FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURHOOD NANNY STATE

Crazy story out of Michigan I stumbled across today. Lisa Snyder is your typical suburban milf. Sorry, bad joke. The new season of Weeds started last weekend and it just happens to be my favourite show on television.... and Mary Louise-Parker is @#$%ing smokin' and I don't just mean the ganja. What I meant to say is that Lisa Snyder is your typical suburban mom. She drives the minivan to her kids soccer practice, bakes cookies, and enjoys gardening (OK, so I made all that up, but lets just say she is your typical suburban mom)

Like most folks today some of her neighbours don't have the luxury of having a parent stay home. In the current economy double-income families are probably the norm instead of an exception. Since her neighbours often take turns helping her babysit on weekends (like all good neighbours do) she had been welcoming three neighbourhood kids (along with her old child) into her home every morning for about 30 minutes while waiting for the school bus to arrive. Or at least she was doing this until she got a nasty letter from some bureaucrat who only has his job because he got all C's in High School.

The warning, from the Michigan Department of Human Services informed her that she was guilty of operating an unlicensed daycare. Some investigation led to the discovery the feds were tipped off by another neighbour who complained. Seriously, unless the kids were causing trouble why don't folks mind their own business? While Lisa tries to argue her case with some government flunky she has stopped helping her neighbours, who now have to put their kids into an after-school daycare. I wonder if the neighbour who complained is a part-owner?