Five Life Lessons My Family Accidentally Taught Me

You can read all the self-help books in the world, but my Parents always remind me that the real lessons in life come from your family — usually when you least expect them, and almost always with a side of chaos. Here are a few of mine.

1. Every Family Has a Tech Person — and That’s Me

Some people are born leaders. Some are born artists. I was born... the parental tech support line.

If something beeps, freezes, or “won’t print,” suddenly I’m 1-800-CALL-JACKIE. I’ve reset more passwords than NASA and explained “turn it off and on again” more times than I can count.

It’s a job with no pay, no vacation days, and it only ends when the problem is fixed — or someone cries. Usually me!

2. Family Meetings: The Original Corporate Training

Before I ever sat in a real boardroom, I was battle-tested in the family living room.

Negotiations about who should clean the washrooms or vacuum the house, turned into strategic alliances.

Arguments over the thermostat were full-on PowerPoint presentations — minus the slides, plus more sighing.

Honestly, family meetings were just corporate meetings with more eye-rolling and dinner afterward (but without the emotional detachment).

If you can survive your parents’ “We need to talk” face, you can survive any client meeting on Earth — hands down.

3. Driving Lessons: The Multi-Generational Experiment

I learned to drive manual — on my brand-new five-speed Honda Civic SI — from three of my four grandparents and my Dad, who decided that stick shift was a “character-building exercise.”

Each lesson was a unique form of trauma education:

    •    One grandparent prayed out loud the entire time.

    •    Another used the imaginary brake pedal so aggressively that I thought a dislocated ankle and a visit to the chiropractor would be a result.

    •    And my Dad’s motto? “You don’t drive the car, you feel and listen to the car.”

Apparently, I was supposed to bond spiritually with the clutch.

Still, I’ll give them this — I became a good driver. Mostly because I was too scared not to.

4. The Look

Every family has it — The Look.

That subtle glance from across the room that means, “Do not say another word.”

I learned early that sometimes silence is the greatest act of self-preservation.

You could argue, negotiate, or plead your case or you could read the room and live to see dessert.

The Look taught me emotional intelligence faster than any seminar ever could.

5. The Stories That Shaped Us

My favourite lessons came from my parents — stories of growing up in England, facing racism, finding laughter in struggle, and building joy out of small things.

They taught me that humour is resilience, and that life’s hardest moments can still hold light.

We’d sit around the table, laughing at the ridiculousness of it all — the misunderstandings, the accents (and if I say phlim instead of film, all the Jamaicans know what I mean), the audacity of some people — and somehow, it always ended with gratitude.

Those stories weren’t just family history; they were blueprints for faith, courage, and grace.

Final Thought

So yes — my family is unique, funny, and completely addicted to group texts.

But they’re also my greatest teachers and have shown me love like no other.

Because if you can laugh through the chaos, fix the printer, and survive a family meeting, you’re already halfway to mastering life.

With love,

Jackie