A Few Pieces of Advice

One of the most important things you do before you hire a nanny is make sure you get at least three references. Make sure you contact all of these references and ask them specific questions about her performance. Ask them if they would hire her again, if they liked how she handled the children, why she left, and any other little bits of information that you can think of. If you can not get a hold of the three references ask for some more references until you talk to three people.

Have the nanny fill out an application just like she would have to at any other place of employment. Make sure you get all of the vital information like her birth date, social security number, and other names she may have gone by in the past. Get her college school name and any other schooling she may have had in the past. Ask her to list her last five employers. Make sure that these employers are not from the three references. Also get in contact with these people to see how well she performed at her job there. Get the phone number, address, and name of the previous employer.

If you decide to do a background check on her you need to let her know and have her sign a piece of paper authorizing you to do a background check on her. Make sure that you see if she is hesitant to sign the paper. If she is then she might be hiding something from her past. Can you really trust a person who may be hiding something from a person she will be working for? If you do not feel comfortable trusting her around your kids then do not hire her.

Check the information that she gave you to her previous places of employment. Make sure that the information matches up correctly. Call the relative and make sure that she is really related to them. If she is not related to them then she is obviously lying to you, and if she feels comfortable lying to you now she will keep on doing and just get more comfortable lying to you in the future.

If you find that all of the information checks out with the person but you are still a little leery of hiring her then do not hire her. You need to hire a person that you can trust which your children. Also before you hire the nanny make sure the children are comfortable around her. There is nothing worse than hiring a nanny who if perfect but the children do not like her. If the children do not like her than they are not going to listen to her very well. So make sure that the children like her that way you will get respect from both the nanny and your children.