Best Interview Questions for Hiring a Nanny or Babysitter

By Stacy DeBroff

As I am sure you are nodding your head in agreement with me, finding a great babysitter can be a tremendous challenge. You want someone competent, caring, and compatible with your family – but it can be hard to discern these qualities from an interview alone. Asking the right questions can help you find a fabulous nanny or sitter who will be with you for years to come.

Below are the best interview questions as excerpted from my parenting book, The Mom Book: 4,278 Tips for Moms.

Ask for more details on experience, education, and future plans:

Ask about the children and employers from each of her previous positions, including what she most liked and disliked at each job. Think about how you fit in with her preferences, since your working relationship with her will be almost as important as her relationship with your children.

Ask about her child-rearing philosophies and see how they compare with yours. Give her a few hypothetical situations involving difficult behavior, and ask her what she would do.

Tell me about your background, where you grew up, and a little bit about your family.

Why did you go into childcare? (Look for someone whose answers reflect a love of children.)

What’s your favorite part of being with children the age as mine? What are some of your favorite activities to do with a child this age?

How do you deal with your frustrations while working?

How do you think your former employers would describe you to me?

Do you still sit for any of your former employers?

Ask questions to help you learn more about the babysitter as a person:

In order to find about more about her as a person, try this fail-safe question. If had your 3 best friends here with me now, what would they tell me about you as a person? The candidates answers are always so revealing about her personality, how she is perceived by those closest to her, and what she thinks about herself.

How would you describe your temperament?

How organized do you consider yourself to be?

What do you consider your strengths and weaknesses?

How organized do you consider yourself to be?

What do you do with your spare time? (Look for a nanny with varied interests that match your child’s.)

Do you have any special talent or skills?

Of what personal accomplishments are you most proud?

Do you have any ongoing medical issues? Allergies?

Ask about her schedule and flexibility:

Can you work the days and hours I need? How many hours a week would be ideal for you?

When could you start?

How long would you like the job to last?

Do you have significant outside commitments, such as another job, school, or children of your own? How do you manage your children’s care while you work?

Do you have any vacations already planned for the upcoming year, and if so, for what dates?

If I needed you to, could you work late nights or weekend hours?

If I find that as we go along I need to shift hours or days of the week to better accommodate my work schedule, would that be a problem for you?

How will you commute to work?

Could you stay overnight with my child if I go away for business travel or vacation?

Would you be willing to go with us on family vacations to help (paid, of course), or to take personal vacation at the times when our family is away?

If you need her to drive as part of her job:

Do you own a car? What type of car do you drive (make, year)? If she has driven her car, take a glance at its appearance.

Are you insured? Do you wear a seatbelt when you drive?

Always end an interview by offering to answer the candidate’s questions.

Write down your impressions and feelings about each candidate immediately after meeting with her.

Keep contact information for your top candidates in case your first choice does not work out and you have to go back to the list.

Make time for your child to meet your top candidate to see how they interact.

Lastly, don’t make the mistake of doing all the talking during an interview. Ask open-ended questions and try not to appear critical of her answers. The more comfortable your tone, the more information a candidate will share about herself.

Print out this list to keep handy, and let the interviews begin!