The other day I was watching Don’t Forget The Lyrics (don’t judge me!) and one of the songs was I Want You Back by the Jackson Five. Totally awesome song; when I hear it, I MUST dance.
Warning: The following video is HIGHLY addictive.
Also, I must say, I totally kicked it when it came to completing the lyrics.
Afterwards I went to the computer and watched the YouTube video like, a thousand times, and I realized while watching the Jackson Five that I didn’t really know who else was in the group other than Michael — I mean, I know they were all his brothers but I couldn’t name any of them. So I went to the Wikipedia page for the Jackson family to learn about them.
And did you know that Katherine Esther Jackson, Michael Jackson’s mother, had TEN children? TEN. There was one set of twins (which, sadly, resulted in the stillbirth of one of the two twins), so just nine pregnancies.
NINE. PREGNANCIES.
Just in case that doesn’t impress you, she had her nine pregnancies over the span of just 16 years. The age gaps between her kids go like this: a couple of weeks short of one year; two years, five months; one year, two months; one year, five months; just over TEN MONTHS; one year, five months; three years, two months; and then four and a half years down to little baby sister Janet.
That is just SO crazy. Twice she had babies before her previous baby turned one year old. Most of the other times, her older baby was less than a year and a half. Gal Smiley and Captain Jelly Belly are almost exactly 18 months apart and I remember at the time everyone saying to me, “Oh, you’re going to be so busy! Two babies!”
I’m thinking Mrs. Jackson probably wouldn’t have had a lot of sympathy for me.
Seriously, I do not think I could have survived that kind of toll on my body. Granted, she was much younger and (presumably) more energetic — she had her first baby at age 20. But still. Spending basically a whole decade pregnant. It boggles the mind, does it not?
She’s kind of my hero. Just for having lived through it.
In case you were wondering, the Jackson Five were Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael. Later younger brother Randy replaced Jermaine in a complicated record company switcheroo.
Man, I hope those boys are taking GOOD care of their momma.
TurtleHead 
My mother is my hero – bearing 8 kids in 16 years, and raising us with grace and humour. Mom was on her own much of the time since Dad was often away on business or working long hours. I am amazed by what she was able to accomplish.
It does put things into perspecive, doesn’t it?
And we always joked about naming one of our kids Tito, since our last name is Jackson 🙂
P.S. JEM can’t stop watching the video : ) !
BonBon — EIGHT kids is MORE than enough. Your mother is an Amazon woman! I don’t know where these women found the strength, seriously. They amaze me. And, you can tell JEM that I warned her that the video was addictive! I think I’ve watched it 100 times in the past week.
Mel — You TOTALLY should have gone with Tito. If you have a third, I’m going to pull for it. We always joked about naming our kids George Foreman, after the boxer. If you have a Tito, I’ll have a George — it’ll be our little pact :).