Finding a Sitter/Nanny

Hi Everyone,
We need to find non-family member sitter for our boys. We would probably use this person 1-2/week and as needed, subject to change with the birth of our new baby (when the baby is born we will also have a post-partum doula).
We have never used a non-family member sitter other than the doula we used when they first came home from the NICU.
How did you go about finding a good person? I have to say, I hate the thought of bringing a stranger in, but we really need to. We cannot always rely on family and there have been times when all family members are attending the same function and we're left in a predicament.
Did you advertise online (ex. care.com, sittercity.com...), did you get recommendations from friends, did you go through a MOTC? Did you require or do background checks? How many references did you call? Did you stay home with the sitter the first time she watched the LOs?
What are key questions to ask? What are red flags you have seen?
What is the going rate for twin toddlers (I know this can differ by geographical location)?
What else do I need to think about?
Thanks so much!

 

We've gone through the nanny hiring process twice and used an online member service called Sitter City. It is a national site but I'm not sure where you live or if it is very active in your area. We posted an ad there and then looked through the profiles of everyone that responded. We picked the top 10 or so and setup brief phone interviews with them. Since a few took other jobs or flaked on the phone interview we really only did maybe 6 or 7 calls, then we picked the top 3 or 4 for in-person interviews. Again, you may get 1 or 2 people that change their mind or take another job. I think that works in your favor to weed out unreliable people. We were very clear in the ad about the hours, duties, and pay so we didn't waste a lot of time with people that had shedule conflicts or wanted more money. Rates here are usually $10-$15 per hour, with the lower end typically being younger and less experienced. Those would be typical for full-time work, but I think $10-$12/hr for occasional babysitting is normal here.

Sitter City performs criminal background checks. We asked a lot to get to know the people but I think it's important to ask if they know CPR (many are certified), what they would do if your child was sick or injured, what they like about being a nanny, what do the imagine the typical day to be like. When we were hiring for infant care a couple of candidates would say they wanted to do sports in the park and arts and crafts. Those are great but it showed who was realistic about what infants are capable of and what they typically do every day - not sports!

 

We have gone through the process twice now and have gone through word of mouth references only. The first one we used we took the girls to her house. Interview was good. House was nice and tidy and the more we took the girls (we used her 1-2 days/week) the more red flags ended up coming up.. like she would have more and more children in her care, her house was very far from babyproofed... those types of things..

We now have someone that comes to our house and she has been wonderful so far.. only thing is that I am due to have a baby in less than two weeks and when I asked her if she was comfortable with that she replied "I should be okay, but I'll let you know if I can't handle it.."... though I appreciate her honesty, it sent up the first red flag we have seen with her. The other red flag that I have begun to look for is if they bring a lot of their personal lives into our home.. For me, I don't want to be friends with our nanny.. I don't want to know if you are having financial problems, boyfriend trouble, etc... that has been the only other put off for me for our current childcare provider. It makes me wonder if they can keep a good eye on our children if they have all of this drama in their own lives affecting their work...

We are currently thinking about trying out Sitter City just to be on the safe side with finding someone in case something happens with our current nanny.. oh and the other thing I am thinking about doing with our current nanny is having her come for a half paid day to our house and get a feel for how she is handling 3 kiddos instead of two while I am still on my maternity leave...

When we were originally searching for a nanny we did many phone interviews and used a list of college students that were interested in doing childcare.. Not one of them seemed quite old enough, responsible enough, or mature enough to handle twins at the time.... needless to say we will not be using the same list of people when looking for another nanny for 3 under 16 months!!!!!!

I really don't like going through this process!!!!!!!

 

We recently used care.com to find a sitter and that has worked very well for us. I too hated the idea of it being a stranger, but we don't have any family here to ask. I have hired two different sitters from there and so far our experiences have been positive.

I agree with the others----some people will flake out even before the interview. What I have done is to first ask a lot of questions via email to get an idea of how interested they are in the job. I ask things like "Why do enjoy working with children?" "What interests you about this particular job?" and so on.
I call all the references and ask questions about reliability, etc. Then I do an in-person interview at the park or someplace like that.

We live on kind of a tight budget and I can't offer the same kind of pay many other families can, so I am upfront about that and let them know what I can't offer in pay I can offer in flexibility. Thankfully, I have a work from home job, so I am actually here while the sitter is here. With our last sitter I felt comfortable enough to sometimes leave to run errands, do work outside of the home, etc.

I hope that helps. It's a hard process. Hugs to you! My experiences with care.com have been good, and I really love that they do background checks, etc.

Good luck! Feel free to PM me if you want!

 

Thanks, ladies.
I have someone coming over today that I found via care.com. This will be the second interview via that site. The first one seemed good, but she needs to bring her 15 month old, too. At first I wasn't against it, but the more we thought about it, it isn't the right situation for us.
Anyway, you've given me good ideas for questions to ask.
I think DH and I will get a good feel right away for if she's a good candidate and we'll go from there.

 

for what its worth we have never had a non family babysitter (not even for our 9 year old) because we have my mom and sister and my inlaws all within 7 miles of us. Its a blessing. However I do have a couple of girls "on call" so to speak if there ever comes a time that for somereason we can't get a family sitter. I got those girls 1 from recomendations from like 7 of my best friends who all use her and the other is a girl I babysat growing up who is now grown and an elementry school teacher. Go with your gut. I personally would be more comfortable using someone that my friends use because I know that we all have the same parenting styles etc but if your not lucky enough to have a ton of mom friends then I can see using care.com and theres another sitter service I have seen advertised on tv.