Finding the perfect nanny for your family isn’t always easy. After all, it’s a significant responsibility that you can’t entrust to just anyone. As such, vetting candidates, and ensuring that you can trust them with not only the well-being of your child, but also their emotional and intellectual development can be a long process.
However, the good news is that with the right strategies in place, and a little bit of determination, you will find the perfect nanny who is the perfect fit for your family. Here’s how to get started on your search.
Write a Clearly Defined Advertisement
Before putting your advertisement out there, you’ll need to make sure that you’ve clearly defined what it is that you’re after. You need to spell out your needs and expectations so that you can weed out the people who won’t be the best choice. Make sure that you mention everything from the hours you’re looking for someone to commit to, to any relevant experience you require them to have.
The more transparent you can be about what it is you’re looking for, and what you expect, the less likely you are to waste your time interviewing candidates who are not realistically the right fit for you and your family.
Conduct Background Checks
One of the most important things you need to do when choosing someone to take care of your child is to conduct thorough background checks. Safety is critical when it comes to your children, because you don’t want to hand them off to just anyone. Background checks are available by paying a small fee online, and are well worth it when you have the peace of mind knowing that someone taking care of your kids doesn’t have a criminal history.
In addition to official background checks, you also want to check their references. Call and get a feel for who it is that you’re going to be potentially working with. Don’t be afraid to ask questions like whether they’re reliable and someone you should trust with your children. If it’s a good reference, then they’ll be willing to answer any questions you have.
Have a Trial Period
Even though you may be positive that you found the right person, a trial period is not only encouraged, but necessary. That way you can get a feel for how things will work long term, and see first hand how they interact with your children, and if they respect your rules and schedule requests. Chances are they will be more than willing to agree to this, as you never know when it might not be the right fit. This gives everyone the opportunity to feel things out, and ultimately decide whether you’ll be working together permanently. Also, it gives your children the opportunity to see how they feel, since their opinion matters as well.
