Hiring Your Mom or Dad Keeping mom or dad busy in their retirement years may be a noble reason to hire them, but be sure you know what you're getting into first.

Jay Oxenhorn's most faithful employee is also probably the least likely of his 10 employees to work long hours during the Philadelphia product manufacturer and distributor's seasonal busy times. But the 49-year-old co-founder of Hot Headz of America Inc.doesn't mind.

"She's my mom," Oxenhorn says. "She's in her 70s and basically needed to get away from my dad all day, and the income helps her. So she's my order-entry and retail order-taking person on the phone."

Having his mom on the payroll is good in some ways, bad in others. "Obviously, she's the most trustworthy person I have in the office," Oxenhorn says. "The cons are that I can't push her, and she can't really work that hard."