Interview questions for babysitters: Babysitter Interview Questions & Tips to Find Your Perfect Sitter
Babysitter Interview Questions & Tips to Find Your Perfect Sitter
If you’re new to the world of finding someone to watch your baby, read and bookmark these interview questions to ask a babysitter. From their experience and certifications to availability and flexibility, these nanny or babysitter interview questions will give you a better picture of whether this is the right babysitter for you. You’ll also find helpful tips on how to conduct a babysitter interview.
Personal Questions
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These interview questions will help you learn more about the babysitter’s personality and whether they meet your basic requirements.
1. How would you describe yourself?
2. What do you like to do in your free time?
3. Did you grow up around younger kids (siblings, cousins, neighbors)?
4. What is your availability? Do you have time constraints that would prevent you from staying later if necessary?
5. Do you have reliable transportation? What kind?
6. Do you smoke?
7. Would you be comfortable taking a drug test?
8. How much do you charge?
Experience Questions
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These questions can help you determine whether this babysitter has the necessary experience.
9. Describe your babysitting experience. How long were you with each family? What ages were the children?
10. What are your favorite and least favorite parts about babysitting?
11. How comfortable are you with changing diapers?
12. What are your methods for putting a baby down to sleep?
13. What was your scariest/most challenging babysitting situation? How did you respond?
14. Do you check on babies while they sleep? Why or why not? If you do, how often?
15. Do you have first aid and CPR training? If so, when were you certified? If not, would you be willing to get it?
16. Do you have references I can contact?
Scenario Questions
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These interview questions will give you an understanding of how well prepared this babysitter is to care for your child.
17. The baby starts choking; what do you do?
18. You are getting ready to give the baby a bath when you smell smoke; what is the first thing you do?
19. You and the baby have been playing when you notice that she starts rubbing her eyes and crying. What do you think that means, and how do you respond?
20. The baby just had a blowout in his diaper. Explain how you handle it.
Interview Tips
1. Call the references your babysitter gives you.
Ask them questions like:
- How well do you know the sitter?
- Has he/she worked for you specifically as a babysitter? If not, what was his/her role?
- Is he/she punctual?
- Is he/she dependable?
- How did he/she handle a difficult situation while caring for your child?
- Would you hire him/her again?
- What three words would you use to describe him/her?
2. Check out the person on social media.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and other social media sites are great ways to find out if the persona your babysitter is portraying to you is the one they portray to everyone else. Google is also a handy tool to find out the inside scoop on your prospective babysitter.
3. Discuss your expectations.
Do you expect your babysitter to perform household tasks (folding laundry, doing dishes and taking care of light housework) while working for you? Do you have a strict eat & sleep schedule you want the sitter to follow? If so, communicate that during your interview. Having crystal-clear expectations will help you both as you gauge whether this is a match.
4. Request a trial run while you’re home.
Schedule a time for the babysitter to watch your baby while you’re home. You can evaluate how the babysitter interacts with your baby, if they use common sense, how their diaper-changing and feeding skills are and their general demeanor and confidence with babies. It will also help you determine if your baby responds well to the sitter.
—Sarah Blight
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Parenting
Finding a babysitter who gets your child and can keep things running smoothly is no small task. It can be even harder when your child struggles with behavior.
The first step to finding the right match is to be clear about your child’s challenges from the very start. Give specific examples of what the babysitter might see and need to respond to. You can say things like:
- “He has a hard time winding down at night. It sometimes takes him an hour or more to fall asleep.”
- “She has trouble following directions, especially if there are a number of steps involved.
You may need to repeat them a few times.”
- “He gets upset if there are changes to his routine. So it’s important to follow the schedule he’s used to.”
At the same time, share your strategies for handling these situations. Ask if the babysitter feels comfortable with this. If it’s too much to handle, you can both avoid an awkward situation.
If the babysitter is comfortable, though, there are questions you can ask to get a better sense of the fit.
Some of these questions might not be relevant to your child. But you can tweak them to make sure you get the answers you need from a potential babysitter.
- What kind of experience do you have working with kids who learn and think differently?
- My child needs to be active. Are you willing to take my child on long walks? What outdoor games do you like to play when you babysit?
- Too much activity and noise upsets my child. What quiet activities do you like to do with kids?
- What do you do when a child you’re babysitting throws a tantrum?
- There are certain strategies I use when my child gets upset.
If I talk you through these, can I count on you to use them?
- How do you handle it when a child you’re babysitting doesn’t listen to you?
- Homework can be a challenge for my child. Can you describe any experience you have helping kids with homework?
- Can you give me an example of a time when a child you were babysitting really tried your patience? What do you do to stay calm when kids act up?
- Can you be firm when necessary and enforce the rules? Can you give me some examples of how you’ve done this in the past?
- My child is on medication. Do you have any experience helping kids take medicine?
Once you’ve found a babysitter, you can help pave the way for a good experience for both the babysitter and your child. You can fill out a parent-child behavior contract and give a copy to the babysitter. You can also share tips for managing tantrums and meltdowns.
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About the author
About the author
The Understood Team is made up of passionate writers and editors. Many of them have kids who learn and think differently.
Reviewed by
Reviewed by
Molly Algermissen, PhD is an associate professor of medical psychology at Columbia University Medical Center and clinical director of PROMISE.
Interview with a nanny: what questions to ask?
24.12.2020
Interview with a nanny: what questions to ask?
A nanny is a person whom parents trust with the life, health and safety of a child. Therefore, the choice of such an assistant must be approached with all responsibility. It is wiser to entrust the selection to a specialized agency, and here’s why.
- The nannies in the databases of agencies have already been verified – with experience, recommendations, who have worked in families.
- Agencies require employees to confirm qualifications, no criminal record, a medical book, according to which the person is healthy and can work with children.
- Firms independently filter questionnaires and select candidates strictly according to the criteria put forward.
nine0009 You can choose a person with the right education – a doctor for an infant or a teacher for an older child, a nanny with knowledge of foreign languages, etc.
When the “paper” selection is passed, there are several profiles of potential nannies, a more important stage follows – an interview. It is better to divide it into 2 stages: communication by phone, then a personal meeting. nine0003
Interview by phone
The main goal of this stage is to weed out some of the candidates and understand which applicants should be met in person for a more detailed conversation. Here it is important for each potential nanny to briefly talk about the vacancy, put forward requirements, and get answers to key questions.
During the first telephone conversation, it is necessary to verbally clarify the data indicated in the candidate’s resume:
- age;
- citizenship;
- desired salary per month or hourly;
- work schedule;
- work experience in families, are there any recommendations and in what form.
nine0009 district and address of residence, presence of registration at the place of residence;
It is desirable to get more detailed information about her work and knowledge from the nanny. It should be borne in mind that not every good nanny, despite extensive practice, can succinctly talk about her experience. Therefore, it is better to prepare specific questions in advance. For example, how long the walks with the child lasted, what they did on the street and at home, how they acted in this or that situation. nine0003
If during the conversation it turned out that the data in the questionnaire and the information received from the candidate do not agree, it is worth stopping the conversation and postponing the resume.
Personal meeting
Personal meeting is assigned only to those candidates who have passed the telephone interview and satisfied in all respects. Prepare for a live interview seriously. After all, from what questions will be asked to the nanny, a portrait of the employee will be formed.
It’s good if the first meeting with a potential nanny will have a child present. He should be calm, so the place of the interview should be chosen familiar to the baby, but it is better if it is neutral territory. For example, a playground, a park or a familiar place for walking. nine0003
The first thing to do at the meeting is to ask for the nanny’s passport and check the basic data from the questionnaire.
During the conversation, it is worth asking the candidate everything that concerns the future work. For example:
- What do you prefer to do with your child at home?
- What activities do you practice while walking outdoors in warm, cold seasons?
- How long do walks last, where do you prefer to walk with a child?
- How do you achieve discipline?
- What do you do if a child throws a tantrum, starts acting up or fights?
- What do you do if there is a conflict between the ward and someone else’s child?
- What safety measures do you take when working with a child of a particular age?
- Algorithm of actions in case of emergency (fell, burned, etc.
). Can you provide first aid?
- Can you cook food for a child? Tell us the recipe for the dish that your former wards loved the most. nine0010
You can also ask any tactful questions that interest you. For example, why does the nanny no longer work at the same place, does she communicate with her former employers and pupils, does she have children of her own, what age are they, etc.
It is important to discuss organizational issues for such cases:
- and the parents are delayed;
- the nanny is delayed, because of which the parents are late for their business;
- need to work around the clock;
- need to go out on a day off;
- days off and vacations for nannies;
- emergency calls outside business hours.
A personal meeting should end with a formed portrait of a specialist. It is good if the child liked the nanny, because it is he who will have to spend most of the time in her company.
Nanny interview – Interview questions for the position of a nanny
Today, even a person with a pedagogical background is sometimes not so easy to get a job as a nanny. nine0003
Modern parents are becoming more and more demanding, and the boundless love for their child makes them go through dozens of applicants in search of the ideal one.
Content:
- Questions Nanny at
- Caves
- List children with love and awe, to have experience in raising young children. A creative approach and the ability to make the baby’s pastime fun and rewarding are also highly valued. nine0003
Tricky questions
What kind of children do you like or dislike?
By asking this question, the baby’s mother is trying to understand how much you really love children and are ready to put up with and cope with their whims.
And if you start listing the qualities that you do not like in children, consider that you showed a zero level of your professionalism and did not pass the interview.
The best answer to this question is: “All kids are equally good. Each kid requires his own approach and has his own characteristics in character, but I can find a common language with any child.” nine0003
Did you like working in your previous family and what were their shortcomings?
The purpose of this question is to identify your tendency to gossip. Therefore, do not talk about the shortcomings of the family in which you worked before. Do not say that the children were raised incorrectly there or that there were some family problems.
In answer, don’t praise your previous employer too much, and under no circumstances should you speak ill of him. Better answer: “It was a good, well-mannered family in which I worked with pleasure.” nine0003
List of standard questions
- What experience do you have with children?
- Why are you babysitting?
- Reasons for ending cooperation with the previous family?
- Do you communicate with past employers?
- Do you have any recommendations? Who are the employers you can talk to?
- Do you have a family, tell us about it.
- How often do you get sick? Do you smoke?
- How long do you expect to work?
nine0009 Can you cook and what exactly?
- What systems and methods of education do you know and use?
- What are your priorities in education?
- How long do you allow TV to be watched?
- What do you do if the baby cries or refuses to sleep?
- What do you do if a child asks for a toy?
- What do you do when a baby falls and hits?
- Which decisions will you make yourself and which will you discuss with us? nine0010
- What measures of punishment for a child do you consider acceptable and do you use in practice?
- If a child throws a tantrum in the middle of the street, what will you do?
- Can you provide first aid?
- How are you going to spend time with the baby, what games to play?
How to successfully pass a nanny interview
We advise you to be an open, positive person, as sincere and friendly as possible.