LISA SNYDER IS my kind of mom.
A resident of Irving Township, Mich., Snyder has tried to do her neighborhood moms a favor. Snyder’s house is a designated bus stop.With many of the moms she knows working in nearby Grand Rapids, Snyder has told them it’s OK to drop their children off in the mornings when they leave for work.
She keeps an eye on them — three plus her own duaghter — for about an hour until the bus comes.
The State of Michigan wants Snyder to stop being a good neighbor. State regulators say Snyder is violating 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 daycare providers,” according to the Associated Press.
It’s led to a push in the Michigan Legislature to change the law. That’s a smart move, because Snyder isn’t doing anything that parents haven’t been doing for generations. Even today, we know many parents in Lyon County whose family remains nearby. Children might get on or off the school bus at Grandma’s house. For these parents, there’s no lack of aunts, uncles and grandparents to help with the children when schedules conflict.
In today’s mobile society, however, not everyone is that lucky.
When Greg and I moved back to Kansas and settled in Emporia, we found ourselves an hour from my parents and three hours from his — not close enough for last-minute help. Instead, we found ourselves naturally getting to know the families of the boys’ friends and classmates.
I have many moms’ and dads’ numbers in my cell phone. When a flat tire was going to delay me picking up Alex on time after basketball practice, I called a mom I knew would be waiting for her son and asked her to give my son the message. She ended up taking him home with her.
For about two years, our house was the bus stop for a boy who had moved out of the Americus district but wanted to continue school there. His mother’s schedule allowed her to drive him to school, but he rode the after-school bus to our house. His father would leave his bike in our garage and he’d ride the mile home.
My parents faced the same pressures when I was growing up. Both of my parents worked. When we moved to Osage County, they worked an hour away, and my sister and I were latchkey kids. She was 10, and I was 7 when we moved. For the first few years, our godmother lived up the road, and we knew we could call Mom if we needed anything.
Later, Mom and Bob moved. By then, Tina and I didn’t need much direct care, but other kids had moved into the neighborhood. Our next-door neighbor, Juanita Cole, was a retired schoolteacher. She taught piano lessons to neighborhood kids, and, eventually, cared for her grandson, who was a toddler.
When the school bus would drop us off in good weather, Mrs. Cole became the unofficial “babysitter” for all of us kids. While she sat on her front porch watching her grandson, she also was available for bandages when we fell off our skateboards and got road rash. She oversaw games of croquet on her front lawn and put iodine on bee stings when silly little girls wore sandals into clover patches.
Mrs. Cole never asked for money (except for the piano lessons), and I’m not even sure my parents knew what she was doing.
And I don’t think Mrs. Cole thought she was doing anything special. She was just being a good neighbor — like Lisa Snyder.
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Posted by Observation (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 8:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Gwen, Here in Lyon County, there is no law that forbids people from being good neighbors and taking responsibility for children of their friends and neighbors on a routine basis. Apparently in Michigan there is such a law. Lots of laws are passed by people who think they are actually doing good for those whom have elected them. I think the lesson learned here is Voter Beware. Read and understand everything that you vote on.
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