because they liked the names. But after that they didn’t want their other children to not have “J” names and feel left out. Hence the “J” trend carried through the rest of their family.

Image: duggarfam/Instagram

Three of the Duggar kids are married: Josh, Jill, and Jessa. As for the rest of the family: everyone else is single and there are no serious courtships on the horizon yet.

Image: duggarfam/Instagram

When you come from a family of 19 kids, you may be tempted to follow along those lines or go the polar opposite. So far the three married Duggars do want big families though. Josh already has three kids and says he won’t mind more. Jill has her first on the way and says she and her husband want “as many kids as God will give us.” And Jessa was just married last week but says she and her husband ”both want to have a big family” perhaps even adopting a few.

Image: jillmdillard/Instagram

When you first hear that a woman has 19 kids you assume she’s just not that into birth control. But actually, Michelle took oral contraceptives for a number of years. Jim Bob and Michelle married in 1984 and used birth control for three years before having their son Josh. The reason for that was that they got married when Michelle was only 17 and she wanted to wait a few years before having kids.

After Josh was born Michelle went back on the pill, which Jim Bob blames for the miscarriage of their second child. That’s when the birth control went out the window and they let their number of children be up to God. (BTW, Jim Bob’s belief that birth control gave Michelle an involuntary abortion is totally wrong, but that’s what started the family’s crusade against contraceptives.)

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Because of their desire to remain modest, the Duggars have a pretty strict dress code. The girls must curl their hair, (because one time this one preacher said so) and the boys are clean shaven and short-haired.

When it comes to clothes the girls bear the brunt of the rules. Michelle says, “We avoid low-cut, cleavage-showing, gaping, or bare-shouldered tops; and when needed, we wear an undershirt.” They also must wear skirts long enough to cover their knees and absolutely no bikinis ever.

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The 23 year old had just gotten married when she announced her first pregnancy a few weeks later. She’s a couple of months into her pregnancy now and says that the baby will be born in March, and it’s a boy!

Image: jillmdillard/Instagram

The oldest Duggar kid is 26 and already has three kids of his own. Josh and his wife Anna didn’t go with a “J” name theme, but picked a letter of their own. All their children have “M” names. Mackynzie is five, Michael is three, and Marcus is one. Though Josh says he enjoys only having three kids, he and Anna are not using birth control (like mother, like son) and are open to what God will bring them.

Image: joshduggar/Instagram

Nope. They’re also not Catholic. I know that both religions come with a stigma of large families, but the Duggars are actually Independent Baptists which is an exclusive sect of Christianity with pretty restrictive rules. (Like no alcohol, no dancing, etc.)

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While they’re really against pre-marital sex (or pre-marital touching), after you tie the knot, the Duggars are all for jumping in the sack. In fact, Michelle considers it her wifely duty to be available for Jim Bob whenever he wants, even if she’s super tired.

”In your marriage there will be times you’re going to be very exhausted. Your hubby comes home after a hard day’s work, you get the baby to bed, and he is going to be looking forward to that time with you,” Michelle advises. “Anyone can fix him lunch, but only one person can meet that physical need of love that he has, and you always need to be available when he calls.”

With a family that large, it’s probably easy to get lost in the shuffle. So do the kids actually get quality time with their parents, and do they feel like their parents actually know them? Well, according to the Today show, Michelle says “she actually has more one-on-one time and quality time with her children than most because she home-schools them and is with them all day.”

But for any kid feeling a little neglected, the family has a sign-up sheet for more time with mom and dad.

Image: duggarfam/Instagram

The Duggars are worth an estimated $3.5 million thanks to the money their TLC show brings in. Reality show producer Terence Michael estimates that the Duggar family probably makes about $25,000 to $40,000 per episode. Considering they’re on their 9th season, that’s a lot of cash.

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Filming a reality show doesn’t take up all their time. Jim Bob is a practicing realtor who owns several properties himself. He also held office in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1999-2002, and ran for the Arkansas senate in 2006.

Josh Duggar is the oldest kid and is a lobbyist for the Christian group The Family Research Council in Washington, DC. Meanwhile a few of the other kids also have jobs. Bustle’s Casey Rackham reports that ”Jinger is a wedding photographer, Joseph is working at a fire department, and John-David is training to be a pilot.”

Image: joshduggar/Instagram

After popping out 19, you’d think the Duggars would take a break. But between their no-birth control pact and the fact that Michelle has sex whenever Jim Bob wants, another kid could be in the cards and Michelle is totally OK with that. “We would love more children if God saw fit to give us more,” she said in a recent episode.

Feeding a family of that size can’t be cheap. The Duggars do have their ways of keeping things affordable by buying in bulk, wearing hand-me-downs, etc. But they still end up spending $2,000 a month on groceries alone. That’s “six gallons of milk, 15 dozen eggs, 12 boxes of cereal, and 12 rolls of toilet paper,” according to the Today show.

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The Duggars don’t own a TV (but don’t worry, they understand the irony of appearing on it) but they do allow the children access to the Internet. Censored Internet that is. The Duggar parents take full advantage of those child safety filters to keep browsing family-friendly.

And though Michelle says they do use the web for “email, online shopping, and as a tool for school research,” television is still out of the question.

“Too much time spent watching TV and playing video games can stifle a child’s creativity. We encourage our kids to go outside, ride a bike, build a fort, bake a cake or play a game of volleyball together,” Michelle wrote in a blog. “Instead of watching movies, our boys like to use the family video camera and make their own movies! When time is spent having fun together, these are the memories that will last for a lifetime.”

Image: TLC