Most grandmothers are done with school forms and teacher meetings long before they turn 85. Katherine Jackson wasn’t.
Katherine is Michael Jackson’s mother. She raised nine children with Joe Jackson, the family that gave the world the Jackson 5. Then, years later, she took on a second round of parenting. She raised Michael’s three kids, Prince, Paris and Blanket (who goes by Bigi today), at the family home.
By 2015 she had some help. Her grandson TJ Jackson, the youngest son of Michael’s brother Tito, shared the job with her. That fall Prince was 18, Paris was 17 and Blanket was 13. Katherine, born May 4, 1930, was 85.
TJ had a full life of his own going at the same time. That same year he and his brothers were on their family’s reality show on Lifetime, “The Jacksons: Next Generation,” and this clip from it catches TJ on a big day of his own.
TJ’s business school graduation on “The Jacksons: Next Generation”
TJ opened up about life with his cousins in a November 2015 interview with Yahoo Parenting. He said he took an “older brother” approach with them. Even when he showed up at their school, Buckley, it was in a cheering-section kind of way.
“If I was at a parent-teacher conference at Buckley for Prince or Paris, it was more from an ‘I’m proud of you’ standpoint.”
So who was really in charge? TJ put it like a business. “It’s kind of like she’s the founder of a company” … “but I do the day-to-day management. She makes all the important decisions and I will always respect everything she says.”
But there was one thing Katherine kept on her own plate. Even in her mid-80s, with a grown grandson right there to help, she kept going to the kids’ parent-teacher conferences herself.
TJ said it plainly. “My grandmother is the single-most important person in my cousins’ lives. She does parent-teacher conferences, everything.”
Think about that for a second. A woman who had already sat through school meetings for nine children of her own, still pulling up a chair across from a teacher for her grandkids.
The Jacksons are a big family, and the show gave viewers a look at what holding it all together really looks like. This scene is a good place to see it.
The family on what it means to be a Jackson
Katherine means a lot to TJ personally too. He and his brothers lost their mother. So when he talks about his grandmother, it comes from somewhere deep.
“She is the only maternal figure that I have.”
And in his house, she gets a title that keeps things simple. “(To my kids, she’s Grandma, not ‘Great Grandma.’)”
If you want one more look at Tito’s sons from that same season, here they are working out what comes next for them as a group.
Tito’s sons at a crossroads on their family show
Plenty of families know this setup well, with a grandparent at the center and a younger relative helping with the daily running around.
TJ was happy to be the manager. But when it was time to sit down with the teachers, Grandma Katherine went herself.