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Friday, June 22, 2012

Annoyance in Babysitting


Administrators who have far too much time on their hands have recently decreed that a good neighbor is not a fit caretaker for the neighborhood children. Lisa Snyder of Irving Township, Michigan, recently received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services ordering her to stop watching her neighbors’ children. If she didn’t she would be violating a law aimed at unlicensed day-care centers.
There is a law on the books of Michigan that says no one shall watch other people’s children for over four weeks in a calendar year. My question is, whoever made this law, why didn’t they include a clause to exempt people who aren’t receiving payment for this care? A woman watching her neighbor’s kids is not trying to make money from it, she’s trying to help her neighbors and probably is receiving the same kind of help from her neighbors when she needs it.

I’m not too much of a fan of government involvement in personal matters anyway. Licensed or unlicensed, who cares. If the kids are safe that’s all that matters. Government doesn’t need to worry itself with things like this. People need to worry about this kind of stuff. If they trust someone to watch their kids, whether they have a license or not they should be allowed to do it. The last thing anyone needs is mommy-daddy government breathing down our necks.

I realize though that there are people who don’t feel the same way as I do, so for those people licensing works and I won’t criticize their choice too much. But exceptions should be made for people like Mrs. Snyder. Being a good neighbor should never be a crime.

Discussion: What do you think she should do? Should she keep going and be careful who knows what she's doing or cease and desist?

Cited: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090929/ap_on_re_us/us_baby_sitter_backlash_mich

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