Whether or not you would is one thing. Whether or not you SHOULD is another. Many business owners, especially those with smaller businesses, tend to rely on and hire members of their family to help them out. Some of those stints are short term and some of them are all the way up to partner (or, as I like to think of it, co-conspirator). But, is it a good idea to mix the personal with the professional? After all, you can't get any more personal than family.

The positive aspects of bringing a family member into the work fold include the fact that most likely the family member already knows a lot about the business and would require less training. Additionally, some family members are more likely to work harder than someone who is not family out of loyalty.

The downside of hiring family is that some of them might expect kickbacks or special treatment solely because they're related. Others are less likely to work as hard as their non-related counterparts because they think they don't have to. Then there's the whole mixing personal and professional rule of thumb we've always been told to avoid. Those two things are said to never really mix. Yet, many of the world's most successful businesses have been family operated. When things are going well, isn't it family you want to share your successes with the most? Likewise, when things aren't going well, most likely it's your family you turn to in hard times for support.

What do you think? Is it ever a good idea to employ or work for your family, or is it a bad mix? Would you or do you work with your family?

Yes, you read that right. A little early for Halloween, sure, but this is one of those stories too weird--and creepy--to not be true. A Greater Manchester man who police and family thought was dead re-entered their lives after his son spotted him on television. The man, John Delaney, was believed to have died in April of 2000. Police accidentally misidentified a body as his and his family had a funeral for him, cremating the body of what they believed to be the patriarch in 2003.

Delaney had actually suffered a head injury and been admitted to a hospital days later. He suffered amnesia and was unable to give medical professionals his name. He was transferred to a home and stayed there for eight years before his son identified him while watching a show about missing people.

The son, John Renehan, said that while his father had been cremated, he "knew" the man he saw on television was his father. And he was right. Goes to show you have to trust your instincts sometimes. Now the family is happily reunited in what is truly an amazing story for the books. Sadly, the body of the person who was believed to be Delaney and subsequently cremated, has yet to be identified.

Chances are, if you weren't saving money hiding under a rock this summer you heard, perhaps one time too many, about the values and virtues of the 'staycation.' A staycation is exactly what it sounds like--a 'vacation' where you and your family stay at home. And, more often than not, a staycation is also how it sounds--boring!

Americans spent a lot of time watching the Dow plummet and the prices of gas jump through the roof. Just because they're back down to $3.69 a gallon does not mean things are going well. Still, many families got too stir crazy to sit around their houses all summer. Just try keeping the kids in the house during summer vacation, when they're supposed to not have to worry about anything but having fun and enjoying the long days and nights that make it great to be a kid. Sure, you don't have to travel to enjoy those things, but it does help to get out of the house. After all, the house is generally filled with chores and the projects no one ever gets around to because they're hard or boring or both.

In direct response to the staycation, I know a lot of families who did their best to get the heck out of dodge. They became very creative when it came to outings and spending. In fact, some of them had the trips of their lives. they visited parks. They saw relatives. They engaged in discovering places that were within a three- to five-hour drive from home. And, of course, during all of this they spent quality time together. Some of them said to heck with it and took the longer trips anyway, visiting foreign lands or at the very least, Florida. They were clearly tired of hearing about the merits of the staycation.

What did you do? Did you say to heck with it all and packed the kids in the car for that Griswold family vacation anyway, or did you suck it up, stay at home and watch the paint dry?

Pic by Manchester Library.

When I was growing up, just about every kid I knew had two siblings. My best friend, the kids I went to school with, and the neighbor kids were all growing up with two other kids in their house. I don't know where this three-kid quota came from, but every parent seemed to be happy to fill it, my own included.

For many families of my parent's generation, having just one kid was an idea that just never occurred to them. An only child is a lonely child, right? Maybe sometimes, but having siblings doesn't guarantee life-long friendship and happy times. In fact, for many it seems that all siblings guarantee is a life-long nemesis. Someone to argue with at holiday gatherings and avoid at all other times.

I got along well enough with my own siblings and still do. But my best childhood friend loathed her youngest sister and today, the two don't even speak. The kids that grew up across the street from me all left home and now live thousands of miles from each other with no communication. And they are the lucky ones. Several other friends live within spitting distance of their siblings and are in a constant state of distress over their rocky relationships.

Having raised an only child, I do know that loneliness can sometimes be an issue. But she's an adult now and I can see no ill effects as a result of being raised alone. On the other hand, my sister and I enjoy a close relationship and I am thankful that someone exists who knows me - and where I come from - as well as she does. What about you? If you have siblings, how's that working out for you?

Fisherman love to tell tales about the one that got away. But how do you explain to your fishing buddies that the one that didn't get away was caught with a Barbie fishing pole that came with its own hot pink tackle box? Doting grandfather David Hayes isn't embarrassed. In fact, he's having the record-breaking catfish he caught with the pole mounted along with the Barbie fishing rod itself!

It all started when Hayes and his three-year-old granddaughter Alyssa were fishing in his private pond. She ran to the house to use the bathroom, and while she was gone, Hayes got a bite. He hung on until she returned, and they pulled up a 32-inch catfish -- two inches longer than the fishing pole he was using -- that broke the state record.

Hayes isn't just a good grandpa, he's also a doting husband. He and Alyssa were invited to New York City by CBS News, but because his wife just had knee surgery, he figures it's more important to him to stay home. Alyssa's getting a new pole to replace the one that's being mounted, but no word yet on which one she'll choose.

We've all seen swimmer Micheal Phelps' mother and sisters cheering him on from the stands as he makes history at the Beijing Olympics. Conspicuously missing from this family picture is his father, Fred. Not only is Fred absent in China, he hasn't even spoken to his son since the games began.

"He's so busy, I'm sure not even his agent can get a hold of him," Fred said. "I'm very proud of him and all he's done. This is not about me, it's about him."
Michael's parents were high school sweethearts who divorced when he was just nine years old. "It was like a storybook [marriage], but sometimes chapters go in different directions," says his mother Debbie. "We were close, but we grew apart."

Clearly Fred Phelps grew apart not just from his wife, but from his son as well. When Fred showed up at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Michael admitted that up until that point, he hadn't been in contact with his father since he graduated high school. He also revealed that his father hadn't even reached out to him after he set his first world record in 2001. "There are reasons and I really don't want to get into that," Michael said.

Whatever those reasons were, they clearly were not resolved. After the 2004 Games, father and son became estranged once more. And while Fred Phelps watches from afar, Michael Phelps gives credit for his success where credit is due. "The person I love the most is sitting in the front row - my mom - for everything she's done," Michael told reporters in Beijing.

Loving someone doesn't mean you have to love the people they love. My father had five kids and his love for each and every one of them was unconditional and unlimited. I, on the other hand, can barely stand to talk to myself, let alone the other four. And so, I completely understand Chris Orbach's desire to have nothing to do with his late father's second wife.

And yet... there's the matter of the ten million dollars, of which Chris sees none until his stepmother, Elaine Cancilla-Orbach, dies. Chris sent his stepmother a letter claiming that she manipulated the elder Orbach into cutting his son out of his will. It's not about the money, though, claims Chris. "People think [the letter] was a money grab," he wrote on the First Wives World website. "For the trillionth time -- it wasn't. I do just fine as a voiceover artist."

Chris Orbach also chastised his father's donation of his eyes to the Eye Bank Association of America. Cancilla-Orbach, defends that decision, however. "Jerry always said he was so proud that, at age 69, he didn't need glasses," Cancilla-Orbach said. "He said, 'If I can give anything back, I want to give my eyes. I can't give my liver because I drank too much, and I can't give my lungs because I smoked too much. But I can give my eyes.' So, on his deathbed, when they asked if he was an organ donor, I said, 'Take his eyes.'"

I don't know... Maybe Chris Orbach has a point. After all, he is, I'm sure, making hundreds of dollars a month as a voice-over artist so he really doesn't need the money. And this isn't Jerry Orbach's first wife; it's his second wife who swooped in at the last moment, only having to spend two and a half decades with him to inherit his money. Really, if this is just about not having to visit Elaine Cancilla-Orbach on Mother's Day, drop it and don't. It's really that simple.

It's hard not to do. For some, it's inevitable: Playing favorites. Parents try not to do it, grandparents too. Still, the idea persists--siblings talk about it amongst themselves and make the decisions when the grandparents don't. But what about when the grandparents do?

I can think of several instances when it's been pretty obvious that the grandparents had a favorite child. It's also been pretty obvious when the grandchild was not the favorite. To be frank, in both instances it really stunk for the kids. Sometimes, perhaps, it was because the grandparents had access to or spent more time with a particular grandchild. Sometimes, it was the direct result of having a favorite child.

In any event, having favorites is one thing--making it obvious is quite another. And, it's never fair to let it be known if you have a preference of one child over another. Yet some grandparents still exercise that option (parents too). Good Morning America online is taking a poll of how parents handle the situation when the grandparents play favorites. What are your thoughts on the subject? How do you handle it when grandma and grandpa play favorites? Or, is it something we can even help doing?

Pic by itchys on flickr.

In the left corner, wearing a garden hat and gloves, we have 77-year-old Avis Blakeslee. In the right corner, we have a crazy, rabid fox. Ding ding.

That's not exactly how it went down in Avis Blakelee's Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania garden last week, but the result was the same. She was out in her yard, tending her petunias, when she was attacked by what she thought was a dog. After the animal bit her, she held its mouth shut and pinned it to the ground with one arm, while using her free arm to flag down a passing car. She got the attention of a motorist, whose cries alerted her teenage grandson next door to her predicament. He ran for help while his dad, Blakeslee's son, put what turned out to be a fox down for the count with a well-placed bullet.

Blakeslee is recovering after a four-day stay in the hospital where she underwent surgery to clean out seven wounds in her arm and one in her leg. The fox, who was determined to be rabid, has gone to that big boxing ring in the sky.

According to the retailing giant, Wal-Mart, moms have a dedicated following of helpers -- family members, teachers, neighbors and baby sitters -- to make sure that raising a family doesn't interfere too much with their ability to go shopping. This "momtourage," as its being called, might even include Dad, notes the New York Times.

Wal-Mart has signed a deal with a new unit of NBC Universal called Women@NBCU that offers access to the more female-oriented side of the business, including cable networks Bravo and Oxygen and television shows like "Lipstick Jungle." Lauren Zalaznick, president for the women and lifestyle entertainment networks at NBC Universal, sees moms as "identifiable consumer targets" for advertising. The agreement with Wal-Mart covers the last half of the year when moms are buying back-to-school and holiday items.

I'm not sure what we're doing wrong -- while we do get a lot of help from my wife's mother, I definitely wouldn't say Rachel has a "momtourage". I also have to say it gets a little tiring having society assume that we dads are nothing more than incompetent buffoons who sit around guzzling beer and, at best, trying not to get in Mom's way. Wal-Mart and NBC, I guess, think that women change every diaper and take the kids to school every day and we guys don't do anything. That would be all fine and dandy if we could actually get away with it, but it doesn't work that way outside of the marketing team's imagination.

Sure, you may be friends with your parents. You may also SAY to people that you are friends with your parents. But, really, when you think about who your mom and dad are (granted they are still with us), as people and not as your parents, do you think you'd still be friends with them?

I'm not sure how things were in previous generations, but it seems like lately people have less than ever in common with their parents. That doesn't necessarily make for an un-friendly situation, but it is food for thought. The things we care about may seem different of course, but we haven't lived as long as our parents (in most cases) and we haven't had the same experiences they've had--the kind that change the very core of our beings. Things like having children of our own put us more on the same page with our parents every day, whether we realize it or not.

And perhaps that's what it is--can you be friends with someone with whom you have too much in common? Or does friendship come down to more than things in common versus not? Many people have said to me, I don't have to like my family--they're FAMILY. I've also heard that while you love your family, you may not particularly like them (anyone got that funny uncle everyone's always talking about?). Others feel that they have a strong bond with their parents that outshines that of the biological bond.

What about you? Would you be friends with your parents if they weren't related to you?

Barack Obama is upset because the Republicans and the media have cast aspersions on his wife's character, questioning her patriotism and calling her his "baby mama". He told one network that "I've said publicly before, and I'll say it again - I think families are off limits." He's also upset that his opponent, John McCain, hasn't spoken out against dragging wives through the mud.

John McCain, however, countered saying that not only has he spoken out against the practice, it's Obama that has not taken a stand. McCain spokesman Joe Pounder, referring to calls for Cindy McCain to release her taxes and questions about her husband's campaign use of her company's private jet, said that "Obama's silence speaks volumes, and it's unfortunate that he would single out others for a standard he himself has failed to live up to."

If you ask me, it seems that personal attacks calling someone unpatriotic are not quite the same as asking for transparency in campaign financing, although I will admit I'm not sure why Mrs. McCain's taxes are relevant. Still, in general, I would say that wives and families should be off-limits during an election -- we're not voting for Michelle Obama or Cindy McCain, after all.

So what do you think? Are families fair game or should they be left alone? Are they relevant to a candidate's qualifications for elected office or are they indicative of the candidate's character?

Dennis Quaid and his wife Kimberly have had a rough time lately in Los Angeles. In November, their newborn twins almost died after accidentally being overdosed with the anti-coagulant drug Heparin and in May, Quaid testified before a House committee about his experience. Thankfully, twins Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace are both doing fine now and Quaid and company are anxious to put the nightmare behind them.

Like many of us who face near-tragedy, Dennis and Kimberly have decided that what matters most in life is family and friends and the couple are making some changes. Quaid says that he and the family are quitting Los Angeles and returning to his hometown of Houston, Texas. "The train is going down the tracks!" he says. "We have a lot of family there and we have a really nice plot of land," he says. "We have 30 or 40 friends and family members within two miles of us. Its kind of a no-brainer."

The children's near-death experience may be in the past now, but it will never be forgotten. To help ensure that what happened to them doesn't happen to someone else, Dennis and Kimberly have started a foundation to help minimize the risk of human error in hospitals. The first step, says Quaid, is making use of barcode technology. "With a bar code, [a nurse] can scan the medicine and scan the bracelet of the patient. Scan her own tag and if there's a mistake, it will come up."

What happened to those babies was an unimaginable nightmare. I don't blame the Dennis and Kimberly one bit for wanting a fresh start and I especially admire their efforts to try to make something good come out of something so bad.

Female boxer and contender for the Dancing with the Stars trophy Laila Ali plans to honor her father, Muhammad Ali, in a very special way. The 30-year old mom-to-be plans on naming her child after the boxing champion.

Ali recently revealed the child will be a boy. His name will be Curtis Jr., after Curtis Conway, the baby's father, with Mohammad as the middle name. Ali also confirmed she'd like to have the baby at home with no medication.

Ali is due in three months and contends the hardest part of pregnancy is giving up her hardcore workouts. Perhaps having that baby at home with no meds will be enough of a workout for her! Good luck to you, Laila!

Mona Ackerman, contributor to Huffington Post and "shrink" as she calls herself, has a few choice things to say about breastfeeding. Ms. Ackerman is also a grandmother. Recently another grandmother wrote to Mona in dismay over her daughter-in-law's "incessant breastfeeding" of her nine-month-old grandchild.

The new grandmother couldn't understand why this was necessary all the time. The grandmother also wondered if the "marathon" breastfeeding wasn't taking away from the daughter-in-law's other priorities such as the household duties.

I'm sorry, but is this woman for real? What century does she think this is? The grandmother admitted to being perplexed and at least had the courage to ask if she was in the outer corners for feeling these things. I also agree it was a good thing to be able to admit such hesitations. Still, what business of it is hers whether or not her grandchild is breastfed? She had her children, and made her choices at that time based on social norms, the wisdom of the day, and what her doctor told her to do. A woman's choice to breastfeed or not is her own business, not anyone else's.