My little boy is 6 months old, and I have been offered a job opportunity which I can't refuse. I have come to the decision to take the job and leave him with a childminder while I am at work, and I am dreading it. I have read a little about how to pick a good childminder, but I have two issues that I hope you can help me with.
1 - what in particular should I look for in a childminder who will be looking after such a young baby? This concerns me, because as a first time mum I don't think I could look after more than one baby at a time, or a baby and other kids under five. I know this is just because I am inexperienced and not particularly good with kids yet, but I still worry my son will be left crying and alone while I am at work.
2 - I am awkward around other people. I have social anxiety, and while I usually have good intuition when it comes to people, I am really not good in one on one conversations with people I don't know well. Basically, I'm really bad at carrying a conversation unless the other person is a proper chatterbox! So I'll have trouble 'getting to know' the childminder and it makes me anxious to think of repeated visits to the minder to watch how she does things and get to know her - I'll do it anyway but I guess I'm just hoping that all childminders are used to parents visiting like this before hand and it won't be awkward to start with, before I've even begun being my usual awkward self!
I had the idea of visiting her with my fiance as he is a really good people person, so he could do most of the chitter chatter, but is that overkill, having both parents come and visit together each time before deciding to hire?