Watch your neighbors kids for half an hour and you are criminal.

[Prometheus]

State orders Middleville mom to stop watching friends' children | Kalamazoo News - - MLive.com

State orders Middleville mom to stop watching friends' children
By Kalamazoo Gazette staff
September 25, 2009, 9:05PM
By Julie Makarewicz

MIDDLEVILLE — A mother who helps neighbors in the morning by watching their children for a short time before the bus comes has been told she’s breaking the law.

Lisa Snyder’s house is by the corner bus stop on Thornbird Drive just outside Middleville. Two of her friends who need to leave for work bring their children to her home in the morning before the bus arrives to take them to Thornapple Kellogg schools.

Snyder said she doesn’t think she’s doing anything wrong, but she was notified by the Michigan Department of Human Services that she has to stop watching the children because her home is not a licensed day-care facility.

Snyder said she’s not charging her friends money to watch the children. She said she watches the 5-year-old and 7-year-old from two families for less than an hour.

“It’s crazy. I’m just helping out a couple of friends,” said Snyder.

Snyder said she thinks that DHS was notified by a neighbor who thought Snyder was running a day-care facility. She said she tried to explain her situation to the DHS worker who sent her a letter, but the woman didn’t want to hear it.

State Rep. Brian Calley, R-Portland, was so outraged when he heard DHS was involved that he proposed legislation to exempt families from state day-care rules when they are caring for friends’ children.

“I actually had a hard time believing this outrageous case until I called DHS, and they not only confirmed it but refused to reconsider when I explained the situation,” Calley said in a news release.

The children’s parents must leave for work in the morning before the school bus arrives so the Middleville family agreed to watch the children for a short period of time each day until they got on the bus. Under current state law, Public Act 116, Michigan homes must be licensed if the residents watch children who are not related on an ongoing basis, no matter the duration.

“This is a shocking case of government bureaucracy run amok,” Calley said. “At a time when the state is being forced to cut health-care programs and services to children, it’s outrageous that the state has decided to pursue an issue like illegal baby-sitting.”

 

[jeremy]

So the State was not getting their share. So now they send the message...

Kinda like loan sharks, but not so honorable...

 

[level.eleven]

People really need to just start saying NO to this kind of thing. Push the issue. When the lady received the letter, she should have simply thrown it away and went about her business of being a HUGE help to her friends and community. If she received a phone call, politely inform the state agent that she will continue helping her friend. Dispatching law enforcers to her house and arresting her would certainly add to the absurdity of the situation.

Of course, thats easy for me to say because I am not the one who would spend the night in a cell and pay the state money to prove my innocence.

Its dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

 

[LEaSH]

Singing the Blue State Blues for them up there.

 

[Jubbie]

How about just calling it inviting your friends over in the morning. The mom could either say yes or no, she just seems to always say yes.

 

[ATF Consumer]

Yep, I'd say that she isn't watching them, they are simply visiting her before they go to school...visiting a neighbor isn't illegal...is it?

 

[level.eleven]

How about just calling it inviting your friends over in the morning. The mom could either say yes or no, she just seems to always say yes.

Heh, I showed this article to a co-worker and he said just that. If I take my son over to a friends house and drop him off to play a few times a week is that an "ongoing basis""?

 

[elaw555]

Yep, I'd say that she isn't watching them, they are simply visiting her before they go to school...visiting a neighbor isn't illegal...is it?

Not yet...

Taxpayer dollars at work...

 

[rambone]

I expect that any time now someone will and post about how she got what she deserved. Somehow, people always turn up who agree with abusive laws.

 

[SavageEagle]

OMG, seriously? THis is almost funny since I have to keep an eye out on my own kids in the morning. They're having issues with a neighbor kid and the little SOB scratched a nice gouge in the hood of my car yesterday! If it's illegal to watch these kids they better come arrest me. I'm keep one eye permanently detached sitting outside watching our stuff....

 

[mettle]

Yep, I'd say that she isn't watching them, they are simply visiting her before they go to school...visiting a neighbor isn't illegal...is it?

Yep, they come over to visit every morning. It's not a lie, it's true, they visit for a short time then go to school.

 

[GetA2J]

OMG, seriously? THis is almost funny since I have to keep an eye out on my own kids in the morning. They're having issues with a neighbor kid and the little SOB scratched a nice gouge in the hood of my car yesterday! If it's illegal to watch these kids they better come arrest me. I'm keep one eye permanently detached sitting outside watching our stuff....

Ryan, I don't think the idea is "watch" as in "look at" I think it is more along the lines of a "babysitting" type of watching kids.

 

[INGunGuy]

If I were the woman I would have told DHS to go F-off. I guess next time grandma and grandpa watch the grandbabies for a hour or 2 a week while mom and dad go out for dinner alone are law breakers also. Jeez I cant believe what this country is turning into. I would love to find out what moron sent the letter so I could call that person and tell them how stupid they really are.

INGunGuy

 

[SavageEagle]

Ryan, I don't think the idea is "watch" as in "look at" I think it is more along the lines of a "babysitting" type of watching kids.

Gotcha.

Well, they still better send them after me. I watched my wife's friend's two boys until she could find a daycare. Went on for two months. Guess they should fine me. Sue me. I'll push back. :fawk: them.

 

[GetA2J]

I understand the reasoning behind the law that is being used in this case and Indiana has similar laws.
However I really and truley believe that this is NOT a proper application of that law.
Unless: This neighbor had 30 or so kids staying with her every morning and the kids were somewhat unsupervised and running amuk at the neighbor's houses and breaking windows and stuff.
More likey though the offended neighbor has just lost her childcare license for some reason and feels put out and wants to blow the "whistle" on somebody else regardless of the sense that it makes to normal thinking people.
Or it could be something...anything else. that's my ... want change?

 

[eldirector]

The problem is that MI defines a "home child care" as anyone who watches someone else's children, in their own home (not the child's) for more than 20 days total in a year, when their parent/guardian is not immediately accessible. So, technically, she is in violation of the law.

Thankfully, Indiana is a *bit* smarter. You have to be PAID as well. Other than that, the law here is remarkably similar.

Another example of:
- an IDIOTIC law
- an IDIOTIC neighbor that reported it
- an IDIOTIC CPS worker who decided to enforce it

Hopefully the state rep. that has taken her side can shield her a bit, and then work to get the law amended. That's how it is supposed to work, right?

 

[raider600]

Wonder what "The Nuge" thinks of this

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

Two police officers are going through something similar in the UK right now. The two female officers work opposite days so officer A watches the kids on Monday, officer B on Tuesday, etc. The UK has a "rewards" system, basically reading that if there is an exchange of rewards in regard to children, then there must be a licensed daycare involved. The term "rewards" is currently thought to include bartering, not just the exchange of monies.

 

[Oldcoyotedream]

Next thing you know, I'll have to have a Lic. to take in my heighbors News Paper so the state can get monies from that too. It's all Bull Sh*t, This is why America is like it is today, The Goverment won't let us help each other without their approval! I say screw them, They work for us - Oh wait a minute, they work against us!!!

 

[public servant]

You have to wonder who ratted them out.