Just another nugget of advice from a woman whom some have nicknamed a momager--a mother whom pushes, pulls, and micromanages her child's Hollywood career to the point of making them almost not want one. "Some days Kaitlin looks like she just wants to cry," admits a friend of the young star. "She enjoys acting, but her mom puts so much pressure on her that sometimes I think she'd walk away from the whole business if she could." Not so, says Meg, who claims her daughter gets to make her own career decisions. "Kaitlin has to work hard if she wants to succeed," says Meg, sipping an unsweetened ice tea poolside at the family's multi-million dollar abode (which was paid for with earnings from her daughter's career). "She's one of the least stressed teenagers I know. She has a great job. She has an amazing career. Girls her age would kill for that attention. Is there anything wrong with making sure she ups that drive? Kaitlin knows what we do is for her own good."

"Kaitlin could be the next Reese Witherspoon. What could hold her back is her mother."

What Meg thinks is good business, others see as a real problem. "Kaitlin could be the next Reese Witherspoon," says one studio executive. Others interviewed echo that sentiment. With Kaitlin's show Family Affair going off the air in May, now is the time for the young star to really carve a niche for herself. "What could hold her back is her mother," adds the source. "There are studios who don't want to work with Kaitlin because her mom always has to put in her two cents. Meg's always making Kaitlin's deals more complicated," admits one studio executive. "She feels the need to be part of every decision, even though she knows so little about the business. All she cares about is profit and what she can get from the deal." Those who know Meg best claim she's even driving Kaitlin's beloved agent, Seth Meyers, up a wall with her excessive calling and her overblown ideas. "This woman wants to live her life through Kaitlin," says another friend. "She's going to ride that girl's fame to the bank."

The whole family seems to have the same idea. A former secretary, Meg left her job to manage Kaitlin after she scored a part as one of the Paige's and Dennis's twins on Family Affair when she was four. Kaitlin's father, a former car salesman, followed suit and started producing movies his daughter would star in during hiatus. After a while their son, Matt, now thirteen, wanted to get in the business too. "They drove studio executives crazy with their demands to get Matt hired for Kaitlin's movies," says a studio source. "The kid was cute, but he certainly didn't have the same potential that Kaitlin did right off the bat." Matt currently has a role on--what else?--Kaitlin's show, Family Affair.