Questions to Ask the Other Family in a Nanny Share

Getting your nanny share in place is a two-step process. You need the fabulous nanny, and you need the compatible family.

Before you pick any family with a few shared interests, you should make sure that together you’re a good management team.

You’ll want someone you respect, find trustworthy, and with whom you can create a great co-existence. After all, you will be managing an employee, and raising your children together.

Here are some great questions and discussion topics to ask a potential nanny share family. Use these to generate your own questions to really get a feel for the other family’s personality, house set-up, communication style, and parenting style.

Overall Logistics

Where do you live?
How old are your kids?
What hours do you work?
Are you hoping to host the nanny share at your house, share it, or would you feel comfortable with it outside of your home entirely?
What hourly rate are you looking to pay?
Have you had a nanny before?
What type of characteristics are you looking for in a nanny?
For how long are you hoping to have a nanny share? Would you plan to continue with the share if you had more children? What if we both had more children?

Personality Feelers

How would you describe yourselves?
How would your friends describe you?
How would you describe your child(ren)?
How would you describe your parenting style?
Do you have any reservations about getting a nanny?
What do you like to do for fun?
What have been some pet peeves you’ve had with a previous nanny, sitter, dog walker or housekeeper? How have you handled these situations?
How do you like to communicate directions, updates and concerns (text, email, face-to-face)?
Say our nanny has left the kitchen a mess repeatedly and left some stinky diapers in the garbage, how would you handle this with them?
If my child were to bite/hit your child, how would you want me to handle it?
Say you have an issue with the nanny we hire and you’re very upset about it. How would you like me to support you?
If our nanny is late on a regular basis, how would you want to handle it?
What are issues you would fire a nanny for?

House & Management Questions

How would you want to handle the cost of food and activities?
What type of rules do you feel you’d want to put in place for the nanny we hire?
How do you want to handle a sick child?
Daycare rules, or treat kids as if they’ve all been exposed anyway?
How do you want to handle a sick nanny?
How sick is too sick for her to work?