More than 25 years ago, Rolland Patton taught his young son, Jeff, how to shoot a basketball and urged him to aim for the front of the rim.

	Andy Starnes/Post-Gazette Rolland Patton, right, has worked for his son Jeff, owner of Baseball Card Castle in Cranberry, for 11 years. Click photo for larger image.

"When the ball goes through the net, it comes straight down. I wanted to stand under the net. I wanted to catch it. I didn't want to chase it down the driveway," the elder Patton recalled.

Jeff Patton, 38, owner of Baseball Card Castle in Cranberry, remembers those nights when he perfected his shooting technique and focused more on the rim than his father's remarks.

"I probably paid as much attention to him when he was instructing me as he does to me now," Jeff Patton said, chuckling.

But his father's actions, he added, have always exemplified one attitude: "Whatever you need, I'll be there."

That's why Rolland Patton, 68, manages a Ross Park Mall kiosk for his son's business, playing the parts of salesman, sports announcer and affable mayor of the mall. Besides ringing up sales, he chats with retirees who walk past daily, watches televised sporting events and announces the scores to curious store employees who lean down from their second-floor perches for the latest updates.

Parents who wind up working for a son or daughter often find that their approach to work differs from their child's. Such arrangements are emotional land mines, but many people tiptoe around them daily.

Family-owned businesses account for 60 percent of total employment in the United States, 78 percent of all new jobs, 65 percent of all wages paid and 50 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, according to the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business.

Other local father-son duos include Larry Vittone, 41, a laissez-faire type of guy who works with his "old-school" father, Gene, 70, at inSync Computers in Bethel Park.

"We butt heads constantly," Larry Vittone said, adding that "retirees aren't retirees today. They still get up at 5:30."

William D. Kosick, a motivated public relations guy whose work ethic could best be summarized as "the puck stops here," is employed by his son David W. Kosick at a Canonsburg firm called The KMA Group. This company designed the signage for PNC Park and the University of Pittsburgh's Petersen Events Center.

(Some KDKA Radio listeners knew the elder Mr. Kosick as David because he used his middle name when he worked as a radio reporter there from 1962 through 1977.)

Six years ago, when Gene Vittone started working at inSync Computers in Bethel Park, he drove the young computer technicians crazy with constant questions because, "I didn't know the first blasted thing about computers. I didn't know one part from another," he recalled.

Larry Vittone, owner of the company, said his father "used to interrupt the technicians left and right," which made it difficult for them to finish their work.

Denise Rousseau, H.J. Heinz II professor of organization behavior at Carnegie Mellon University, said this tension often arises in family-owned businesses.

"It's an amazing thing to me," she said. "We assume that somebody who is senior and experienced doesn't need training or development and that's ridiculous. These people love the training experience. They like the people they meet. They like the novelty of it."

Besides, Ms. Rousseau said, "We need to learn all our lives so we can adapt. Acceptance of training is a way for a parent to signal that they want to work well in the child's business. They are playing the role of the good employee."

Larry Vittone started his computer business in 1994. Gene calls his son "Mr. Goodwill" because he answers questions over the phone from people who aren't customers. Gene Vittone, a retired pharmaceutical salesman for Sandoz, is a "paperwork nut" who dots i's and crosses t's.

As a salesman, the elder Mr. Vittone made homemade spreadsheets using a ruler and piece of paper. (This was B.E. -- Before Excel, the popular software that makes it possible to create spreadsheets easily on a computer.)

While Gene Vittone's day at his son's business starts at 9 and usually ends at 2 p.m., William Kosick, who declines to give his age, puts in full days working for his son's business. The firm's president, David Kosick, 43, likes to be able to ask his wise father for advice and rely on some of his contacts.

While those are the common advantages in this setup, a child who employs a parent walks a thin tightrope. A trusted relative often provides a strong safety net, but the boss must still make decisions, even if it means disagreeing with Mom or Dad.

"I'm the boss, but I need to be respectful of my dad," said Jeff Patton, adding that his father drives in from New Castle, about a 90-mile round-trip commute each day.

Jeff Patton knows his father's nature, adding, "He is really ambitious. He can't sit around."

After retiring from his inspector's job at Lockley Manufacturing in 1996, Rolland Patton began stocking merchandise at his son's store as well as dusting and setting up displays of merchandise. His father's decision to take on that supportive role, Jeff Patton said, was consistent with his style of parenting.

"That's the essence of being a dad -- you step outside yourself and do what's best for your family rather than what's best for you," Jeff Patton said.

Rolland Patton has a knack for managing the Ross Park Mall kiosk, where he talks with neophyte baseball card collectors as well as connoisseurs.

"He is very engaging. He knows how to talk to someone who has no intention of buying anything. He has the ability to talk to a lady who's buying for her 5-year-old son," the younger Mr. Patton said.

"The greatest thing about it is the trust. It's safer in his hands than it is in mine. I wouldn't want to work without him," he said about his father.

There is friction at times, Rolland Patton acknowledged.

"We argue like we always did. When something isn't right over here, I tell him and [Jeff] says, 'Dad, I'll handle it.' We're no different than any other father and son."

William Kosick knows his strength is telling his clients' stories; he never wanted the parade of headaches that comes with running a business. More than four years ago, while working at MARC USA, he confided in his son that he might be looking for work.

Over lunch at an Olive Garden, Mr. Kosick sat down with his son and KMA co-founder, Barbara Martin, to work out details of his employment at the firm that was started in 1999. He's now been with them for 3¹/₂ years.

"We felt public relations was going to be a good area to go into," David Kosick said, adding that it complements his firm's business.

An office secretary types up reports of the elder Mr. Kosick's meetings with clients as well as news releases, which he says, is an enormous time saver. He travels with a laptop to check his e-mail.

"There's a high level of trust between the two of us," William Kosick said, adding that he would not dream of interfering with his son's partnership with Ms. Martin.

"You don't want to be seen as the paterfamilias," he added.

While Ms. Martin is the face of the firm and its creative muse, David Kosick provides budgetary analysis and a steady eye on expenses.

In a way, the Kosicks' relationship has come full circle.

Early in his career, David Kosick interned for his dad in the mid-1980s at Skirboll & Garber, a public relations firm. He even dressed up in a gorilla suit for a television commercial about the evolution of a car deal that was "so good even a monkey could make the deal," the younger Mr. Kosick recalled.

David Kosick is delighted to be able to rely on his father's advice.

"He's my hero. I respect him more than I do anyone else on the planet."

The elder Mr. Kosick believes it's possible to work for your son or daughter so long as you follow this succinct advice: "Butt out."