I shared a little while back about our plans to do a nanny share. You can read all about it here. It was all fun and games talking about finding our perfect nanny, but actually interviewing candidates and deciding on the perfect fit wasn’t quite as easy. Finding someone that you’ll trust with your brand new baby is hard!

To start, I used Mrs. Bee’s nanny interview questions. These were a great jumping off point – we added, removed and adjusted questions to fit our specific situation. Once we agreed on our needs with the other family (days, hours, etc) it was time to find some nannies to interview!

We put a call to action on our Facebook walls to see if anyone we knew might have a nanny to recommend. As it turned out, one of our friends was no longer going to need her nanny once September started, and she couldn’t stop singing her praises. We’ll call her Nanny #1.

Nanny #1
Hearing so many good things, we quickly set up an interview with Nanny #1. Going into it I felt great – having a friend make a recommendation made me more comfortable at the thought of having someone with Baby H.

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Initially we liked Nanny #1. She is young and energetic. In a previous job, she had watched newborn twins. So certainly she could handle our babies! But the more we talked, the less confident she seemed about things. She didn’t seem sure as to whether or not she could get both babies on a nap schedule. She also had a back problem that occasionally flared up. While we were glad she was upfront about this issue, she also seemed very concerned about being able to lift two growing babies.

After the interview, we debated about going forward. If we hired Nanny #1 and she quit on us a week later because of her back, I would feel so guilty because we were the ones who had found the nanny! As we debated things, Nanny #1 actually emailed us and declined moving forward, as she was too concerned about her back. So, it was back to the drawing board!

We decided to post an ad on a local Chicago web site called Neighborhood Parents Network (NPN). It’s a great resource for many things, including finding nannies! In fact, it was through NPN that we found the family we’re doing the share with. We received quite a few emails about the position and set up interviews with the top four. However, as it turned out one nanny received an offer right before our interview, so we only ended up interviewing three.

Nanny #2
We really liked her and noticed she was very assertive and not afraid to share her thoughts on what we should/shouldn’t be doing with our babies (case in point: she noticed that we were both standing there, rocking back and forth as our babies fell asleep. She encouraged us to stop rocking them for naps). She seemed incredibly knowledgeable about infants and appeared comfortable with the challenge of getting them both onto schedules.

Nanny #2 did one of the most important things (in my book) – she asked plenty of questions about each of the babies. She wanted to know about them just as much as she wanted to know about the specifics of the position. At the same time, she knew exactly what position she was interviewing for (nanny share, three days a week).

Also helpful was the fact that her English was almost perfect! While not originally from the states, her accent is pretty minimal as she was easy to communicate with in person and over email.

We liked her, but wanted to have a few more interviews under our belt for comparison.

Nanny #3
We interviewed her immediately after Nanny #2. We were a bit disappointed right off the bat. While a very nice woman, her English was not very good and it was difficult to have a conversation with her. This set off alarm bells in my head right away because I want to be able to easily share information back and forth about Baby H. This is critical (in my book) to ensure we are all on the same page about napping, first foods, sickness, etc.

Beyond the communication barriers, Nanny #3 didn’t know that she was interviewing for a nanny share (although our ad was quite clear). When asked if it was something she was interested in, she hesitated and then said that she “could try.” Obviously we needed someone to be on board 100% with taking care of two babies! We swiftly wrapped up the interview, as this wasn’t a good fit all around.

Nanny #4
A couple of days later we had our final interview. Yet again, this nanny seemed like a really nice woman but there were language barriers. She immediately pulled out glowing reference letters from past families and pictures of the children she had helped raise (she was with one family for 10 years!). However, we encountered yet again an uncertainty about doing a nanny share. When asked if she could help get the babies on a schedule ,she let us know that if we told her the schedule she would follow it. Unfortunately we needed an active participant in helping to develop the schedule!

Nanny #2 was looking better and better! I think we probably knew immediately after the interview that she was a good find, but sometimes you need to see what else is out there. Comparing Nanny #2 to all of the rest, we knew that she was going to be the nanny for us. We quickly contacted her to share how much we liked her and to get information for her references. We talked about hourly rate and expectations for vacation days, sick days and paid holidays. Her hourly rate was about $1/hour higher than we had been planning to pay, but we decided not to try and negotiate based on how good of a nanny we felt she was.

Once her references shared amazing things about her, we sent over a contract which outlined important factors, including:

  • Days/hours she will work and compensation
  • Paid time off specifics
  • How much notice she is required to give us if she quits, and how much notice we would give her if we terminate the contract
  • Reasons we can terminate her position at any time (lying, stealing, etc)
  • Expectations for what she will do with the children (provide a stimulating environment, take to approved classes, clean up after the children, etc)

Having a contract in place protects all of us – it ensures we won’t fire her for absolutely no reason with no notice, and outlines exactly what our expectations are so that she isn’t taken by surprise by anything in the future.

I am happy to report that Nanny #2 a.k.a. Nanny C started yesterday for her first full day with the girls! Seeing her again reminded me why we chose her – she is very warm and seems so confident and comfortable with the girls! While the first day was rough (our Baby H is not a great napper!), I’m confident that things will get better and better as days go on.

What did you look for when hiring a nanny?