How to Interview a Nanny

Picking a nanny to care for your child is a stressful, taxing process. While finding the perfect employee to fill any job is always a challenge, the emotions involved in selecting someone to care for your child on a long-term basis further complicate the process of finding the perfect nanny. And the stakes for finding the perfect nanny are even higher than finding the perfect employee in most other situations - this is, after all, the person with whom you will be entrusting your child's welfare in your absence!

Given all of this, it is vital that you conduct the best possible interview of your nanny candidates. Yet even if you regularly conduct job interviews at work, interviewing someone to care for your child is simply a different dynamic, and one that may stymie even the most seasoned interviewers. Here is a guide to demystify and guide you through this challenging process.

Experience

When your child's wellbeing is a stake, you don't want someone learning on the job, so look for someone with prior childcare experience. But keep in mind that years of experience as a professional nanny is not the only experience that is valuable. While it may be ideal to find someone who has logged multiple years as a professional nanny, someone who has spent time caring for a younger sibling or niece or nephew may have all the experience you need.

To probe a potential nanny's prior experience, ask the following types of questions:

1. Have you ever been a nanny before? If so, for how long?

TIP: If you are interviewing someone who has been a professional nanny before, ask how long that person was employed by the last family for whom she worked. If it was a relatively brief engagement, that may raise a redflag. Find out why the nanny left her last family and be sure to contact that family for a reference.

2. What were the ages of the children for whom you cared? Have you ever cared for a child who is

3. How many children did you care for? Have you ever cared for [number of children you have] at once?

4. Are you CPR and First-aid certified? (If not, and if you otherwise like the person, think about offering to pay for CPR and First-aid classes.)

Childcare Philosophy

One of the most important things in interviewing a potential nanny is to ensure that the person you select to care for your child will treat your child in accordance with your childcare philosophy.

1. Describe your approach to childrearing/childcare.

2. How would you deal with particular issues, such as separation anxiety, temper tantrums, or sibling jealousy?

4. What is your approach to discipline?

TIP: When discussing childcare philosophy, there may be a tendency to speak in abstractions, which can obscure how a person would actually act in practice. For each of the above questions, be sure to ask if the potential nanny has confronted that issue before and ask for an example of a previous incident and how she handled it.

5. Describe your previous work situation and some of the rules that you feel worked well and some that did not.

6. Would you be willing to follow my rules and childcare principles even if they differ from yours?

Day-to-Day Routines

1. If you become my child's nanny, what would you have my child doing on any given day?

2. What are some of the activities that you like to do with a child who is

TIP: If you work from home, make sure that the nanny is comfortable caring for your child while you are in the house and will be able to keep your child happily occupied while you are home without constantly interrupting your work.

Logistics

1. Where do you live and how do you plan on getting to work?

This question may seem irrelevant and intrusive. But it is important for you to know that your child's nanny has a reliable means of transportation to work each morning. For example, if a potential nanny lives far away and plans on driving to work on a busy route, traffic may be a factor that may impede the nanny's ability to consistently arrive at work on time each morning.

2. Will you be able to arrive at work by [__] each morning? Will you be able to stay until [__] at night?

3. Can you be flexible with your hours? What if I am running late from work?

If you work outside the home, it is important to know if a potential nanny has any commitments at the end of the day, in the event that you are running late. For instance, if a potential nanny has to pick her own child up from day care at a certain time or plans on working a second job in the evenings, she may not have the flexibility to stay late on short notice if something unexpected arises for you.

4. Would you be available to work evenings or weekends?

5. If you become my child's nanny, do you plan on holding any other jobs?

If a potential nanny plans on working a second job in the evenings or on the weekends, you should know in advance. This means that you will not be able to ask the nanny to stay late on certain nights in the event that you have to work late or just want a night out on the town with your spouse. Even if this is not a problem for you, you should verify that the second job will not interfere with the potential nanny's childcare duties.

6. Are you willing to do chores around the house while my [baby is napping] [child is in school]?

7. When do you expect to take a vacation?

It is vital that you set vacation expectations up front. And this does not just mean the total amount of vacation time that the nanny may take, but when the nanny will be able to take the time you give her. If the nanny can only take vacation when you are able to take off from work, make sure you say so up front. You don't want to get into a situation down the road where your nanny plans a vacation at a time that you cannot take off from work, leaving you to scramble for replacement childcare.

Spend Time With The Child

At the end of the interview, have the prospective nanny spend some one-on-one time with your child. This is your opportunity to evaluate how the prospective nanny interacts with your child and how your child responds to her. The chemistry between them is extremely important, and can end up being the deciding factor one way or another.

References

Don't forget to ask for references from the prospective nanny's former employers and, most importantly, make sure you call all of the references with which you are provided. And don't let the nanny candidate provide you with references selectively. Ask for the contact information of at least her three most recent employers.

When you speak to the references, don't just ask how they liked the nanny in general. Rather, ask for specific examples of things they liked about the nanny, any problems they had with her, and how the nanny handled specific situations. Also be sure to verify why the nanny left their employ.