Offending Child Loading Code

broken.php

<?php

$family = loadEntity('Family', 1); // wrapper for entity manager 

// verify that there are more than one child
echo "There are " . count($family->getChildren()) . " children"); 

Family.php

<?php
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;  

/**
 * Family relationship 
 * 
 * @ORM\Entity
 * @ORM\Table(name="family")
 * 
 */
class Family
{
    /**
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue
     */
    protected $id;

    /**
     * Father
     * 
     * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Person", inversedBy="ffamilies", cascade={"persist", "remove"})
     * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="fatherid", referencedColumnName="id")
     */
    protected $father;

    /**
     * The mother
     *
     * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Person", inversedBy="mfamilies", cascade={"persist", "remove"})
     * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="motherid", referencedColumnName="id")
     */
    protected $mother;

    /**
     * The children
     *
     * @ORM\OnetoMany(targetEntity="Person", mappedBy="family")
     */
    protected $children;

    public function __construct() {
        $this->children = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    // setters, getters

}

Person.php

<?php
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;  
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

/**
 * Profile for a person who will be included within a family tree 
 * 
 * @ORM\Entity
 * @ORM\Table(name="person")
 * 
 */
class Person
{
    /**
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue
     */
    protected $id;

    /**
     * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Family", mappedBy="father")
     **/
    protected $ffamilies;

    /**
     * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Family", mappedBy="mother")
     **/
    protected $mfamilies;

    /**
     * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Family", inversedBy="children")
     * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="familyid", referencedColumnName="id")
     **/
    protected $family;

    public function __construct() {
        $this->ffamilies = new ArrayCollection();
        $this->mfamilies = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    // setters, getters

}