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B
How did chores get done in the Duggar house?
C
We have Jackson here to talk about it with us because he is the youngest of 10 boys.
B
You had chore responsibilities.
C
I definitely was caring a lot. I do have to ask you about these chore packs. I think parents are gonna find this fascinating. And what is a chore pack? What does it look like?
A
It looks almost like a name tag. Like, you have, like, a little clip, and you'd have all your little, like, cards. Cards that you'd pull out and it would tell you what you needed to claim.
B
So it was actually a pack.
C
All the little kids had them, and they would take a picture of you next to the laundry basket, and then you'd see, like, what was in there. It was a. It was a organization.
A
She didn't organize all that.
C
I don't know. It's crazy.
A
Like, she must be housed in the middle of the night.
B
How did your mom get you guys? Question. For both of you to buy into this. Was it like Pharaoh in Egypt of, like, you work your chores or you don't get lunch? Yeah.
A
I mean.
B
Or was there, like, neglected negotiation? Like, how did this work? What's going on, guys? We're back for another episode of the Ginger and Jeremy podcast. And when people see a family of 19 kids, I think everyone is assuming that it's absolute chaos in the house. And we often get this question, how did Jim Bob and Michelle duggar keep order in the house. And how did they get anything done? And so today, Ginge, we have brought in one of our favorite guests, one of our favorite Funkles, Jackson Duggar.
C
Welcome back to the podcast.
B
Welcome back to the podcast.
A
Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.
B
We want to talk. How did. How did chores get done in the Duggar house? Because, Ginge, you and I have been trying to get chores done in the Volo house.
C
Yes, we have been. I think that as you have kids, you. You're like, okay, you're old enough to do a certain chore. We're gonna give you one or two things that you have to check off the list. It's tough, but then part of that is it would be almost easier to just knock it out yourself, but you want your kids to have responsibility, so it's like just taking the time to get one kid to do a chore is enough. But we have Jackson here to talk about it with us because he is the youngest of 10 boys, and so.
B
You had chore responsibilities.
C
He definitely was carrying a lot of the load. And we'll get into that.
A
Yeah, get into that.
B
I think this episode is gonna be helpful for parents who are trying to get their kids to do chores, AKA me and Ginge. I think it'll be fun and informative because there was a lot of chaos with 19 kids. You can't hide that. And yet there was a lot of order. I mean, you guys got it done. So let's start here. Ging and Jack, how did it work? How did chores in the Duggar house work? Give us a basic framework for this thing.
A
Well, I think, like, first of all, I know mom and pops are very organized. Very organized with all this stuff. Every tour, every. I know Momma had, like, the big, like, chart with a lot of, like, the chores lined out, and everyone's. I don't really remember all of how that was set up, because by the time I was, like, old enough to remember, we'd kind of already done away with that system. And we're on to chore packs. Yes.
B
Wait, what's a chore pack?
A
Actually, I do remember chore packs.
C
It just came to mind. Jack was the one. So the younger half of the kids, the older calf half of the kids, we. My mom did have that master schedule, and it would fill up an entire door, and it was time slotted with 7:30, you know, wake up, brush your teeth, fix your hair, and then it would go down to, like, breakfast. Who's gonna make it? And then it would say, like, start school, music practice, really wash dishes, get ready for bed, get a shower. Had everything lined out for each kid.
B
Whoa.
A
Let's just say mama could have been, like, the head CEO of some company and just. It would have run smoothly.
C
I think she needs to write a book on time management and schedules and organization, because that would be super helpful the amount of times that she planned meal. Planned things like that. Right. Do you remember on the door, massive food? Yeah. There was, like, a meal plan, I think, on the inside of a cabinet door. You'd open it up. It had breakfast slot with all the options.
A
I'm not too sure. I never really. That was the girl thing, you know, I never really had a girl thing. And, I mean, I would help out here and there, but it was more like, okay, Jackson, let's. You're in the way. Let's go, you know?
B
So Mama Duggar functioned as a CEO of a little company.
A
Yeah.
B
And she had all of her employees. Were you a janitor? Were you an accountant? Which. Where did you fall in the line of employees?
A
Janitor? Yeah.
B
No.
A
Yeah, I would. I would take out the trash. That's kind of my. I'm not really sure. I don't really remember what my chore was when I was, like, younger. Younger, but, like, for a long time, mine was taking out the trash. And, like, it wasn't like, the whole house. Mine was, like, in the boys room or the playroom. I would have a specific room that I would. That I would do my chore. And so it'd be take out the trash here, take out the trash there. And then we'd all kind of, like, clean the playroom. Like, if I had played in the playroom and I was shooting the Nerf bullets, I'd run around, you know, have to pick up, clean up, like, the normal. Normal things like that.
C
I do have to ask you about these chore packs. I think parents are going to find this fascinating. There's a thing called chore packs. And what is a chore pack? What does it look like?
A
Oh, okay. It looks almost like a name tag. Like, you had, like, a little clip and you had, like, the. It was. It was, like, almost like laminated, but you just. You clipped it on and you'd have all your little, like, cards that you'd pull out, and it would tell you what. How you needed to claim.
B
So it was actually a pack?
C
Yeah, it was a pack. It was a name tag. You literally clipped it on, and then it had laminated, like you said the cards were Laminated. And it had a picture. They took a picture of him. Cause this was when he was little. All the little kids had them. And they would take a picture of.
A
Like, them brushing laundry for a long time.
C
It would take a picture of you next to the laundry basket. And then they put that picture on a little card inside his name badge. He'd clip it on in the morning, and he'd do all. It said, number one, brush your teeth.
A
That's incredible.
C
And you put it behind the next card, and then you do the next thing.
B
Are you serious?
A
This is incredible.
C
Like your bed?
A
Yep.
B
Do we have evidence?
A
I wish I had a photo of my. I think it's in my. I think it's in my box back home. Yeah, it probably is in my keepsake box. That's fine.
B
Wait, so you would get clipped on in the morning, and you were what?
A
I would just pick it. I would just go pick it up. We'd leave them on the bottom of the calendar is where I would clip mine. There was, like, several different spots where we have.
C
It was like a piece of duct tape, right?
A
Yeah. Oh, that's what it was. The duct tape. Yeah, it was on the bottom of the duct tape. And I clip it on the duct tape every. You know, and I pick it up every morning. I clip it on, and I run around and do all my chores. And as long as I finished all those chores, then I could go play for the rest of the day.
B
Oh, so you had to do those first. So, yeah, like, you couldn't do anything else. You had to go through the list.
C
Well, did you do your chore pack, Jack?
A
Yeah, most of the time, they. When they would ask me, and then I would be like, oh, let's go finish it up. I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes I'd finish it, sometimes I wouldn't. But, yeah, most of the time I would.
B
But those weren't all chores because, like.
A
Brushing your teeth, that was one of them.
B
So it was like school. It was like daily hygiene. It was all of your responsibilities that you had to do as a functioning human in this little chore pack.
A
Yeah.
B
How big was it?
A
It's just like a normal name tag size. Just looked at the name tag size. It was a little bit.
C
It was very thick plastic.
A
Yeah.
C
Okay. And it was like one of those thick ones that you can just slide a name badge into.
A
You don't have a lot of.
B
I have to see one of these.
C
Six cards in it. I think we should do it for Felicity and Evie.
B
Okay, so that's the thing is, like.
A
Black and white photos, too. I remember that.
B
Oh, you didn't even get colored photos.
C
It's great.
A
Yeah.
B
The thing for Felicity right now is getting her to buy in, because Felicity is a businesswoman. And so when we have, like, college students over to the house, she will set up an art sale outside.
A
Oh, wow.
B
And she'll be selling her art for 2, 3, 4, 5, $10, depending on the size. And so in order to come in, these kids have to buy art from Felicity. It's brilliant.
C
We slowed her down on that because we were like, you don't need to take money from college students. So then she discounted something.
B
Keep taking money from college students. But her wheeling and dealing with us is like, well, how do I get paid for chores? And so I've had the conversation that was had with me of like, well, you don't pay for ac. You don't pay for the mortgage. You don't pay for that doesn't. She doesn't buy that. She's like, whatever. So she's like, okay, I want to do chores, but then how do I go above and beyond and do something to get paid for? So the other day, I gave her two chores. One was to clean up an art project she had outside. The second one was to water the plants and then restock the fridge. Well, no, restocking the fridge was her wheeling and dealing with me. She said, okay, dad, I've done the chores. What can I do to get paid? I said, well, we have friends coming over. We need these sodas to be cooled up or cooled in the fridge, so transfer them and I'll give you two dollars. Ginger disagreed. She thought it was way too much.
C
I said, you should pay her a quarter max because that's too much. I said, I think she should go clean out the car and get paid $2.
B
Okay, so we have, like, obviously there's been inflation issues. I don't even have a quarter.
C
They aren't even making pennies anymore.
B
They don't make pennies anymore. So that's a problem. Get this girl a quarter. So I gave her $2 for that. Ginger thinks I overpaid, but trying to get her to buy in to chores. How did your mom get you guys? Question. For both of you to buy into this. Was it like Pharaoh in Egypt of, like, you work your chores or you don't get lunch? Yeah.
A
I mean.
B
Or was there, like, negotiation? Like, how did this work?
C
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C
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B
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C
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A
Oh, yeah.
C
So I have to say we were traveling over some of the holidays and we were, you know, in somebody else's home and it was so great, but I missed my Brooklyn bed.
A
Yeah.
C
I'm telling you, there's something about being in your own bed, especially when it's Brooklyn bed. So I definitely missed that. But then when I came back home, I was in bed for a week because I got hit with the flu. And I was very thankful for actually having a comfortable bed.
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C
Now back to the episode.
A
I mean, it was kind of like, I mean, do your chores or you know, let's go to the, let's go to my office. You know, it's kind of have a talk and do. Yeah, let's go. Let's go. Jackson, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta practice your violin. You know, you've gotta do your chores, get these things done and take out, take the laundry and then take out your, the trash that you have to take out. You know, those are my, I remember those are my two things. I would take the laundry, put it down the chute from upstairs, the girls room and the boys room. And I'd take it and I'd throw it down the chute and then I'd go to the trash. So those are my chores. And if I had to get, if I didn't get them done, then, you know, I'd go to go to the office or I remember school, I wouldn't. One day I didn't finish my school. And mama said, all right, they're all going on a trip. But you like the rest of them were going like a bunch of the other kids were going with some friends to Devil's Den State State Park. So they were.
B
You remember this, Jack?
A
Yeah. And I remember I, I didn't finish my school because I was being lazy, running around, having, doing whatever. You know, my friends were there. I was playing around, having fun. And then they were like, all right, we're going to leave. And I was like, wait, I didn't finish my math yet. And they were like, you can't go. Yep. And so I remember being so sad, crying. And yet, you know, I didn't go. And it was a good lesson for me.
B
Still remembers it.
A
Oh, yeah, yeah. So I finished. I had to. I finally finished. Literally, like it was probably 20 minutes after they had left. I finished and I was like, bummer. Yeah. I was like, bummer. I should have had more fun.
C
Did you ever do that again? You probably didn't, did you?
A
No, no, I finished. I mean, whenever I knew something was coming, then I would prepare and I would get it done right. I'd wake up, get it done if I had to. I. But I probably. Yeah, I probably messed up. I probably did it again at some point.
B
So here's one of the best tips that your mom ever gave to me as a parent. And I mean, she, I think was known for this, but, like, her word meant what her word said. Like, if she said it, she meant it. So if she said, we're not going to touch anything in the grocery store. If you touch anything, we're gonna leave. Somebody touches something with all the little kids, she's like, okay, we're gonna leave. And they all left. And it was like the only way for her to wrangle in all of these kids was when she spoke. She meant it.
A
Yes.
B
And you guys learned that very quickly.
A
And she. And she would speak very carefully, though. That's the thing. She wouldn't just say, I'm gonna do this, because, like, if she wasn't actually willing to do it, she wouldn't do it. So, like, she would. All right, we're gonna. I'll take you to the van and we'll have. We'll have some encouragement in the van, you know, when we get out there. So she was very. She was very purposeful with what she said at that point too, because she would, you know, do what she said. Like you. Like you said.
B
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Your chores developed through the years. What's. I think, what I think is so interesting is the fact that not only did you guys have chores, but you had certain kids had certain chores in certain zones in the house. I mean, the organizational structure on that is phenomenal.
C
That needs to be incredible, really. So, Jack, what was your chore? So, like, fast forward past your little years when you had your chore pack, you moved beyond the chore pack. What are some chores that you had as, say, like a 10 year old kid, 10 up to like, say 14.
A
Okay. What did you do? Who was out of the house at that point, who was already married, who was kind of moving on? Because by that point, like, I would have probably already took over the trash. Like a lot of the trash. Like all of it maybe.
B
Okay.
A
And Tyler and I were probably working on a lot of that at that point. So it would have been. We would have done that together because For a long time, Tyler and I, we shared the same, like, chores. So I could, like, show him how to do it. And then. And then he kind of, like, got his own. And it was so we kind of would share. Like, he would do this half of the house, I'd do this half. We ended up getting, like, the whole house, which ended up being a lot of trash.
B
That's a lot of trash. You guys don't have, like, trash cans outside? You have dumpsters?
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
B
And don't you have more than one dumpster?
A
We have one. One dumpster. And then sometimes if we have extra trash, then we'll, like. We'll put it in, like, one of the dump trailers and just take it.
C
To the landfill across the street.
A
Yeah. So we'll load it up in one of the dump trailers or in the back of the truck and then take it over to the landfill.
B
So walk us through one day of doing trash in the Duggar house. What rooms are you going to? How much trash are you collecting?
A
I start in all the small rooms first. So I'll start up in the boys room because it's the furthest from the kitchen, and the kitchen has all the big trash cans. So I start, and I will oftentimes if it's like, all right, I did this yesterday. I'm gonna just take the trash and I'm gonna dump it into another one. So I'll fill up all the ones until I get one. We have, like three. There's four trash cans depending up five at one point. Cause Elijah's room was there. So there was four in the boys room. Two bathrooms, studio room, and then the main one in the. In the main room. And then five with Elijah. So I would dump them all into the main one. Then I'd take that bag, and then I'd run downstairs and I'd run over to the. To the playroom, and I'd empty all the playroom. Cause they have only small ones in there. I'd empty all the. All the playroom bags into that one. And then I'd go over to the laundry room, and I'd put all of it into the laundry room 1. Unless the laundry room was smaller. Then I would run that over to the other side. And then I'd get to the big ones, and I'd start emptying those ones. Most of the time I would just take the liners out because they were most of the time full. But sometimes I'd leave them till the next day. And then I'd run all that and Put it in the wagon.
C
What about the girls room?
A
You forgot about the girls room. Yeah, I forgot. That's. That's actually funny because Tyler did the. The girls room.
C
He did the other side.
A
Yeah, he would do the girls room. And then sometimes. That's funny. But no, I would run. Yeah, I'd run over there. That's. Normally I'd do that after the boys room. I'd run across, grab it, and normally the girls would, like, throw their trash just like they leave it outside the door.
B
Yeah.
A
And then I just run and grab it and run it, run it out downstairs.
B
But then you've got the kitchen. And that's the big stuff.
A
Yeah, the kitchens were all the. All the big. Multiple. Yeah, multiple trash cans.
C
Big. Those massive Costco, like, drumliner ones, that's what you would take out.
A
So there's, let's see, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And then the mailroom. 6. So there's six trash cans, big ones on that side of the house. And they're all big black trash bags. And, you know, you pull them out and the big liners and the big drum barrel ones. And some of them are the smaller, but they're still the big ones. Yeah.
B
Talk about Tyler, your partner, was he a good trash collecting partner?
A
Yeah, sometimes. Tyler, if you're watching this, you had.
C
To keep him on task.
A
Most of the time.
B
He wasn't as enthusiastic about the trash or what.
A
Yeah, no, we were. I mean, we were both. I don't know, we were both kind of spotty, you know, go back and forth.
C
Yeah, you weren't.
A
You do. It's your turn to do this one.
B
Yeah.
A
Yesterday, you know, we would go back and forth. Tyler and I were always, like. It seemed like we were great buddies. We were like, we're still great buddies, you know, but we would kind of. We were always like, back and forth. Yeah.
C
Well, I have a question. So when did you get to progress to driving something? What? When was that? Do you remember a conversation you were like, I'm ready for the lawnmower. Because that was the big dream job we had. I remember, even for me, the first time that I was able to drive the big green lawnmower, it was one that Pops had got, I think at an auction. Yeah. And it was really cool. It was super wide. And I remember driving that, and it was like a golf course lawnmower, and it was really wide and it. It would, like. It was so much fun. And you do all the different levels of, like, cut. And so I loved that it was our favorite thing. We'd get all tanned.
A
No, I never got to drive that one. You didn't. Never got to drive that one.
C
Probably died.
A
Yeah. By the time I was old enough to drive the lawnmowers, that one was already gone.
C
Well, you know what?
A
We were on the hustlers, you know, Those are better.
C
Those are more fun. You can almost ride a wheelie. So when did you. When did you, like, switch over?
A
So. Well, okay. I remember a conversation where I talked to Pops, and I was like, all right, daddy. Daddy, I want to drive the lawnmower. And he's like, so then he upgraded me. I got to drive the weed eater. Yeah. So that was. That was a big deal. Yeah, drive the weed eater. That's what Pops would say.
C
He'd say, you gotta drive the weed eater first before he can do the lawnmower.
A
Cause he wanted to sound special. But I would. I saw through it. I knew it wasn't as glamorous as the mower.
C
Still a machine.
A
You know, I was excited at first, but then after about five minutes of holding this lawn, this. You know, this driving the. The weed eater, I was a little bit. You know, some people call it weed whacker. All right. If you're from different areas of the country, a weed whacker or, you know, weed whipper. I don't know what you call it. Anyways, yeah, we eater, though. I mean, after. After running that for about five minutes.
C
I was like, I'm ready for the. I'm ready for my next.
A
I'm ready for one job. So.
B
So that's something about Arkansas, which is crazy, is you can drive at 14. You can get your permit at 14.
A
Yeah.
B
How young did you have? Little Duggar kids? Because you guys have probably 10 acres or so.
C
More than that, 22 acres.
B
On how young were they driving this lawnmower around the property?
A
Well, let's see. It's kind of. By the time they started getting older, kids started moving on. It started getting younger and younger because they needed Pops just like, let's just. Let's just throw them out there. So, like, I mean, I was. I was on there about probably. I was probably 12 or 13 whenever I started driving the lawnmower. But it wasn't consistently because all the other boys were still mowing, But I was able to do it at that point. And then about 14, whenever I started, when I got my permit is when I really was mowing a lot more. And then Tyler and I would go. You know, we'd mow the lawns and stuff. And he was younger. And by the time I was probably about 15, right before I got my license at 16, is probably never. Tyler and I would. We were kind of the mowing crew at that point. And when I turned 16, we would go and do all the properties around, because I had my driver's license, and I would take the truck and trailer and. And load up all the mowers and weeders and all that. We would go. We would go do all the properties. And that's how I get. That's where I get paid for. For. Because, see, if I. If I just did, like, the chores, I had a house at the house, I wouldn't get paid for those. But whenever I would, like, do, like. Or if I was, like. If I did, like, extra things, like, I cleaned out the shop, I'd get paid, like, if I did, like, if I went and, like, did above and beyond. Yeah, above and beyond, basically. Above and beyond. And then when you get paid to.
B
Clean out the shop.
A
Ooh.
B
How big is the shop?
A
First of all, shop is huge. Yeah, it's big. Yeah. It's probably about the size of our house. I mean, if not bigger, 7,000 square feet is the house. So it's probably bigger. It's bigger than that, for sure. So I don't know. I would get. Depending on how much of it, like, we would. I would just clean out sections of the shop, and it would just be hourly.
C
You know, he's curious because he's like, how much should I be paying my child?
B
Was it $2 an hour? Was it $0.20 an hour?
A
Whenever I was younger, it was. It was. It was less just because I did. We'll go to McDonald's. Yeah. Or. Yeah, sometimes it would be like, lunch. Like, he would just take us to lunch, and I can borrow. Just getting to hang out with Pops, you know, getting to finish school early and go, like, work with Pops was the main. You know, that was the. That was the payment. It's just being there. And so, yeah, it was different payment sometimes, but then. Yeah, later on is whenever I got paid more. Like, just as I started to actually be able to lift things and move things and not be in the way as much and actually be helping.
B
Were there any chore disasters that you lived through to tell the tale?
A
Hmm. What do you mean by chore disaster?
B
Well, I don't know.
C
Did you create a disaster ever at the shop? Did you get in the house?
A
Cars.
C
Working on cars.
A
I remember one time, I. Okay, so my first car that I bought.
C
How old were you?
A
I was 14, I think.
B
Wow.
A
Maybe I was 13.
C
Did it have an engine?
A
It did, and it was. And Jed. And Jed had helped me get it because Jed was, you know, doing cars at that point, and he found one for really cheap. And I had worked enough and made enough money where I had about. I think it was probably like 400, $500.
B
Wow.
A
And it was, you know, it had a smash on the side. The bumper was pushed in. And Jed helped me find a bumper and a door and different things like that. So I started working on this and got it, and I got it to where I was running. And I remember. I remember backing this thing up, and I was pulling out of the shop and I was backing up, and then I just. It just. It stopped. And it stopped right into Elijah's truck. And I was like, oh, no, what did I do? I pulled forwards and I was so scared. I remember I was just like, oh, no, what did I just do? I put in park and I hopped out and I ran back there and I looked at Elijah's truck and there was nothing. His truck was like a solid. Like, you know, had this solid bumper on the front. And then I looked back at mine and had this dent in the back, and I was like, no, what did I do? But thankfully, Jed was like. He ran over there. And he's like, are you good? I was like, yeah, I'm okay. I just messed up my car. And he's like, oh, it's all right. Let's see if we can pop that out. So he just put his hand up in the back of the bumper, and I was able to pop. Not really a chore as much, but, you know, just my first car. I just kind of, you know.
B
Hey, you mentioned Elijah. Some people don't know who Elijah is. Here's the thing, you guys. The Duggar house is constantly buzzing, and there's people everywhere. There's kids. There's like three, four generations running around. And sometimes you're going, I don't know whose kid this is.
A
Yeah.
B
And they're just. There's just kids. There's people. But then there are friends that actually, like, moved into the Duggar house and, like, lived with you guys. Elijah's one of those.
A
Yes.
B
Where did Elijah come from?
A
So Elijah. Oh, this is good. Okay, so he's a Hawaiian. Elijah was Hawaiian. And a long time ago, when he was 18 years old. I don't know what year this was, but Ginger or it was. You'd probably remember, John and Jannah went to Indonesia.
C
Yeah.
A
And they Met Elijah on a. On a mission.
C
Is that where they met Elijah?
A
That's where they met him. He was on the missions trip in Indonesia, and then they came back from Indonesia, and after a while, John was like, hey, there's this guy who we know from the missions trip. He wants to. Like. He. Somehow. We had. We had met Elijah. I think he maybe came over to the conference, one of the conferences at one point, and then he. And then, you know, met us. He met somehow, and he decided. He called up popsnet one day, and he was living in California at this point. He had got his EMT license, and he had his pilot's license, so he had two different license. And he was. He was kind of in California, just kind of a different. A rough spot in different areas, and just said, hey, I really want to. I want to come work for you, if that's all right, just for a couple of weeks. And so he's like, all right, yeah, yeah, come on over. You know, Jana and John spoke highly of him, so he came over and started working. The first thing he did was he. He worked on Baylor and worked over there on one of those projects that Pops had going and construction and all that, and. And ended up, you know, coming for about. He was going to be there for, like, nine weeks and end up staying for nine years now. Sheesh.
C
So I remember he got there whenever I was talking to Jeremy. I think it was around that time, right around when we were married. It was before we were married. So it's been. We've been married for nine years. So it was. Was it a little bit. It was probably nine and a half years.
A
Probably about ten now. So. Okay, he's married now and got. He lives.
B
He lives on the property.
A
Well, he lives on the. He has his own place.
C
His own place?
A
Yeah, he has his own place now, him and his wife. So if.
B
If somebody shows up and is just living in the Duggar house, said Elijah, do they have to do chores or are they just.
A
So how does that happen?
B
Do they just get incorporated into the tort? Do they wake up and have a sticker on their chest with their chores?
C
Elijah, here's your chore pack.
B
Yeah.
A
If he's watching this, he'd be laughing. No, no, he. So he kind of just came in working, and so it was. He just kind of. He just kind of had his own. We just made him a spot, and he just brought in all this stuff and just kind of started, you know, started getting incorporated into it, but it just kept going. Right. He just kept Staying and longer and.
C
Kept doing more projects.
A
Just kept working and the project just never stopped.
C
Handyman.
A
And ended up mowing all the lawns and doing everything right. And stayed longer than a lot of, you know, Jim Bob's own sons who got married and went off, you know.
C
And.
B
Stayed longer than Jim Bob's own sons.
A
Yep.
B
Good night.
A
So it's actually funny though, because Pops and Mama, Elijah's like, now he's their favorite son. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. They're loving the son, you know, and so he just, you know, 11th. And then Tyler, he was there before Tyler, so. Yeah, so Tyler and I believe he was there before Tyler. I think he. I think he was.
B
How long did Tyler live with you guys?
A
Tyler was with us for nine years and I think it was. Yeah. Nine years.
C
That's crazy.
A
Eight or nine. I can't remember. Whoa. Something like that. So, yeah, I didn't realize it was that.
C
Tyler is our cousin.
A
Yes. So Tyler and then Tyler came to stay with us and then he ended up going to help his grandparents and move back with his grandparents to help them as they're getting a little older. But. Yeah.
B
That's wild.
A
That's crazy.
B
Okay, I've got a question, Ginger, for you, because the chores, it sounds like you had all the grungy chores. You had trash, you had weed whacking, you know, all that stuff. What was the responsibilities of like a 10 year old ginger in the house?
C
Yeah, my chores. So for a while, I think all of us did a bit of gathering laundry. So gathering laundry for a bit. I remember that being my chore when I was really little. And then after the laundry, I think I still. I went to like, dishes and laundry. And I like to do dishes and laundry to this day. Like yesterday I was looking around and I was a little bit bored, to be honest. In the evening I was like, okay, what are we gonna do? We had a little window.
B
Holidays are fun, but then they can be boring too.
C
We had a little window of time between pickleball and a movie. And I was like, I'm gonna go do dishes. I wanna clean the house. So I just like go do dishes. That's my thing. Or laundry. I'll just go fold laundry. It's fun, so.
A
Or make tater tot casserole.
C
I think make tater tot casserole. Right. So I remember that being my job. But Grandma came in, Grandma Duggar. She would do laundry when she moved in. Before her it was Nana. So we had a friend who was so sweet. She was our Piano teacher. And this story, I don't know if we've ever told it on the pod, but my mom was in a season where she was very overwhelmed with a lot of littles. She was at piano lessons one day, and she was falling asleep, and the piano teacher was so precious. She was like, hey, if you need help. No. She said, what were you doing? You know, why are you so tired? And my mom was like, well, I mean, for one, I have 19 kids. No, I'm kidding. It wasn't at that point. It was early on. And she said, I stayed up late doing laundry. And this lady was like, oh, I love doing laundry. So she said, can I come help you with your laundry? So my mom agreed and let this, her piano teacher from church come and help her with laundry. So Nana started out. She would come to our house, like, one day a week, and then it went to two days. Then it went to, like, three days a week. She would come and do laundry, and then she didn't drive either. We would go pick her up, bring her to our house. She would do laundry for, like, all day, and then she would leave the laundry room perfectly clean, and then she'd go home. And then she would come another day for piano lessons, and then she'd go home.
A
You guys would pick her up and bring her.
C
Bring her every time. And then I remember going over and.
A
Picking her up, Riding along to pick her up.
C
Yeah. It was so sweet. And it was one of those things where she blessed our family for I can't even remember how many years until she ended up. She had fallen and broke her hip, and then that kept her out of being able to do laundry for a while. But she still wanted us to bring her over to the house. So she would come sit at the house and still teach piano and then still fold laundry sitting. Because she wanted to do laundry. She just wanted to do it for us.
B
Well, I think she probably really wanted.
C
To be near us, and that was the sweetest thing.
B
And she became, like, one of your closest friends.
C
Yeah.
B
When we got married.
A
Yeah.
C
I'm probably gonna get all teary eyed talking about her because she. I have so many letters. So I wrote her letters for. It was around. Let's see, how many years, six years or so after we were married. I have stacks of letters from Nana. She would write me about every single month I have letters from her, and I would write her, and I would tell her what we were up to. She'd always ask how Jeremy was doing in Laredo ministry, and then she would Always tell me what song she was playing for church. She'd play their offertory. Like when they were doing their offering, she'd play like a song and then she'd ask me what I played if I. When I started playing for church a little bit here, she was so excited because she was like, I'm so glad you get to serve the church in that way. That's amazing. And she always wanted to know what we were up to. So I love her. Love her. So Nana, chores she had. She had done laundry for so long. And then when she couldn't anymore, grandma moved in with grandpa. And then grandma was like, oh, I like to do laundry. So she started doing laundry for us. But I was still in charge of the laundry room a lot. So I would fold and put away the clothes. And then other times, like I did dishes for a while until mom got all the boys doing dishes in the hot kitchen.
A
Tyler. Oh, that was our other chore.
C
That is something we need to talk about. The three minute dishwasher. There was a three minute dishwasher.
A
I don't know. Dishwasher. Huge. Like if you go to a kitchen, if anyone's worked in a kitchen, really, you'll see it. So it's big. Yeah. Or a restaurant. Yeah, restaurant, kitchen, anything like that. You'll see them. They're those big, you know, aluminum looking. They're. They're steel, but yeah, they're massive. They're square box. And basically you slide the. All the tray full of dishes in and then you close this thing down and it just. It just goes to.
C
Goes swishing around boiling water. And you put a sanitizer, this sanitizer system that's in there that dispenses the soap into it.
A
I can, I can still picture all the stuff sounds for it, you know.
C
And then, you know, it's done. You pull it out and then it also. Would it dry for a while. It dried them.
A
Really.
C
It did, right.
A
Crazy.
C
And then I think that broke because.
A
We would pull them out, but I pull them out and we would.
C
Where there was a drying system for a while, wasn't there? Or maybe. Maybe it was always in my dreams.
A
Maybe you're young.
C
And then we put them. Or we just put the racks out and let them air dry on big bath towel. We'd have a big bath towel.
B
Wow.
C
You'd set the big trays on there and you'd put them all along.
A
You guys, you get. We do actually. Yeah. It's at the shop. Yeah. All of our. All of our industrial equipment Is at the shop still. So it still works if we'd have to work on it maintenance and stuff. But, yeah, it would still work. But. But that. Yeah, I remember that y'. All. Y' all had a. Y' all use that a lot more. I think by the time Tyler and.
C
I were along, we were hand washing.
A
We were hand washing and Tyler was fast. Tyler is fast washing.
C
That's scary.
A
Yeah. Yeah, seriously. But, like, I would. I would always double check, you know, because I was. I was the rinser. So he would. He would just. Boom. Put it in my. Put it in my. Like, in your barrel.
C
Okay. So when he's saying that it's one of those industrial sinks and they would be full. All three barrels. They are. They're at least. How many feet is this? Three. They were like three feet.
A
It was about like. It was.
C
It was half of a bath.
A
Three of them.
B
Wow.
C
And they were always full of dishes.
B
Wow.
A
Imagine that was half of a bathtub for a sink. And you could, you know, fill that thing up and if you were half the bathtub size, you could fit in that thing.
C
So that became the boys chores were the dishes. Because some of the boys cooked. Some of them didn't like it, but they would definitely get on dish dishes duty.
A
I remember one time we had some friends over. This was at New Year's party. And we had probably 500 people to the house. And afterwards there was so many dishes. I literally remember there was like no dishes left in the house. There was. We had. We had used almost every single dish. And so we. We decided we're going to finish the dishes, all of them. And they were. I mean, they weren't just in the. In the sink at this point. They were stacked all over the. The counters, all over the. The entire kitchen because there were so many dishes that were dirty. And we had some friends there who were like, let's tackle this together. And I. We knocked it out in 38 mission. 38 minutes. And we broke like four dishes. And. And we. I remember we had MD SIAs.
C
Oh, my goodness.
A
And we were singing.
C
That guy was a character.
A
He is. He is md. We. We love you, MD. And we were just. I mean, we were. I'm giving so many shout outs to so many people. I love this. All right. So I mean, we were just. We were just going at it with the dishes. It was. It was.
C
It's like a challenge. So when you're in. When you're in a setting like that, even in the restaurant business, it's like being in the restaurant business, you see how many customers you can serve in a certain amount of time. It was like that with our house, because I remember so many times we had, like you said, the dishes were piled up, but the laundry was piled up. And it was like, to this day, I like to see how fast I can get it done. I know you're coming home. I'm like, jeremy's coming home. I'm gonna knock out the dishes and put away all the laundry before he gets home in 30 minutes. Boom. And it's like a thing. Like, it's so much fun.
A
And these were not just, like, your small dish. These were pots, massive pants, and, like, all the silverware, everything. It was. It was really fun. We had a blast. Like it.
B
Yeah.
C
So dishes, laundry. The other thing I remember doing was mopping the floor. I liked it sometimes because I felt like I got a good workout. My arms would be a little sore. I'd be like, that's it. I don't have to lift any weights. But then I'm thinking about grocery shopping. We've talked about this before, but that was one thing I loved to do.
A
It was like traveling every day.
C
It was so.
A
I mean, can you imagine buckling 19, okay. But all the.
C
All the grocery shopping. I remember at one point that kind of became my chore, which sounds funny, but it's like, I would go, and I knew, okay, I'm going to go to Sam's club. I'm going to go to Aldi. I'm going to go to Walmart. And I would just buy, like, whatever was on the shopping list. And my mom, she was so organized. Initially, she had grocery shopping lists that were paper for years. She would print them off, and it would be like, we'd have all of our regular stuff, and next to each item, it would be mushroom soup for mushroom soup for our tater tot casserole, evaporated milk, canned green beans, because we eat green beans. Salt and vinegar out of the can all the time. Corn, you know, like, all the things we'd get. She had those printed out on a list. And then she'd check off what she wanted that time or circle or X out. She put a line through whatever she didn't want us to buy that week because we would buy the same things over and over. But what that did was it provided a framework for our shopping. And so if we knew, oh, we're having green bean casserole tonight with our, you know, pasta or whatever, then we could just circle all those items that were already on the master shopping list and know exactly what store to get them from, because that's gonna be the cheapest. So it was a whole system. And I remembered loving that, like, having.
A
The grocery shopping side of it. I never had to do the shopping side of it.
C
Yeah. And then the Cozy Calendar. So she switched to Cozy Calendar.
B
What's a Cozy Calendar?
A
It's. Cozy's the app.
C
That's the app.
A
Yeah.
B
Okay.
C
So she switched to that. I don't remember. It was before I was married. Yes.
B
This is a big contention for us. She loves Apple Calendars.
A
Yes.
B
No, she loves Google and he likes Apple.
A
I like Apple.
B
Were on different pages.
C
So Cozy Calendar is color coded, and it also allows you to do lists. So we had a shopping list. We had a shopping list. And it had Sam's, Aldi, Walmart, our main ones.
A
It also had other.
C
And it had our money, our chores.
A
How much we made off.
C
Yes. How much you make off of additional chores. And it was like a bank account, basically.
B
What?
C
And it would put in all of your.
A
Somehow. You guys still have money on there. I saw someone on there the other day, like, Justin, do I have like $500? And he's got like 1200 bucks in there.
C
You gotta tell them, let him know if I still have it, you know? But it was brilliant because then mom decided finally she stopped having to, like, add on a paper list. And then if we were out at the store, we could just check the Cozy Calendar. And under Walmart, she would have put in whatever she needed. So she needed half and half cheese bread. Then whoever was out at that time could use that list just to grab whatever we needed.
B
Wow.
C
So she was so organized. I think she needs to write an organization book.
A
The mold of the story is, you know, this whole conversation is, mama is a CEO and she needs to write a book. Like you're saying she just needs to write a book on how to be the successful CEO, you know? Yeah.
B
That's incredible. Well, people picture this Duggar house being like wild frenzy chaos. But somehow she made it work.
A
It was.
B
It really was your mom.
A
It was loud, but it was not chaos. And the way I feel like this is another thing, too. I never really remember much of, like, the, like, the. Like, you see, like, the. What's that show with the six kids? The Busbys, The. The. I can't remember, like three. Three boys, three girls. And they lived in that house. And I can't remember what it's called now.
C
Oh, is it movie?
A
Yeah, Pops. Pops always talking about their House. How? Museum. Recently.
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A
Huh. And it's matters.
C
It's.
A
It's.
C
Full House.
B
Full house. Yeah.
A
No, it's something about.
C
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
A
Family.
C
What is it?
B
Oh, the. The Brady Bunch.
C
That's it. I couldn't remember. I knew exactly what it looked like.
A
So, like, you know how they're always at each other's throats, right? Like, they're always. Like, it seems like that. Well, like, that's what a lot of people thought. Like, the big house was. Like, it's always like everyone's at each other's foots. But, like, it wasn't like that.
C
Yep.
A
Like, it was. It was a lot of peace. I felt like at least it was not ever. It was not ever like. Like, you know, bickering back and forth at each other's throats. It was really. A lot of. Mom and Pops taught us. Matthew 18. Like, okay, if your brother has a fence against you, you go make it right with them and you humble yourself. So I'd come. Johanna, she's doing this, and she did that. And they'd be like, okay, what did you do wrong, J? Like, look at what you did wrong. Okay. All right, well, if you can't solve this, like, if you actually. You were doing this right, and you. And you were coming to us and giving us the correct side of the story, and you already tried to talk with her first, right? If you. If you go to. If you go to your. What is it the verse says? If you go to your. To the altar, and they remember that thy brother has ought against thee. Leave thy gift before the altar and go make it right with your brother.
B
Good old King James.
A
Yeah, and if you made. Yeah, exactly. I memorized the King James. And if you make it right with your brother, then you've gained him as a. As a friend, as your brother again. And if you. If he doesn't listen, then take another witness with you, and at the mouth of two or three witnesses, every deed should be accounted for or something like that. So anyways. But, like, they would take us. All right, did you. Did you talk with them first? Okay, then you can come to us and we'll go talk. Talk with them. But if you didn't do that, then you're not. You're not actually going to.
C
You have to go back for step one, which was helpful, because then you don't have all the tattling that a lot of siblings are like, she said this, she did that. But they'd say, talk it out first and then come to Us. And then they would go and, like, you'd sit down and talk with mom and dad, like, okay, they said this, I said that.
A
And they would always tell us. It was never okay. Well, they did this to me. Okay, did you actually do that to them? She would say, okay, no, no. Like, they would hear our side of the story, but then they'd say, okay, you're just. All you're doing right now is saying what she did. What Johanna did to you, Jackson. But, Jaxon, what did you do to Johanna? And they would tell us to say what we actually did. And then I'd be like, well, Johanna. Like, he said, no, no, Johanna, let. Jackson. All right, Jackson, what did you. And she would. She would. We would have to be the humble one and actually say what we did and actually own up to it, and in that way. And then we would, you know, from there, move on to whatever consequences were needed. But it was just. I think that was. That was really interesting, the way that that was dealt with.
B
Yeah. It's incredible to see your mom was. And your dad. But I think your mom played a big role in the organization. I mean, that's a real gift. I wonder what Mrs. Duggar would have been like as a CEO.
A
Yeah.
B
But, you know, it's cool to see she's. She's made a bigger impact raising her kids.
C
Oh, yeah.
B
And investing in them and using those skills. Some probably born out of necessity. Like, I have to get the.
C
She said she was never an organizer. That was the thing. She said that she was an organizer out of special grace and also out of necessity. She said, I became an organizer because I had to because things were not working. And so she created systems. And we actually should have mom on the podcast to talk about some of those systems. She has brilliant ideas. Like, I want her to get into one other thing real quick. The organization of file boxes that she used. She had a system with a recipe card that had a number on it. It would be number one, two, three, four, all the way, 20, whatever. And then on each recipe card, it would say what was in the box? And then she'd write number one on the box. And then she'd go to a recipe card, look through it, and say, oh, what's in that file box? And it could be a keepsake. It could be a punch bowl. And then she'd stack them all up and have them on a shelf. And then you'd see, like, what was in there. It was a. Organize all of that. I don't know.
A
It's crazy. Like, she must have been working in the house. She must have been waking up in the middle of the night and just, like, sitting there doing all the organizing. And then during the day. Because during the day, it was, like, packed with everything that she had to do. Right.
C
We need to have her on to talk about that, because it does boggle my mind. I mean, I'm looking at shelves in front of me right now that are really less. Less than pretty.
B
They're organized. There's some boxes.
C
But literally, like, she'll come whenever I've had a baby or she's visiting, and she goes down to our cabinets, and she's so sweet. She always asks, is it okay if I organize this? I would love to get you some containers. So she got, like. My house was so unorganized before I had Finn. And she came and was waiting for. She was on baby watch, and she organized. It was so helpful. Like, all of the cabinets above my laundry room, I had a whole bunch of stuff that I wanted organized. It was a mess. The kids, closets. She got containers for that. Everything was labeled. And I still have stuff from Laredo that she labeled and organized. It's incredible. She has such a gift.
A
She does that everywhere. Everywhere she goes. I remember on vacation, even just the care. I think just the care that she carries everywhere she goes. It's so incredible. We'll be on vacation, you know, somewhere, and she'll. We'll meet a random family right on the beach or whatever. And she's just so kind and caring and, like, wanting to, like, you know, like, if the kids are playing with the tools, like toys. She's just so, like, kind and caring, and. I don't know. It's just incredible. Just everything. Everywhere she goes, she just is always caring about people.
C
She is other people.
B
You have an amazing mom. I think the Lord did give her a lot of grace to run that household, because that could have been chaos and disaster, but it wasn't. Well, Jack, thanks for sharing your being vulnerable about your chore experiences, really.
A
Chore packs.
B
Chore packs.
C
I think I'm actually gonna implement that for ours.
B
We're order those. We're going to Amazon and see if they have chore packs.
A
Mama made them, too, like, she did.
B
Honestly, it's not a bad business idea.
C
Brilliant. I think somebody already did that.
A
Yeah.
B
Okay. Well, Jack, thanks for hanging out.
A
Yeah.
B
We love you, man. And glad. Glad to have you around the house, hanging with the kids. You're. You are challenging James as top Funkle. I'm just saying, the more time you spend around the house, the more James has his work cut out for him because the girls, they enjoy having you around. All right guys, well, thanks for hanging out and thanks for tuning in. Like subscribe. Get the updates on the pod, on Instagram, TikTok tock, YouTube, all the places and we will see you next week. The new year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is in endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your New year's goals. With LifeLock, save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com podcast terms apply.
Podcast: The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast
Episode: Chores with 19 KIDS?! Jackson Duggar Explains
Date: January 7, 2026
Hosts: Jinger (Duggar) Vuolo, Jeremy Vuolo
Guest: Jackson Duggar
This episode explores the remarkable logistics of running a household with 19 kids, focusing on the Duggar family’s systems for chores, organization, and responsibility. Jinger, Jeremy, and their guest (Jinger’s brother), Jackson Duggar, reminisce and share practical insights about chore management, the now-famous "chore packs," lessons learned, and organizational hacks developed by their mom, Michelle Duggar. The discussion aims to provide parents—especially those feeling overwhelmed by chores and household management—with lighthearted anecdotes and actionable takeaways.
Organizational Systems:
Parent as CEO:
What Are Chore Packs?
Practicality and Buy-in:
Scaling Up Chores:
Reward Systems:
On Michelle’s Consistency:
On Tattling and Conflict Resolution:
Epic Household Chores:
Mom's Life Hacks:
Two Generations of Help:
This episode delivers a lively window into the Duggar family’s home management miracles—transforming what could have been chaos into a tapestry of order, accountability, and teamwork. Great tips, fun stories, and a strong sense of family legacy make this essential listening (or reading!) for any parent trying to wrangle their household into shape.