Serious Bondage

Since November, work for SWCA has been minimal, and since the end of January its been non-existant. So what does a man do when he has a rent to pay and no work? He goes to work at his parents' company. In my case, it's an attorney service company. Neither of my parents are lawyers, they're process servers. These are the people that serve subpoenas, writs, summons, and file the paperwork at the various courthouses.
Because I've been doing so much work for them, it has become necessary that I myself become a registered process server. To do this simply requires that I pay a fee, get fingerprinted and buy a process server's bond (insurange against an error on my part that screws up somebody's case).
The thing is though that with no end to my occupational hiatus from SWCA in sight, I wonder how long I'll end up working as a process server. Both my siblings are currently working for companies that compete with (and give work to) my parents'. Quite the family business. People who I run into in downtown LA ask "hey, are you B.G. jr.?" Not quite junior, but close.
The primary reason that any of this worries me is that his string of events is strikingly similar to what happened to my mom's scientific career. She graduated college with a B.Sc., was one of the only people in her class to get a job in the field, did that for a while before being cut and eventually going to work with my dad (presumably with the intention of someday going back to marine biology). She never did though and I've always gotten the impression that so many years out of her chosen proffession has taken a large toll on her.
I thank my luck so far that I don't have any responsibilities to bind my to this job forever.