My parents have been successful business owners for the past 20 years (health/wellness industry).

As I was growing up I realized that I had a knack for these kinds of things as well and decided to get a degree in the same direction my parents did. I‘ve been working 20ish hours a week for them for the past three years and while, yes we did have some struggles with the power dynamics in the beginning, its worked out pretty well. A year ago I decided to get another industry related degree so rn I‘m working on 2 degrees at the same time (one almost done the other just starting). The main factor behind getting another bachelors is that this industry just isn’t really profitable if you‘re not educated and can charge an appropriate amount per service. As you can imagine this takes a lot of well planned time management in order to fit 2 degrees, a half time job and some free time. In the past few months I have noticed my parents „indirectly“ asking me to work more/help out even when I‘m not scheduled. They basically do this by saying „oh employee xyc is sick we‘re gonna be all alone today“ (making me feel bad because who doesn’t want to help their parents out).

I have also caught myself brainstorming stuff/working even when I‘m off the clock. I imagine this is a pretty frequent occurrence in family owned businesses as the relationship with the business is very different than if you were working for someone you didnt know. Every time I bring this issue up with my parents they vehemently deny that they‘re trying to pressure me into anything and to a point I even believe them. However there’s no arguing that I‘m obviously not earning enough to justify the amount of time and effort I have been putting into this company (earning minimum wage – sadly thats the industry standard without a degree).

To me it just never feels like I‘m completely off the clock even though its not even MY company. Its gotten to a point where I‘ve seriously considered reducing my working hours or leaving all together. This would probably really hurt my parents though. Outside of work our relationship is pretty good but I don‘t think I‘ll be able to take this for much longer.

Do you guys have any advice on how I should approach this? Maybe someone can give me another POV from which to look at this situation.