Eyebrows were raised when Michael Jackson's 34-year-old nephew TJ Jackson -- first cousin to Paris, Prince and Blanket -- was named the children's temporary guardian on Wednesday by a Los Angeles judge.

But Cousin TJ (Tito Joseph, after his father and grandfather) has parenting chops: three kids with wife Frances, whom he married in 2007. He also seems to have had a relatively normal upbringing, by Jackson standards.

In a 1995 People interview, big brother Taj Jackson said: "My mom made sure that we had a real childhood, with birthday parties, baseball, family outings, all that stuff." Mom was Delores Martes Jackson, who was murdered by a boyfriend in 1994, a year after she divorced Tito.

Despite TJ, Taj and brother Taryll's interest in the family business, Delores Jackson, who was born in New York to Dominican parents, shielded her kids from plunging in too young. "She saw what the Jacksons had to endure to be successful," Tito told People. "She knew how dedicated the boys would have to become."

Instead, the boys pursued sports and earned membership in the National Honor Society at L.A.'s Buckley School, according to People. (TJ's notable girlfriend from the era? Kim Kardashian, whom he dated when he was 17 and she was 15.)