State to mom: Stop babysitting neighbor's kids (1 Viewer)

primadox

Hurricane Bear Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Joined
Sep 1, 1997
Messages
17,205
Reaction score
5,474
Age
60
Location
Houston TX, via Parsippany, NJ and New Orleans
Offline
IRVING TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood's children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school.

Regulators who oversee child care, however, don't see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she'd be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090929/ap_on_re_us/us_baby_sitter_backlash_mich

Ridiculous. I can't imagine why someone would issue a complaint...but heaven forbid that we actually help each other!
 
if she was accepting $, then it is an unlicensed day care. if she was just doing a favor for her neighbors without profiting, then the complaint should be dismissed.
 
if she was accepting $, then it is an unlicensed day care. if she was just doing a favor for her neighbors without profiting, then the complaint should be dismissed.

The first line in the story says she was doing a favor, and later in the article it states that they swapped babysitting as well.

Yes, it will likely be dismissed, but it's garbage like this that create a fear in people that something similar might happen to them if they help, be it babysitting, carpooling, etc., and as a consequence people feel that they're forced to rely only on themselves and cannot rely on neighbors and friends for help. Yes, this woman did nothing wrong, but she has to spend time fighting this...many people who might be willing to do what she did by watching neighbors' kids might not want to take the risk and will never offer that sort of help to others.

That's what I find sad; situations like this discourage rather than encourage us to help each other.
 
From the article

"Under state law, no one may care for unrelated children in their home for more than four weeks each calendar year unless they are licensed day-care providers."

"State Rep. Brian Calley, R-Portland, said he was working to draft legislation that would exempt situations like Snyder's from coverage under Michigan's current day care regulations."


She was breaking the law as written.
 
In Michigan you raise kids like Michigan wants you to raise kids or somebody gets fined.
 
From the article




She was breaking the law as written.

The law is what is in question. And yes it's garbage in this instance. Symptomatic of the over-regulation of the country (world).

I wouldn't be suprised if the judge just dismisses this, since it's not intended to prevent what is occurring, but that it even has to be brought into question is pretty lame.
 
The article said this mess was spawned by a neighbor's complaint.

Even if the lady was being paid, what kind of neighbor feels that 4 kids being under one roof for an hour is complaint worthy?

What a *******.

:scratch:

With 4 kids at my disposal, I believe I could come up with a few ways to encourage the neighbor to leave the hood.
 
Last edited:
The article said this mess was spawned by a neighbor's complaint.

Even if the lady was being paid, what kind of neighbor feels that 4 kids being under one roof for an hour is complaint worthy?

Maybe the complainants kids werent welcome at the pseudo day care lady's house?
 
The law is what is in question. And yes it's garbage in this instance. Symptomatic of the over-regulation of the country (world).

I wouldn't be suprised if the judge just dismisses this, since it's not intended to prevent what is occurring, but that it even has to be brought into question is pretty lame.

Judge?
 
Maybe the complainants kids werent welcome at the pseudo day care lady's house?
That crossed my mind too.

Who knows what kind of Peyton Place drama could be unfolding there?

This could have started over one kid defacing another's GI Joe or one neighbor's recycling blowing over into the other's yard.


:shrug:
 
Last edited:
There had to have been a time when, even though something may have violated the letter of the law, things were looked at in context to determine whether something needed to be investigated further.

Probably in the time before we wised up and stopped letting those little drug dealers in training sneak their Tylenol onto school grounds. :shrug:
 
Sounds to me like the state is just looking for a way to scam people out of money. As written, would Grandmama have to be licensed if her three grandkids got off the bus at her house every day during the school year?

This is horse**** and primadox is right. We have far too many rules discouraging neighborly behavior.
 
Sounds to me like the state is just looking for a way to scam people out of money. As written, would Grandmama have to be licensed if her three grandkids got off the bus at her house every day during the school year?
Grandma's purse is safe because she's related:

Under state law, no one may care for unrelated children in their home for more than four weeks each calendar year unless they are licensed day-care providers
But yeah, horse **** .

While I'll give the legislators the benefit of the doubt and say they probably had good intentions, the law was poorly thought out.
 
And what is sad is that even if this is dismissed, others will be discouraged from doing the same or similar good deeds because they don't want to risk the hassle they'd have to go through to get around the regulation. Nowadays people feel like they can't even provide simple neighborly help to each other without fear of lawsuits, regulation, etc.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom