6 Tips for Hiring the Right In-Home Childcare

You’re doing your best raising your children. But even the best parents need help sometimes. This is where childcare professionals come into play. Hiring the perfect nanny or babysitter can totally change your life for the better. Getting the wrong person, however, can be a complete disaster. The safety of your children will be in the hands of this person. You need to make sure they’re up to the task. Here are six tips for hiring the right in-home childcare professional.

Request a Full Application

Oftentimes, hiring a babysitter or nanny is treated like an informal process. You might get a referral from a friend. The natural reaction will be to trust this person, as they come highly recommended from someone in your circle. Regardless, it’s smart to have all interested childcare professionals fill out a full application. If they’re unwilling to do this, then they probably won’t be willing to give your children their undivided attention. Here are a few things to ask for before hiring anyone:

Name and all aliases
Work experience
Training
Contact information
Driver’s license
Additional references
Emergency contact information
Don’t Ignore Warning Signs

You think you’ve found the perfect applicant. They’ve said all the right things, except—that one thing that didn’t sit well with you. It’s natural for parents to be critical of people who will be in charge of their children. Don’t shrug off a bad feeling as you just being overly cautious. If your intuition is telling you to steer clear of someone—do it. You don’t want to find out later that your suspicions were founded in reality.

Check Your Insurance

You will want to run through your insurance policy before you hire an in-home childcare professional. It’s key that you know who will be liable if the individual is injured while on your property. Or who will have to pay for medical bills if your child is hurt while under their care.
These are things you need to know before they become important. You can see how homeowners insurance quotes compare online if you want to increase your coverage.

Determine How Often You Want Them There

Before hiring an in-home childcare professional, you should decide how much you want them
to be there. If you simply don’t have enough time to run your life and take care of your kids, it
might be a good idea to have them there all the time. However, this likely isn’t necessary for 2 most families. Take some time to consider your personal needs before going through the effort of hiring someone.

Think About the Costs

Cost is another key factor to deciding on a childcare professional. The difference in cost can be dramatic between a teenager doing babysitting after school and a full-time nanny. You need to take a serious look at your budget. It’s essential that you’re honest with yourself here. Locking in with someone who’s out of your price range will be a strain on you financially. But it can also be damaging to your children if you have to keep switching between childcare providers.

Clearly Outline Expectations

This is something many people forget to do when they hire in-home childcare. Make sure you explicitly say what is and what isn’t okay. Ambiguity will only create issues down the line. For example, you probably don’t want your babysitter having friends over while on the job. Doing this will distract them from the task at hand. But if you don’t tell them this, they might just assume it’s not an issue—especially if it’s a younger person. The same applies for regulating electronics time and food intake. Avoiding uncertainty will keep problems from popping up later on.

Your children are the most important people in the world to you. Because of this, you need to do your due diligence when hiring a childcare professional. Consider these six tips before you decide on in-home childcare.