Interview Questions to ask Potential Babysitter?

anon

Wed, Jun 06 2007, 10:16 am

I'm trying to hire a babysitter for the first time. I have someone coming over this evening for an interview, but I'm at a loss of what to ask her!

Any suggestions?

(This is for a 3 month old baby)

shalhevet

Wed, Jun 06 2007, 10:36 am

What does she plan to do with the baby? Will she take him/her out or ignore them (don't ask that straight out!) And when s/he's older? Does she support nursing (if you are planning to pump and/or continue nursing)? What experience does she have? What other things do you expect her to do in the house (you need to ask yourself this before as well)?

You should be able to get a gut feeling about her. Is she warm? Friendly? Intelligent? See how she reacts to the baby too. Does she coo over him/her or ignore them. Does she seem responsible?

Anyway check her out. I once had someone come to interview to babysit my children in the afternoons. Her husband is someone very choshuva and she made a very good impression. She was a middle aged woman with a large family of her own. It all was perfect. But something just seemed weird and I couldn't put my finger on it. I checked out and it turned out that she'd had severe PND after the last birth and people thought it would be therapeutic for her to go out of the house and work a bit because she wasn't functioning properly. shock

gold21

Wed, Jun 06 2007, 2:56 pm

I would look into her :call some references, ask people about her.
(this is like a shidduch, u know?)
on an interview, I would just shmooze about things to get a feel for her personality....and ask her questions about things that are important to you to make sure that you have similar views on childcare etc

mimivan

Tue, Sep 25 2007, 7:36 pm

If she has her own children ask her what she would do if chas v'shalom one of her own kids get sick? It should be worked out ahead of time. Watchher with the baby...follow your gut feeling