They are from the government, and they don't want you to help.Lisa Snyder's neighbors in Middleville, Mich., left for work every morning before the school buses arrived. So she told her friends she'd watch their three kids at her house before school. She didn't get paid for it. She didn't get reimbursed for Cheerios or juice boxes.
So what did Lisa get for her trouble? Threatened with prosecution.
The state declared her yard an illegal day-care operation. She either had to stop, get licensed or go to jail.
"We're just friends helping friends," Lisa says. But that's not good enough now that the nanny state has turned on the nannies.
I thought about poor Lisa when I picked up yesterday's Herald and saw the draconian regulations the Patrick administration is foisting on Bay State babysitters. Starting in January, day-care workers must write regular "progress reports" on the "cognitive, social and emotional skill developments of infants and preschoolers."
Who is that report for? Will it be filed with the state? What the heck will be in it?
"Day Care Report No. J/254-B. During the last three months, Client 004 (AKA Timmy) seemed to progress from simple 'goo goos' to more complex 'gaa gaas.' Emotional reaction to Tinky Winky remains negative."
Day care workers will also have to write curricula and prove they're providing quality educational experiences - when they're not brushing the kids' teeth.
That's right - the new regs include a tooth-brushing mandate, either after meals or at least once every four hours. (Gov, we've got flossing issues at the Little Snowflake Daycare. Call in the toothbrush inspectors!)
Folks, regardless of the new state mandate declaring them "educators," what we're talking about here are "babysitters." It's a noble calling but it's not rocket science. I just want them to keep my kids from hurting themselves, pooping themselves or doing these things to or on the other kids.
Some parents want aggressive, academic-oriented early childhood training and they're willing to pay for it. Other parents just want their children safe, cared for and engaged until they can get home. Either way, would you rather have the day-care worker writing up a state-mandated progress report or playing "Godzilla Ate Candy Land" (my daughter's favorite!) with your kid?
If Patrick mandates that every day-care worker become a skilled educator with a lesson plan and toothbrush timer, he's going to drive smaller providers out of business. Women who earn desperately needed income caring for neighborhood children will find it difficult to meet these mandates.
Meanwhile, the big companies with big bureaucracies will simply crank out these meaningless reports and pass on the expense to cash-strapped working parents. As a result, good providers and their desperate customer parents will go off the books and underground.
So why is the Patrick administration doing it? Day care reform has hardly been a hot topic of late.
Is the goal to drive private providers out of business and force more parents into government-run day-care thus creating jobs for unionized government workers?
Or is this yet another expression of the liberal assumption that whether you're running a day care or watching the school bus stop, the government can always do a better job?
Either way, Patrick needs to give the genius who came up with this plan a serious timeout.