A few years ago we had just had our second child and my husband/stay at home dad had just decided to re-enter the workforce so that we could get buy a house. With that we were at a loss for childcare and needed to find someone to watch the children. We looked at various daycare centers and decided that that was not exactly what we wanted and came to the financial realization that with two kids the financial burden between daycare and nanny was about equal. We were fortunate enough to hire a friends sister for the summer but as her time wained we started our nanny search.
I’m sure that nanny services have their place but we decided to go it on our own and use Craigslist. When I first started I would get a resume and references from almost everyone who wrote back to me. I even dragged quite a few of them out for in person interviews only to find that our ideas of raising kids were not quite compatible. Quickly I learned that there was no need to have in person interviews, at a neutral location, usually Starbucks, until I found out a little more information so I came up with the following list of questions that I would shoot back to the potential nanny when he/she e-mailed with interest in the position.
- Describe your last childcare experience and why it ended.
- What was a typical day like?
- What do you think children like best about you?
- What was your worst experience in childcare and how did you resolve it?
- Can you give me some other examples of problems you have had with kids and how you handled them?
- What would you say is your discipline style?
- Can you give me some examples of when/if you would need to use discipline with a 2.5 year old child?
- Tell me about when you had to handle a crying baby? What did you do? How did you feel?
- What do you consider to be your most important responsibility in this job?
- Why have you chosen to work with children?
- What do you find to be the most challenging (or interesting) part of working with children?
- Do you have any medical training CPR etc…
- Have you ever had to handle an emergency? How did you handle it?
- Would you be able to adjust your schedule if we need to stay late at work from time to time?
- Do have any relationships which might interfere with your ability to do you job?
- What do you like to do in your spare time? Hobbies, activities?
- What was your best or most rewarding child care experience?
I found that once I had the answers to these questions I could get a sense of wether or not they would be a good fit for our family. If they were not a fit I’d thank them for their time and move on but if they were I would schedule a phone interview to dig deeper into some of their answers. After the phone interviews if were were compatible I got references, checked them and if they checked out I scheduled an in person interview for them to come meet the kids. We did this with only 3 potential nannies and chose the one who is still with us today. She is amazing and during her time with us she has had a wonderful child of her own whom she brings with her. She is one of the kindest and most fun people I know. My children love her dearly and she has really become part of our family.
What have your experiences been in trying to hire a nanny or secure child care?
What great advice. Hiring a nanny is so stressful, especially when that first day back at work is looming ever closer. I found two wonderful people to take care of T, but I found them through word-of-mouth. Of course, I always found it incredibly disheartening when people told me that's how they found their nannies!
What a great list of interview questions! I have to bookmark this for our next interview process!