background checks and licenses only go so far, and they've become a panacea. If parents did their work then we wouldn't need the state to make such ridiculous laws.
All of these cases where good, well intentioned people are cited for technical violations while grossly neglegent cases continue to allude the protective agencies is ludacris.
We trust the care of our kids to an in home daycare mom who is not licensed. She was upfront with us on exactly why she wasn't licensed and it's not illegal here for her to operrate that way. We know her, we've done our investigative work, she was the long time assistant director of a daycare center where we took our older child, so we feel as comfotable with her as we would any licensed caregiver, probably more. Does that mean we don't have misgivings from time to time, or question the way something's been done? Of course we do. Nobody's perfect, and she has to make judgement calls daily. When we have questions about the way something was handled, we ask her. Just because you place your kids in someone elses care, doesn't mean you get to stop parenting.
This kind of institutional "oversight" is scary and dangerous. It's turning us into a society that subjugates our responsibilities to the state. We are close to having a society that can in no way take care of itself without government.
rant over.
(sorry)
