Moms: Stop Helping Other Moms

As a SAHM, a once-working mom, and a mom with no family closer than an hour away sometimes I have to rely on a friend to help me out on the babysitting front. Is that so horrible? Am I a bad mom for that? If I lived in Michigan, my babysitting friend might just be breaking the law for the favor!


I posted this on my Baltimore SAHMs Examiner site, but the ridiculousness of it is more than I can take so I'm re-posting it here...to see what you all think. I hope you get a good laugh because it's actually quite comical (and sad all at the same time!)

SAHMs: Stop Helping Other SAHMs

That's the message from Michigan officials to a mom who's helping a neighbor by watching her kids for an hour a day between the time she needs to leave for work and when the school bus picks up her children.

While Baltimore stay-at-home moms obviously don't need to go to work, don't we all need a little babysitting help once in a while? A trip to the grocery store made easier without the toddler tagging along, a quick child-free haircut, a doctor's appointment without kids running around the office.

As stay-at-home moms our children aren't in daycare. Often times, our only source of childcare is other moms or a helpful neighbor. In Michigan, apparently that's against the law. The state recently sent Lisa Snyder a letter telling her she's operating an unlicensed daycare by caring for her neighbor's children - even if it is only 5 hours a week. Under the state's law no one can watch unrelated children for more than four weeks throughout the year. While the law is set up to prevent people, including Ms. Snyder, from acting as a daycare and to protect children, this is going a bit far. Would it be worse if the children's mother got to work late, got fired from her job, and couldn't clothe, feed, or provide shelter for her children? Would it be worse if she left them home alone for an hour until the school bus came to pick them up?

So from a stay at home mom in Baltimore to the hard working moms with office jobs in Michigan (and elsewhere) we're all in this together because if anyone is going to help us out in a time of need, it's another mom. And a message to the Michigan's Department of Human Services: thanks for caring about the children, but don't you have bigger fish to fry?

It should be noted that this case has (finally) prompted Michigan's governor to request the head of the Human Services agency to work with legislators to get the state law changed.

As for now, it's unclear who will watch the children so their mother can get to work on time.

Who do you get to watch your children when you need an hour or so of mommy-time during the day? To weigh, in click here and leave a comment in the comment box.

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