Thinking of recruiting a nanny - advice please

[toomuchpink]

With no experience or expectation of ever hiring a nanny I now find myself considering this option as I have a toddler and younger twins. I am looking for as much advice as possible on how to go about it. What kind of things should I put in an advert? What should I ask at interview? What should I be wary of? All insights gratefully received.

How much experience do you want the nanny to have? (How much can you afford to pay for?)

Questions:
What do they want out of nannying?
How will they cope with twins and toddler if toddler (or one of the twins) has a tantrum? Only because the first thought in my head was how would I deal with it!
How long do they want a position for? How long do you think you'll need it?
Do they have experience with twins?
Do they have any particular skills that are of interest?
Are they comfortable cooking? What would be their favourite dish to cook? What
are they really quick at dishing up? Do they have issues with certain foods? Any experience with special dietary requirements?
Do they intend on continuing professional development in some form? If so, how?

Be wary of 'self-employed' nannies, if you are after a full-time, or even part-time in most circumstances, nanny then they cannot be self employed, you will be the one lumbered with tax repayments.
Be wary of young nannies with '4-7 years experience' at 20-23yo. I say that as a young nanny!
Both of the above are common in my area.

Confusedpixie What is wrong with young nannies? I am 21, will be 22 in October and I have more than five years experience looking after children. Does that make me a bad nanny because I am young?

As a nanny I far prefer to know upfront what salary is on offer. So include the salary in the ad, or at least a range indication.

Do they need prior twins experience? As a mum of twins, did you have prior experience - no, I doubt you did. However you do have an older child, so had previous baby experience. So look at the range of experience someone may have... they may not have cared for twins before but that may not mean they could not do so.

Consider practical things - how will nanny transport all 3 children to/from activities and in future pre-school and school? If nanny is using their own car, will it fit all the carseats?

What is the nanny happy to do, duties wise? Some will expect childcare only, whilst others will be happy to muck in with anythin that needs doing around the home. Have it clear in your mind what duties you expect them to do.

Born: Nothing is wrong with them, I am one myself (as I said! I'm 22)! I said be wary of them. Maybe I should have explained more but I think it's justified when many claim they have x years experience yet give no explanation to what that experience is, leading you to assume they mean nannying experience which would be difficult at their age.
I have 6 years experience with children but explain what and when upfront (on my profiles and detailed on my CV) unlike others local to me who just say "4 years experience with children" but offer nothing else. That could be four years in a nursery, babysitting, looking after the neighbours child for an hour a week, nannying, instructing sports, working as a kids club rep, anything else or any combo of the above. All are very different jobs, require very different levels of supervision and control over a situation and very different levels of organisation and guidance.

I was in your position a few years ago and I found it useful to first think what I wanted out of the arrangement, and what were my priorities. When I just wrote down all the little and big things that were important to me, it really helped me interview nannies - I knew what I was looking for

I realised I wanted someone who was:
Friendly, professional, intelligent, able to come up with lots of suggestions about things to do / places to go, etc, someone who could get on and plan the kids days and activities by themselves. Someone with a 'can do' attitude.

I realised I cared less about:
strict routines (although I did care about nap times).
Cleaning / other duties

I realised I didn't want to:
micro-manage!

I wanted someone who would do:
lots of fun and active things with my DC,
take them to toddler groups, library, etc
cook a good, healthy main meal at lunchtime (so I could give them a 'tea' rather than a 'dinner')
do lots of crafty things (painting, model-making, messy play - things I knew I should be doing, but didn't get round to very often)
leave the kitchen and playroom clean / tidy at the end of the day.
Help out with ironing DH's shirts while the kids napped

I realised I didn't want someone to:
Clean the DC's bedrooms
Do the DC's laundry (but put the clothes to dry if they noticed them sitting in the washing machine!)
Clean the house.

When you've worked out exactly what YOU want, the interview questions are less difficult.

Oh, and one last thing. I felt very nervous about the whole 'employer' thing - tax, payslips, drawing up contracts, etc. Don't worry - there are lots of companies who do it all for you for a small fee each year. It's much easier than you'd ever imagine.

Good luck!

Oh, and the obvious, of course - look for someone who has been with their previous families for years and years, not just a 6 or 9 months.

Don't forget that your best source of information will be the nanny's previous employers. Have a very good, long, conversation with them. Good nannies can't help but become well loved / valued members of the ''family' - you should get a sense of this when you talk to their previous employers.

Also with the car thing, do they need to be able to disable the passenger airbag? Can be a pig on some cars so worth mentioning if it's needed.

Thanks everyone. Culturemulcher, was good to read about the companies that deal with the employer side of things. Has your nanny worked out well?

Our nanny was utterly fantastic. She made all the difference to our family life as everything concerning the DC ran smoothly and it was one (hugely important) thing I didn't ever have to worry about.

She was with us for 3 years, but the youngest DC is now at school full time, so she's now working for another family but she still babysits for us and does any free days she can for us during the school holidays .

Having said all the above - when I actually first interviewed her, I was useless! I think sometimes you just get a good feeling, though.

Good luck with your search and feel free to PM me if you'd like any info on the employer stuff.