Why Jason and Maddie Duggar Are Waiting on Kids: School, Travel, and a Modern Marriage Choice
Maya Rivers here, adopting my best wannabe-poet posture: a little wistful, a touch theatrical, narrating a small domestic epic about timing, textbooks, and toddlers that the tabloids insist is urgent news.
A tender but firm declaration from Jason Duggar and his wife Maddie: they are not planning to have children right now. Nearly a year after their October wedding, the 25-year-old former 19 Kids and Counting star and his 21-year-old bride told listeners on the August 13 episode of Jinger and Jeremy that chatter about pregnancy is premature and a little annoying. The couple corrected a playful false alarm after Jason quipped about baby news on his sister Jinger Duggar Vuolo and brother-in-law Jeremy Vuolo’s podcast. Maddie laughed it off, saying, “We are not expecting at all. We are not trying to be expecting,” while Jason added, “Stop saying we’re expecting, that’s for whoever is listening.”
There is a practical reason beneath the punchline: Maddie is finishing college. The 21-year-old emphasized she wants to complete her education degree before embracing parenthood, noting she plans to finish next May. “I want to just enjoy this time,” she explained, folding intention into her words — the couple wants to savor newlywed life, travel, and grow into marriage without immediately adding a child to the mix. They admitted to feeling “baby fever” occasionally, yet they stressed patience: getting to know one another in year one of marriage matters to them.
This pause isn’t an isolated decision but echoes advice from older Duggar siblings. Jason previously shared on a YouTube video that couples in his family told him they wished they had waited to travel more and try different experiences before kids arrived. That counsel shaped his and Maddie’s plan to delay starting a family so they can explore life together first.
That same willingness to diverge from family tradition showed up elsewhere during their courtship and wedding. Jason and Maddie broke with several long-standing Duggar practices by dating openly instead of following a supervised courtship model, allowing dancing at their wedding reception, and sharing that they kissed prior to marriage. Most notably, the pair have signaled they will not follow Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s enormous brood model; instead, they say they would cap their own family at around six children, with Maddie admitting even that number might be “pushing it.” Jason fondly acknowledged that his parents’ decision to raise 19 children was their calling, but he suggested a different calling for his own marriage: enjoying each life stage God grants them.
For context on the Duggar family’s dynamics and origins, the article recalls Jim Bob and Michelle’s courtship history and large family legacy. Their relationship began in adolescence, rooted in faith and community ties, and grew into a household that launched a reality TV dynasty. Jason and Maddie’s choices therefore sit against a backdrop of strong family tradition and public scrutiny.
The couple’s message is simple: education and experience come first, for now. Maddie will complete her degree next May, they plan to travel and enjoy married life, and they are setting personal limits on family size. When Jason and Maddie speak plainly, the subtext is about autonomy, modern marriage decisions, and the small rebellions of young couples carving their own way in a famous family.
What to watch next: will finishing school, travel plans, or sibling advice alter their timeline? Keep an ear on their podcasts and YouTube channels; Jason and Maddie are candid and refreshingly clear about their reasons, and their next life update will likely arrive with similar plainspoken charm.
And so, the domestic stanza pauses for now; the lullaby can wait while degrees are completed and passports stamped.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and E! Online, Jinger and Jeremy podcast
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
