On Breast Feeding and Housekeeping

Katy Grimes: We all know that the government is infringing on our personal liberties more and more. Legislators just don’t seem to get the message that we want less of them, and not more of their ridiculous decisions encroaching on our parenting, personal lives and business. With the high-level of arrogance of lawmakers who impose nanny laws, mandatory therapy should be the prescription… but the elected narcissists would probably like it.

Decisions about family, education, diet, money, cars, homes… you name it, and we have been invaded by the government at every level under the guise of caring for our well-being.

And now, women having babies will be required to breast feed. Hospitals will be required to force women to breast feed, thanks to Democratic Senators Fran Pavely and Kevin DeLeon.

SB 502 would require “all general acute care hospitals and special hospitals that have perinatal units to have an infant-feeding policy and to clearly post that policy. The infant-feeding policy shall apply to all infants in a perinatal unit.”

And I thought the LaLeche League was pushy.

Most woman agree that breast feeding is a good idea. We don’t need two bossy legislators to order hospitals to require this of new mothers.

And in another area of domesticity…

In honor of Meg Whitman’s undocumented housekeeper, the “Nicky Diaz” bill is another nanny bill.  AB 889, authored by Democratic Assembly members Tom Ammiano and V. Manuel Perez would “specially regulate the wages, hours, and working conditions of domestic work employees, and would, among other things, provide a private right of action for a domestic work employee when those regulations are violated by his or her employer; provide an overtime compensation rate for domestic work employees; require annual pay increases, paid vacation, and paid sick days for domestic work employees; and require that a domestic work employer provide written notice of termination 21 days in advance.”

Currently, domestic workers are excluded from the existing law requiring an employer to carry workers’ compensation insurance. The failure to secure workers’ compensation as required by the workers’ compensation law is a misdemeanor. This bill would delete the exclusion for domestic workers.

Are homeowners and small businesses going to be required to carry workers comp insurance for housekeepers and landscapers, and pay minimum wage and adhere to all state labor laws?

The bill also states that domestic workers are required to take a break after five hours of work, and are entitled to sick pay and vacation time.

And, (hold on for this one) “A domestic work employer shall permit a domestic work employee who works five hours or more to choose the food he or she eats and to prepare his or her own meals. A domestic work employer shall permit a domestic work employee may to use the job site’s kitchen facilities and kitchen appliances without charge or deduction from pay.”

Nanny laws are offensive enough – mothers don’t need to be forced to breast feed and all hospitals already encourage new mothers to do so for the health of the newborn baby.

But AB 889 is another job killer. What is next – health insurance and matching pensions after Democratic Sen. Darrell Steinberg unionizes the domestic workers?  That’s where this is headed.

While Republicans are trying to get rid of regulations, Democrats continue imposing business-restricting regulations and liberty-stealing laws.

There are elementary schools that will not allow parents to provide a bag-lunch for kids any more. “Educators” have decided that only they are capable of feeding our children. Cities won’t let employees wear perfume to work. Smoking in public parks is banned. Hair-braiding is being regulated. Tattoo artists will need a license…. it never stops.

California Lawmakers are abusing their power by attempting to become the custodian for residents of the state, starting with our children. And in the meantime, they are killing business, killing the entrepreneurial spirit, and taking away liberties and rights. And while some of these laws sound so stupid, many of them will make it through the committee process and become law with this Democratically-controlled legislature and governor.

“Nanny, may I” is going to be a way of life if voters don’t stop this now and support regulatory reform.

APRIL 13, 2011