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On January 10, Jana Duggar turned 32.

That’s certainly not old by any means, but it’s important to remember that Jana was raised to believe that women are put on earth to increase the population.

If you had been told since early childhood that procreation was your primary reason for being, and you were still childless at 32 while you several of your younger sisters had already started families?

Well, that might leave you feeling sort of old.

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Jana has had suitors, but it seems that none of them were to her liking.

Or at least that’s the official reason the Duggars give for why she still lives at home.

Fans now suspect that Jana’s decision to remain at home with her parents is more complicated than it initially seemed.

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Jana may not have any children of her own, but that certainly doesn’t mean that she’s lacking in the maternal instinct department.

In fact, many fans believe that when it comes to caring for her younger siblings, Jana takes a more active role than her parents.

The Duggars have always employed a "buddy system," in which older kids are assigned a younger kid to look after, so as to relieve the burden on Michelle.

Photo via Instagram

These days, it seems that the system has become simplified:

Jana shares a room with her four youngest sisters — Johannah, Jennifer, Jordyn-Grace, and Josie — and the girls seem to be primarily her responsibility.

Additionally, Jana plays an active role in the lives of her 22 nieces and nephews.

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She’s said to be especially close with Jill Duggar’s two sons, Israel and Samuel (Jill is currently pregnant with her third child), as well as Jessa Duggar’s two boys and two girls.

Jana is apparently an on-call babysitter for both Jill and Jessa.

She posted a photo this week that served to remind her followers of how she spends her days.

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That’s Jana hanging out with Jessa’s two sons.

Some fans were surprised to see the pic on her page, as Jana’s babysitting abilities have been called into question in recent months.

Back in December, the world learned that Jana had been arrested on child endangerment charges.

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It seems that she was watching several kids at once, and one of them wandered off while she was distracted.

The police got involved, and the child — who has not been publicly identified — was found more than a mile from home.

The charges against Jana were eventually dropped, but the incident didn’t do any favors for her reputation.

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The arrest raised new questions about why Jana remains at home — where her workload has earned her the nickname "the Cinderella Duggar" — instead of setting out on her own.

The most obvious answer is that Duggar women are not permitted to leave the home until after they have married.

But at this point, it’s tough to imagine that Jim Bob and Michelle would go to great pains to stop Jana if she decided to get her own place.

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Many fans believe that the more likely explanation is that Jana feels duty-bound to protect her younger siblings from the pernicious influence of her parents.

After all, Josh Duggar molested four of his sisters under Jim Bob’s watch, and even though Josh is in prison these days, the memory of those days is probably a continued source of pain for Jana.

The mistreatment that her youngest siblings would encounter would likely be different than what Jana’s other sisters endured.

But perhaps she feels that if she continues to look out for them, they’ll grow up and leave the house without suffering any form of abuse.