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?
(If using their house is an option)
- Does your house have two separate quiet places for the children to nap, and storage for extra gear?
- Has your home been baby-proofed?
Family Philosophies
- What is your discipline style (or what do you plan for it to be?)
- How would you want the nanny to discipline our kids?
- What are your technology policies? Is TV okay for your child(ren)?
- Is everyone vaccinated?
- What are your rules about treats, snacks, and eating on-the-go?
- What are your guidelines on napping on-the-go?
- How would you want kid-disputes (over sharing, pushing, etc.) handled?
- Do certain political beliefs offend you in any way?