Ok, well where to begin.. my wife and I work full time for my parent's business, which is a flower shop. The business employs 3 people total. My wife and I are the only 2 people who design flowers at this business and are responsible for making sure every order is filled (which means designing every order ourselves, meaning without the two of us this business cannot function) also our jobs entail taking pictures of every order and sending them to the customers, following up with every customer to insure satisfaction and resolving customer service issues and complaints, taking the initial orders when they come in, helping all walk-in customers, operating the pc system and insuring that every order that comes in from online orders is taken care of as well as constantly being at that computer throughout the day to respond to florist inquiries and sending messages or our own to them when we have an issue. We are responsible for making sure everything is stocked properly, processing flowers (which involves also completely cleaning out the coolers and getting new water in all buckets) and we even deliver anything we have made that our driver cannot get delivered because she is apparently entitled for some reason to be able to leave all throughout the day while she is supposed to be delivering and go to kids doctors appointments, school meetings, do things for her husband, random personal things throughout the day and of course always has to stop delivering at 2 to pick up her kids from school. Now, it is obvious that our driver could not work ANYWHERE else and be able to do the things she does throughout the day.

My parents are in their 60's. They have told me and my wife for the past 15 years that when they retired the business would be ours. They also said that they would teach us things we need to know to own the business and they haven't. We have always been responsible for ordering necessary supplies and flowers for the business, as well as anything basically that we need. Recently we were told we were no longer allowed to order anything, and had to let her (my mother) know when something needed ordering. Also, she has built a flower cooler at her house where most of the flowers are now kept, making it extremely difficult for my wife and I to design the flowers the way they should be because there aren't the correct flowers here as they use to be, and no matter how many they bring up here we always need more. We were told that the cooler she built was going to be for excess flowers and extra, and that our coolers would stay full as they always have been.

They also have been giving our driver (who neither myself or my wife can stand) more responsibilities at the shop. Our driver has had more complaints from customers and recipients of flowers than I can possibly remember, and consistently does her job wrong and makes mistakes that often my wife and I have to fix and make right. My mother doesn't treat me fairly either, she calls and hangs up on me, calls my wife instead of me about 99% of the time to talk about business, when my mother and I did this business together before I met my wife. My mother and I have had disagreements and arguments and all and it all comes down to the fact that I feel mistreated and not treated as fairly as my wife is. My parents have assured me they care about me and love me as I am their only son, only child.. but their actions don't relay that message. They retracted what they had originally said, that the business would be ours when they retired (which btw my father is) and decided that they arent going to give the business to us until they pass. This was not what my wife and I have worked as hard as we have for. We want to be able to actually live a decent life and have things we want in life. I have always understood that in situations like this, people retire at a certain age and give their business to their kids when the time comes. My mother for years told me and my wife that although we were only receiving $300/week TOGETHER- $150 each, for our pay, (leaving us no way to save money) we were putting in "sweat equity" to own the business instead of having to buy it or contribute financially to it. We were living with them at the time and although they paid every one of our necessary bills, that still did not add up to the amount we should have been making. When we moved out of their house over 3 months ago now, they started paying us $15 each/hr, and to start with mandated that we only receive 7 hours of pay due to the need for an hours worth of breaks and lunch, even though we always worked through that hour and never had time to take the breaks due to how extremely busy we are. I demanded that we recieve the extra hour's worth of pay and they gave in, but when we moved out they told us that in addition to working a 40nhour week, we had to volunteer 3 hours on Saturday without pay.. we only get paid $15 an hour when both of us deliver, instead of $30 because they say that one person can do the job, even though it does take both of us and would be completely ludicrous for us to drive home and one stay home then drive all the way back to the shop to deliver. They have also told us more times than I remember that they could sell the business and use it for retirement and we have talked to them many times about how we have plans to expand the business when it is ours and employ our children. They have also told us repeatedly that they could fire us any time and hire 2 other people to do the same thing who wouldn't complain. The truth is though, they can't because nobody else would actually CARE about the business like we do, since it is our family business and we know it is going to be ours. Anyone else would just see it as a job to show up at and leave, and not care if things arent done perfectly. My parents just recently made us sign a contract stating that if for any reason we are fired or let go, we will not work a competing flower shop, and the flower business is basically all that my wife and I know. We have for over 15 years done everything we can to prosper and grow this family business, except offering any financial help, often putting our personal needs and wants aside as well as what is best for our children due to our work responsibilities, often working until 6 or 7 pm or later without overtime.

My father has also recently been sick and my parents have a lot of medical bills. Even though we make $30/hr together here, it is barely enough to pay rent which is $2150/mo and all our other bills. Forget being able to buy all the food we need for us and our 4 kids and we make too much now to have the amount of food assistance we need for a month. I know that me, my wife and kids living with my parents for 10 years while working for them only caused serious strain on my relationship with my parents but it wasn't my choice.. it was thought that it would help everyone involved.

My father has our car in his name, making it where we have to pay them the $470 payment instead of being able to take care of it ourselves, when he said that when we moved out it would be put in our name and we would just take over payments. Our car insurance also comes out of my mother's bank, therefore we have to pay her that payment as well. This all, coupled with everything else, makes my wife and I feel like we cannot live the way we should be able to and deserve to. We do not have the money to do special things for our kids or anything extra and the 4 of them haven't gotten their allowance in 6 months now. It just all seems like we should have it easier at this point in time with all we do for the business (basically everything except the financial aspects and delivering some things) and I don't know how to fix things and all. I always thought things would be different and by now we would at least be preparing to own the business and be making enough money to attain things in life we want, like a house and boat, etc. I don't know if all of this is just them trying to control us, get cheaper labor from us than we deserve to be paid, or what. Hell, you can start as a manager at a fast food place making $17/hr and only do one job, not be responsible literally for everything. And I don't buy into the "the business isn't making that much" bs when I know for a fact we are making $10-15k a week because I see every order that comes in and keep track of how much we make.

I'm sorry for the extremely long rant on it.. but it was necessary to get it all out for backstory. Anyway, I'm curious what people think about our situation and if anyone can offer any advice or emotional support. It is a lot to deal with knowing we work our asses off and don't recieve the pay we deserve, when my parents have realized all of their dreams and goals. Am I wrong for wanting to have a nice life for myself and my family? I never thought that was wrong, I am not greedy. Thank you..