Apparently, when you live in Western Michigan and you agree to watch your neighbors’ kids for a few minutes each day.
According to authorities in the Great State Lake, watching your friend’s children for about 40 minutes each morning as they wait for the school bus is not considered “babysitting,” it’s called running a daycare. Or, more accurately, in the words of Michigan authorities, your good deed is known as “operating an illegal child care home.”
You say tomato, I say tomahto.
Lisa Snyder calls her situation “outrageous,” and frankly, I agree with her.
The Middleville, Michigan, mom is being threatened with fines and potential jail time for babysitting her neighbors’ three children.
And by babysitting I mean watching kids play in her yard as they wait for the school bus to pick them up. Synder is not feeding the children breakfast, helping them with their homework, or having them camp out in her living room for hours on end. All the woman is doing is making sure her friend’s three young children don’t end up as the next Jaycee Dugard or sustain serious injuries running after a ball that’s been kicked into traffic.
I guess the old saying that no good deed goes unpunished is alive and well in Michigan (and forget about “It takes a village…”) because, according to news reports, someone decided to complain to the state’s Department of Human Services about Snyder’s morning babysitting gig and now she’s been told to get licensed as a daycare center or stop watching her neighbor’s kids.
“It’s ridiculous.” Snyder told reporters. “We are friends helping friends!”
Fortunately, some one in authority agrees with Snyder.
Reports say State Representative Brian Calley is currently working on legislation that would change Michigan’s rules on childcare facilities.
“We have babysitting police running around this state violating people, threatening to put them in jail or fine them $1,000 for helping their neighbor (that) is truly outrageous,” Calley told reporters.
The outraged lawmaker says he wants to draft legislation that would “exempt people who agree to care for non-dependent children from daycare rules as long as they’re not engaged in a business.”
What do you make of the babysitting brouhaha?
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