Glaringly obvious interview questions to ask a Nanny?!

[Sus19]

OK have finally decided Nanny is def the way ahead and have a couple to interview next week - one very experienced, one no experience!

I'm interviewing the one with no experience as she sounds great on the phone and everyone needs to start somewhere, right?(reassurance please!)

Any tips on great questions to ask a potential Nanny?
Thanks as always

There is the famous Interview Questionaire. You will need to adapt it to suit your situation.

good luck sus -no personal experience yet but couple of old threads on this might help

[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/2300/519899 link]

and this one
[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=2300&threadid=153813#3235637 link]

or this one which has a really good set of questions from eleusis

[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=2300&threadid=282698#5652571 link]

Ask what they will cook, what they would do during the day. Try to ask open questions, so you get them to talk as much as possible. Avoid the Closed (Yes/No answer) questions.

are they first aid trAINED????? AND was it recently?

Believe it or not I am an HR professional who employs people for a living!! Employing someone for the most precious people in your life has given me a new prospective on what I have previously thought of as difficult recruitment campaigns!!
Thanks for the links - will give them a go.

As you work in HR, perhaps you could give us all some tips? Are there any questions that you always get into interviews?

A first aid certificate is valid for three years.

Happy to tip away!
Sorry - what do you mean Nannynick? Are you asking are there questions that I always ask in interviews?

Yes, are there questions which are not on the Interview Questionnaire that you (as someone who works in HR) feels should be asked.

The interview questionnaire is useful in that it covers a lot of practical areas...i.e qualifications, motivation for working with children and so on. There are some you would have to be quite careful about - i.e asking about sick days etc. In my job when recruiting I find situational questions much more revealing. Therefore as a parent I would be more inclined to ask more situational questions, particularly concerning areas of disciplining the child and how they react under stress. Such as:

My 19 month old daughter refuses to sit in her high chair to eat. She screams, goes rigid and curls into a ball so you can't get her in. How would you resolve this?

When you try to change the nappy of my 6 month old daughter she keeps turning over and twisting so you can't get it done up. How would you get her to lie still?

You take my two daughters to the super-market to do some shopping. Both sit in the trolley and half way around begin to play up. Crying when they can't reach the shelves of expensive wine to knock off and screaming at full volume when you walk past the chocolate without stopping to get some for them. People are looking at you and tutting disapprovigly. How would you deal with this stressful situation?

They are just a couple of examples off the top of my head but I'm sure you get the jist of what I mean. Assessing someones general intelligence, morals, temperament and so on are notoriously difficult unless you are going to actually make them sit Psychometric and Ability tests (which I am also trained to do - that gives me an idea for my Nanny interviews - i jest..!) If I get time I'll give some proper thought to Interview Questions and post them on here.