How to find a good nanny or babysitter? Talk amongst yourselves.

Any advice for Patrick on finding a trustworthy babysitter?

We are just starting to look for a babysitter or part-time nanny for our 2 kids (4YO and 2YO) - up to now it's just been family helping us out.

I found a few links on questions to ask (see below) that I thought you might want to share.  Also it would be great to hear about other experiences people have had and suggestions that might assist in this process.

http://www.babysitters.com/interviewsitter.aspx
http://www.printablechecklists.com/checklist95.shtml

I wish I had some useful advice -- I'm blessed with wonderfully helpful grandparents nearby. My friends always start with personal recommendations and then move on to Craig's List. Amberlynn recently wrote to me about an alternative:

I just learned about CallforSitters.com, a babysitting network that looks great. In my area, it listed 192 sitters. Whoa. Each sitter has a profile, so I can learn more about them before I even decide to interview them. It's great for babysitters, too, as they don't have to re-list their ad when it expires like they would on Craigslist.

She hasn't used the service herself (and would love to know if anyone has), but did pass along this interview with the founder of CallforSitters.com for those who are interested.

Tags: Baby, Babysitters, Childcare, Nannies, Parenting, Toddler

Comments

[Casey]

http://sittercity.com is another online site. While it is a pay site, it does include a "review" area where parents can comment on particular sitters and give them ratings. These can be very helpful (i.e. "Didn't show up for scheduled babysitting"). You can try it out for free to get an idea of who is available in your area.

[Christy]

Do your kids go to any preschool, classes or playgroups? I would ask some other parents and go by word of mouth first, just to hone in on a couple of possibilities and then look them up on the review sites.

[Roger Kaplan]

Don't trust websites. Use your network instead. Only accept personal references, meaning someone who will be upset at losing your trust.

Interview the babysitter thoroughly and trust your gut. Have trusted friends/family members at the interview. At work we don't hire someone until at least a half-dozen people interview them, why should this be different?

Start slowly. Have the babysitter babysit while you're in the neighborhood, and slowly increase the time and distance.

Don't skimp. Try to figure out what the going rate is and then beat it. An extra $10-20 for a session will create a very important sense of loyalty.

[mad muthas]

someone nice and calm, who doesn't have friends in other continents that she/he might want to call up, who's a good laugh and who reads stories. that would be a start ....

[Marthachick]

Whatever you do, make sure you do a thorough background check. We had a candidate who seemed promising -- I'd almost lined her up for a trial period -- when I stumbled across her MySpace page with tale after tale of how high she is, that guy she slept with, what a brat her clients' child was...

Get their email address and full name and google the heck out of them. Then also check the various My Space, Friendster, Facebook, etc.

We ended up going through a nanny placement service, but even THEY didn't know about checking online diary sites.

[Jill]

The colleges and universities here in Atlanta have babysitting networks. For a small fee you get access to a prescreened and Red Cross certified list of potential sitters who are college age. I also get the names and numbers of the lifeguards at our neighborhood pool each summer. When the pool is closed they're less busy, and I know they've got good qualifications.

[AW]

So far we've had great success with finding nannies Craigs list (in Portland OR), and have learned a few things:

1) Be very specific in your ad about what you are looking for. Outline the hours you need (down to the day, if possible). If the nanny will need to drive or not need to drive, say this. If you work at home, mention this. If you don't want the nanny to bring other children with her/him, specify that. By being narrow, I was able to get fewer, but better, candidates and really save time and energy on the process. Also emphasize the positive - for example, if you live in a great neighborhood for walking, mention that.

2) Background checks (you can do these in seconds on the internet at sites like intelius.com) are essential - we eliminated several candidates who seemed completely promising because of poor driving records or other violations. The $65 to run a full check is well worth it. One thing I learned by accident is to run a background check before you check references; that way if you find something unusual that you can't identify (Misc offense), you can ask the references if they ran a background check and no.

3) References -require at least 2 to 3 childcare references (2 of which should be as a nanny)

4) In my experience, if you are looking for a nanny, be sure the person has nanny experience, not just child care/day experience - someone who has already been a nanny will make the process less painful for you. I usually require at least 2 nanny jobs for candidates.

5) Do a phone pre-screen before you have someone interview in person to get a feel.

6) As other posters have said, even if you have never hired a nanny/babysitter - trust your gut - even if the person seems perfect, if someone seems not quite right, move on.

7) Even if your child is quite little or cannot talk, try to schedule the interview while he or she is there to see how the nanny interacts. With one interview I had, the candidiate nanny (who had over 10 years of experience), ignored my child when he handed her book, not even acknowledging him or smiling.

8) After you hire the person, do a trial basis (a week or so), preferably when you can be there for at least a half a day doing chores or other things, available for questions or things you've forgotten to tell them.

9) Do a nanny book that outlines your child's schedules, routines, favorite activities, foods, info on an emergencies etc. I also find it great to have a daily log for the nanny to fill out during the day that outlines what they ate and when, activities and cool things that happened, naptimes, notes to the parents, injuries that occurred, medications taken, etc. We also write notes to each other about supplies we need

10) Make the nanny comfortable and welcome as possible - draw maps to the park, library, grocery store, etc., suggest actitivies. Ask for suggestions or ideas to improve things . . .

[MoMo]

Depending on where you live, maybe something like this would be helpful -- http://www.meetthenanny.com/about_us.php.

[Trent]

We found our two babysitters by observing the people at the daycare center. We looked for individuals that our child bonded with that seemed upbeat and seemed to interact well with others in our child's peer group. Once we identified someone, we asked other parents about that particular daycare worker. After all of this, we finally asked the worker if she was interested in some extra work, or if she could recommend someone, adding in the fact that we wanted her because we saw our child bond with her so well. In both cases, the person was flattered and we wound up with two good sitters.

[Kathy]

Definitely use this site. Ive found great sitters from it- never had a problem. My sister in law uses them as well in another city and says the same thing!Hope this helps someone!
http://ktvb239.babysitter.hop.clickbank.net/
Thanks- Kathy

[Nannies In Canada]

No agency fees!
The agency specializes in long term placement of foreign Live-in nannies, caregivers with professional families seeking high quality child or elderly care.

[Nannies in Canada]

No agency fees!
The agency specializes in long term placement of foreign Live-in nannies, caregivers with professional families seeking high quality child or elderly care.
http://www.nannycanada.ca

[Nanny]

http://www.nannyavailable.com is another online site. look for nanny

[nanny services]

For parents, http://www.nannyservices.ca is the easy way to track down the best nanny for you. Nannies can register their profiles for free, and get offers of nanny jobs.

[Sheila]

Thanks for the article. You can also check out Nannytoyou.com for free nanny jobs and nanny database.

www.nannytoyou.com

[Sheila]

Thanks for sharing this article. To find free nanny jobs, you can also check out Nannytoyou.com for free online database of thousands of nanny jobs. Hope this one helps.

http://www.nannytoyou.com

[Bob]

I use http://www.nannypro.com to find babysitters in my area. So far it has been really great.

[nanny]

great web site in the UK for nanny search http://www.NannyBabysitter.co.uk