BIOGRAPHY:
As a four-time entrepreneur, mother, grandmother, foster mother, writer, Country/Western dance instructor and home daycare provider I've found that the same rules I taught the preschoolers apply all the way to the Supreme Court.. You can do what you want until your behavior harms someone else. When I learned this was the main mantra of the Libertarian Party, I knew I agreed.
Experience has taught me that government interference rarely improves anything and often harms someone. All of my professions have had government interference. Thankfully, they didn't get a foothold in the dancing or daycare professions, the former being very profitable and the latter being so necessary.
Daycare is one area where government intervention can be demonstrated as a detriment. Daycare is such a needed commodity and government attempts to regulate it "to protect the innocent" have the potential to make it more costly and less available.
* I was nearly driven out of business when I approached Streetsboro for a permit to
continue daycare in my home.
* When I applied for state certification, I was given rules I could not abide by.
1) The code required that I use a bleach solution to wash equipment used by infants. I love bleach, but I would never use it on an item where a baby might pick up its residue.
2) The code stated I was not to allow a child to go to sleep with a bottle. Being a good mommy I never did this. However, one two-year-old in my care carried a bottle with her everywhere. At nap time I took it away when she fell asleep. This child's mother had recently been killed. I was not about to take her bottle away. The bureaucrats told me to ignore this and other things in the code I disagreed with. I said I had pursued certification to show the mothers I was a law-abiding citizen. The code made me a law-breaker.
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Most laws make law breakers of good citizens. Criminals are already law breakers, so laws don't generally affect them except those that deal with the consequences of getting caught.
The parents of the children in my daycare and myself were in the best position to decide what rules I and the children would follow.
If ballroom instructors had their way, Country/Western dancing would never have existed. I've often said
C/W is ballroom without the rules. I also say dancing should relieve stress, not add to it. These rules are like laws. They're not necessary. Perfectionists will seek to improve their skills, but others won't be made to feel inadequate if you don't demand pretentious rules. Dancing is not brain surgery. Risk of harm is slight. The only "rules" should be those that protect the dancers. The benefit from exercise is valuable. The cost and stress from tightening rules would lessen participation and enjoyment of the sport.