We are interviewing a nanny in the next few days. What questions would you ask (beyond basic experience)?
-
After having a nanny that I didn't like (but stuck with for almost a year), I think it is very important for you to know what you want, and what is important to you. Another thing is there are times questions is not going to give you answers (because they would probably say whatever you want to hear, and do the opposite when she is hired), so your observation and "gut feeling" about an individual is very important.
For me, I would want the nanny to be willing to work WITH me and take directions, and not roll her eyes on me when I ask for something, then continue to do it her way. This is quite difficult to get an "answer" because if you ask "how well do you take directions?" Of course they would say very well...
I also would like to set a rule that she will not be allowed to chat on the phone while she is here at work. Our ex-nanny chatted with her sister using our ipad facetime (I didn't say anything because her sister is in the military and was abroad... but still, can't she do it on her own time?), and chat with her friends on the phone while at work. Toward the end she even gets a blue tooth device so she just can chat nonstop while with my LO.
I would want to hire a "self-motivator": someone who is self-motivated to do work around the house when LO is sleeping - maybe they are preparing food for LO, or wiping the toys clean, instead of waiting for instructions every day.
I would also want to look beyond the baby stages - so someone who knows how to help my LO to rollover, walk, talk, jump, to the more "advanced" such as arts and crafts, reading, counting, potty training, manners, discipline ....etc.
Some questions I would ask:
- Describe a typical day with my child when he is 3 months old, 9 months old, and 20 months old.
- What do you like to do with a child on a typical day? (some people may want to take your child out all the time, to the park, to the mall...etc. Would you be ok with that?)
- How would you deal with discipline? Say, my 1 year old throws food on the floor non-stop. What would you do? Now he's almost two, and he starts hitting you and/or throwing toys. He wouldn't listen to you. What would you do?
I'll add more when I can think of more...
ETA: I know all of the details of our ex-nanny's work because I work at home and I can see what she does. Just to clarify
-
@irene: Thanks! Very helpful! She's coming on a recommendation from a friend of my parents, so I think I'll talk to them about what it was like having her as well.
-
I would ask about vacation time, sick days, summer(aren't you a teacher), what holiday's she expects to be paid for.
What kind of car does she have?
Will she take him to play groups? (so he is around other kids and gets out of the house)
Is she willing to do laundry/cleaning while he naps? (no clue if this is normal or not)
What would a day include? IE, will she make a lesson plan or just let him play all day. -
@travellingbee: One thing I want to say about this - I would actually take references with a grain of salt. Sometimes when a family terminates a relationship with their nanny, they wanted to make sure she is hired by another family asap. So they *may* give very good references. I myself was guilty of that. Our agreement was to work until LO is 1 years old and we'll go to daycare. She found this family and this family called and talked to me. While she was decent in the baby years I do have a few concerns about her (eg. not very good at taking directions if it was something that she didn't agree to), which I didn't mention it to these new employers.
I wonder if you could talk to her previous employers, not her most recent employers.
-
More questions!
I would actually spend a chunk of time asking her to describe her personality. Her hobbies, what does she like to do, what does she see herself in 5 years, 10 years (is she always going to be a nanny? Or does she working to be somewhere else?) Does she want her own family/kids? I would even ask what does she like to snack on. (she may snack in front of your LO and your LO may be interested in what she's eating. At one point our nanny were giving LO these mini candies that I wasn't very happy about. And she always makes fun of us being so "organic" and "healthy"... I mean come on.) This way you can observe and interpret what kind of person she is and if she is a right fit for your family.
I also would like to hire someone who is not super quiet/reserved too. The very quiet ones may not want to say much to your LO, which may hinder a bit on his/her language development.
OK I am done. haha!
-
I agree with @Irene that it's more of a gut feeling you get while meeting with the nanny and they will most likely just try to answer in a way that gets them the job regardless so the questions almost don't matter.
During our interviews, I asked a lot of open ended questions that just got them talking. I asked them to tell me about their previous families, what the kids were like and how they structured the days. I also cared a lot about their commute time because I didn't want someone working such long hours for us who also had a long commute. That just leads to disaster IMO.
We also asked some personal questions like how they got into being a nanny, what they liked about the profession, etc. Of course we asked if they took direction well, but they all said yes. And you could kind of pick out the ones who were fibbing, there were several type-A's who I just knew would completely ignore my instructions and do it their way.
I didn't care so much about being on the phone, when I was home with DS I would talk on the phone a lot and I didn't think it took away from the quality of care he got. If anythign it made it better since I got small breaks here and there. Being in charge of a 4 month old for 10 hours a day would get somewhat maddenning if our nanny wasn't allowed on the phone and I'm sure she would sneak it anyway (who wouldn't?) which would lead to a power struggle and problems. I just made it clear with the nanny that she needs to use a hands-free device when out with DS and we would provide it if she didn't already have one. His safety comes first, as long as she is protecting him adequately we don't care if she runs her own errands, meets up wtih a friend, etc.
Oh and one other thing - I know it's hard, but try to know ahead of time how you want things done. It's better to establish that before they are even hired so they don't start doing things one way and you have to intervene and ask them to change. For example, we thought that we stressed the importance of taking DS on walks every day, but since it wasn't specifically written down in our contract on the nanny's first day she actually didn't get him outside at all. This was absolutely devastating and I almost had a meltdown and quit my job. It was our fault though, since we didn't specify with her that it's mandatory. And of course we had to have an awkward conversation the next morning about getting him out, which she now does daily but it could have easily been avoided.
-
And definitely bring your favorites in for trial days. A lot of nannies can shine in the 1/2 hour interview, then during the trial day you might learn they actually have issues that you wouldn't want around your child. We were lucky, both of our top candidates were great in the trial days and it was actually a tough decision but we are so glad we brought them in for sure.
-
One more thing, lol. Build incentive into her compensation. During the interviews we asked what they expected to be paid per hour or per week (depending on what was more important to them). We wrote down what they said and offered our nanny on the low end of what she wanted. But we said that we would review her performance in 3 months time and give a raise if things had been going well. We also pointed out to her that we would compensate her in other ways like with a bonus for good performance. As a result she is all over us for more hours, great at her duties, going above and beyond with household chores and I'm sure the compensation incentive is the main reason.
Reply
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite1
8 comments