Watching your neighbors kids can become against the Law

[Consuelo]

I found this article this morning and when i was finished reading it I just had to share it with everyone here.


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.

"I was freaked out. I was blown away," she said. "I got on the phone immediately, called my husband, then I called all the girls" — that is, the mothers whose kids she watches — "every one of them."

Snyder's predicament has led to a debate in Michigan about whether a law that says 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 needs to be changed. It also has irked parents who say they depend on such friendly offers to help them balance work and family.

On Tuesday, agency Director Ismael Ahmed said good neighbors should be allowed to help each other ensure their children are safe. Gov. Jennifer Granholm instructed Ahmed to work with the state Legislature to change the law, he said.

"Being a good neighbor means helping your neighbors who are in need," Ahmed said in a written statement. "This could be as simple as providing a cup of sugar, monitoring their house while they're on vacation or making sure their children are safe while they wait for the school bus."

Snyder learned that the agency was responding to a neighbor's complaint.

Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said the agency was following standard procedure in its response. "But we feel this (law) really gets in the way of common sense," Boyd said.

"We want to protect kids, but the law needs to be reasonable," she said. "When the governor learned of this, she acted quickly and called the director personally to ask him to intervene."

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.

The bill will make it clear that people who aren't in business as day care providers don't need to be licensed, Calley said.

"These are just kids that wait for the bus every morning," he said. "This is not a day care."

Snyder, 35, lives in a rural subdivision in Barry County's Irving Township about 25 miles southeast of Grand Rapids. Her tidy, comfortable three-bedroom home is a designated school bus stop. The three neighbor children she watched — plus Snyder's first-grader, Grace — attend school about six miles away in Middleville.

Snyder said she started watching the other children this school year to help her friends; they often baby-sit for each other during evenings and weekends.

After receiving the state agency's letter, she said she called the agency and tried to explain that she wasn't running a day care center or accepting money from her friends.

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. Snyder said she stopped watching the other children immediately after receiving the letter, which was well within the four-week period.

"I've lived in this community for 35 years and everyone I know has done some form of this," said Francie Brummel, 42, who would drop off her second-grade son, Colson, before heading to her job as deputy treasurer of the nearby city of Hastings.

Other moms say they regularly deal with similar situations.

Amy Cowan, 34, of Grosse Pointe Farms, a Detroit suburb, said she often takes turns with her sister, neighbor and friend watching each other's children.

"The worst part of this whole thing, with the state of the economy ... two parents have to work," said Cowan, a corporate sales representative with a 5-year-old son and 11-month-old daughter. "When you throw in the fact that the state is getting involved, it gives women a hard time for going back to work.

"I applaud the lady who takes in her neighbors' kids while they're waiting for the bus. She's enabling her peers to go to work and get a paycheck. The state should be thankful for that."

Amy Maciaszek, 42, of McHenry, Ill., who works in direct sales, said she believes the state agency was "trying to be overprotective."

"I think it does take a village and that's the best way," said Maciaszek, who has a 6-year-old boy and twin 3-year-old daughters. "Unfortunately you do have to be careful about that. These mothers are trying to do the right thing."

___

Associated Press writers Randi Goldberg Berris and David Runk in Detroit and Kathy Barks Hoffman in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.

[KYBELEGREYWOLF]

I wonder who made the phone call to the state about this woman and why they did it. Ihope they change the law in her state. It seems like someone in her neighborhood has got a problem with these kids waiting at her house . I think its great that some people are able to help each other out in these hard times. I sometimes watch my neighbors grandchild because her mother is at work and just because the girl is here alot doesn't make me a daycare center either. It's a courtesy. I applaud her. You go girl!

[Gary Dupuis]

That's the problem with this world, too many irresponsible people and when someone does try to be a good person and help out, they get ostracized for it! Whoever that person was that made the phone call to complain needs to be bitch slapped severely! ARRRRRRGGGGHHH!!! IDIOTS!

[Consuelo]

I hear you Gary.
I say is money grummy M/F governmental crap. What happened to being neighborly to one another and now neighbors being spiteful with another because they have a problem and that everything bothers them anyways is Bull crap. Too many rediculous Laws and people have the right to fight them.

I remember yrs ago i was selling my truck and put a for sale sign cause like everyone else around me did it, so I did. I got a ticket for putting a for sale sign on my truck and the reasons are is because it said that only car dealers do this and that I as a car dealer had my vehicle in the streets and thats against the Law. I got fired up and fought this and won my arguement, and how i won was pure common sence. They could not defend themselfs cause it was true.

I mean are we paying taxes for our governmnet, our mayor, our protection to help us or are we just working for them. Which one is it?

At times i just started to feel like everything was going to end up with all of having no choice and rights being taken away from us.

Gary Dupuis said:

That's the problem with this world, too many irresponsible people and when someone does try to be a good person and help out, they get ostracized for it! Whoever that person was that made the phone call to complain needs to be bitch slapped severely! ARRRRRRGGGGHHH!!! IDIOTS!