Questions to Ask a Nanny
An interview list for parents hiring a nanny, written for the family's side of the table. It runs in the order an hour at your kitchen table tends to go: the candidate's background, the day they would run, behavior, safety, duties and hours, and last the pay, the trial and the written agreement. The note under each question says what a reassuring answer and a worrying one sound like, and which to skip if you have no baby or no driving in the job.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Background
How long have you worked as a nanny, and what ages have you cared for?
Why ask it
The ages tell you more than the total. Ask how long they spent with each one, because someone with eight years of school pickups may never have had a newborn alone for a full day. If their experience stops short of your child's age, ask what they would want to learn first.
Tell us about your most recent nanny job: the children, the hours and why it ended.
Why ask it
Good answers come with detail and without bitterness: the children started school, the family moved, the hours were cut. Write down the dates and the reason, then see whether the reference gives you the same ones. A candidate who would prefer you not call that family should be able to say why.
How much of your experience was on your own, with no parent or other adult in the house?
Why ask it
Helping in a daycare room or working alongside a parent at home is real experience, but it is not the same as being the only adult for nine hours. Ask what their longest day alone has been. If most of their work had backup nearby, plan a longer trial and a slower handover.
Why did you choose nanny work, and what keeps you in it?
Why ask it
There is no wrong reason, but someone who chose this is different from someone waiting for something else. The second can still be a fine hire for a year if a year is what you need. The answers worth noting mention children specifically: an age they enjoy, the week a toddler starts putting words together.
What is the longest you have stayed with one family, and what made it last?
Why ask it
A long stay means a family kept choosing them year after year, which no certificate can tell you. Several short jobs are not a mark against a nanny, since children start school and families move, but each should have a reason that comes easily. What they credit for the long one is what they will need from you.
Which part of this job are you best at, and which part wears you out?
Why ask it
Hold the second answer against your own week. Someone worn down by a child who will not nap is a poor match for a house where naps are a daily fight, and no trouble at all where the children are at school by 8:30. 'Nothing, I love all of it' leaves you with nothing to plan around.
What childcare training have you done, and what is the last thing you learned that changed how you work?
Why ask it
Courses and certificates vary a great deal in what they cover, so ask what was taught and when. A nanny who can name one thing they now do differently because of a course or a book is still learning, which counts for more than the length of the list. Ten years of good references with no formal training is not a gap.
What are you looking for in a family, and what has made a past job a bad fit?
Why ask it
You are hearing their terms early, which saves both of you time. Late pay, hours that crept and parents who overruled them in front of the children are common answers, and fair ones. If the bad fit they describe sounds like your house, say so now.
How long are you hoping to stay in your next job?
Why ask it
Say how long you need someone, before they answer or after, but say it. A student who will leave in June can still suit a family whose child starts preschool in the fall. What you want to avoid is each side quietly assuming a different year.
Which families can we call as references, and how recent are they?
Why ask it
Ask for at least two families who employed them, one from the last couple of years, and call instead of emailing. People say on the phone what they will not put in writing. If the most recent family is missing from the list, ask about that directly.
Are you comfortable with a background check and with showing you can legally work here?
Why ask it
Put it to every candidate in the same words, so it reads as routine and not suspicion. What a check can cover, what consent it needs, who pays for it and how you confirm someone's right to work all depend on where you live, so find out before the interview. A plain yes is the good answer, and a hesitation deserves a question, not a conclusion.
The day
Walk us through a day with our child, from the moment we leave until we get home.
Why ask it
A good answer has a shape to it: food, sleep, time outside, something quiet, with room for the child to change the plan. It only works if the candidate already knows your child's age and your hours, so give those before you ask. If the whole day is 'whatever they want to do', ask what happens at 4 p.m. when they want nothing.
How do you handle naps, and what do you do when a child fights sleep?
Why ask it
Two things are being checked: a calm method for a child who will not settle, and a readiness to keep the routine you already have. Describe yours, down to the dark room or the song, and ask how they would follow it. Then ask about the day the nap does not happen at all, since that is the afternoon you come home to.
A baby has been fed, changed and held and is still crying. What do you try next?
Why ask it
A question for the first year only. Someone who has spent long days with infants has a list: a walk outside, a darker room, the carrier, a look at whether the baby is too warm. Listen for the last item on it, which is laying the baby down in the crib, stepping out for a few minutes and calling you: a nanny who can say that out loud is more likely to do it than to push on alone.
What do you feed children during the day, and what happens when one refuses the meal?
Why ask it
Pressure, a bribe with dessert and cooking a second meal are three different responses to a refusal, and you probably have a view on each. See whether their answer bends once you mention your own rules on sweets, snacks and anything you avoid. An allergy in the house belongs here and again when you reach the safety questions.
What part do screens play in a day you run?
Why ask it
Ask when, not whether: the moments a screen comes out, such as the last half hour before you are home or a long car ride, are the real answer. Hold back your own rule until you have heard theirs, or it will simply be repeated to you. Then agree what counts toward the limit, including a phone handed over in a waiting room.
How do you help a child who cries when a parent leaves?
Why ask it
You will be the parent at that door for the first few weeks, so this one is partly about you. A short goodbye, something ready for the child to do and no sneaking out are the signs of practice. Ask what they would want from you in that moment, because a parent who lingers makes it harder and most nannies are too polite to say so unprompted.
How often do you like to get out of the house, and where do you take children?
Why ask it
Some nannies are out every morning and some prefer home, and children do well with either as long as you know which you are hiring. Ask about the places near you: the park, the library, a class, other nannies they would meet. Then settle what needs your say-so in advance and what only needs a text.
How would you help with what our child is working on right now, such as talking, potty training or reading?
Why ask it
A useful answer starts by asking how you are doing it at home, since a method that changes at 8 a.m. and again at 6 p.m. goes nowhere. Put the real thing in the question: the potty, the pacifier, the letters. Be wary of promises with a date attached.
When a baby needs feeding and an older child wants you at the same moment, what do you do?
Why ask it
Skip this with one child. With two or more it is most of the job, and nannies who have done it answer fast: set the older one up first, feed where both can be seen, give the bigger child a task. A long pause usually means the experience was with one child at a time.
How will we hear about the day: a log, photos, texts, a talk at the door?
Why ask it
Parents differ so widely on this that a nanny cannot guess, so say how much you want. For a baby, feeds, sleep and diapers written down are worth asking for. Protect the handover at the door: five minutes there catches what a text does not.
Behavior
What does discipline mean to you, and what would you never do?
Why ask it
Start broad and let them define it. You are hoping for teaching over punishing, and for a clear line against anything physical, shaming or frightening, stated without being led to it. Then give your own approach in specific words and ask whether they can work that way.
Where do you stand on time-outs, counting to three and sticker charts?
Why ask it
Naming the tools gets you past 'I believe in positive discipline'. Most nannies use one or two of them and can say at what age, for what, and where each stops working. If you already use one at home, have them describe how they would run it, since a child who gets a count of three from you and a count of five from the nanny learns to wait for five.
Tell us about the worst tantrum you have handled in public and what you did.
Why ask it
Asking for the worst one gets a story instead of a policy. Staying close, keeping the child safe, saying little and leaving if needed are the marks of someone who has been through it. Notice whether the story is about their embarrassment or about the child.
What do you do when a child hits or bites you or another child?
Why ask it
Toddlers do both, so a nanny with toddler experience has a ready answer. A calm, immediate response and attention to the hurt child first are good signs. Biting back, or a punishment handed out long after the moment has passed, is a reason to stop and ask more.
How do you respond when a child looks at you and says no?
Why ask it
This happens daily and shows temperament better than any question about philosophy. Offering two acceptable choices, turning the task into a game and knowing which battles to drop all show range. One tool for every refusal, whether a time-out or giving in, wears out within a month.
Tell us about a time you disagreed with how a parent wanted something done. What did you do?
Why ask it
A nanny with a few years behind them has one of these, and how they tell it matters more than who was right. The version to hope for has two halves: they did it the parents' way in front of the children, and they said in private that they thought it was not working. If the story ends with them doing it their own way once the parents had left, take note.
What do you do when a child says 'Mom lets me' and you are not sure it is true?
Why ask it
Older children try this in the first week. The steady answer is a kind 'I will check, and for today the answer is no', followed by actually checking with you. It also shows whether they can hold a line without treating the child as a liar.
When a long day has worn your patience thin, how do you reset while you are still in charge?
Why ask it
A candidate who admits to reaching that point is a safer hire than one who says it never happens. Moving everyone outdoors, starting bath time early or setting the child down somewhere safe and breathing in the next room for a minute are the kind of methods people really use. Tell them they can always call you on a day like that, and mean it.
Safety
Is your infant and child CPR and first aid certificate current, and when does it run out?
Why ask it
Ask to see the card and note the date. If it has lapsed or was never taken, the response to hope for is an offer to book a course before starting, and you can offer to pay for it. Check that the course covered children the age of yours.
Talk us through what you would do if a child started choking at lunch.
Why ask it
Unless you are trained yourself, do not try to grade the technique. Notice whether the steps come out in order, without a search for words, and whether calling for help is among them. 'I would have to think' from someone who feeds toddlers every day is a reason to make a refresher course a condition of the job.
If our child were badly hurt and neither of us picked up the phone, what would you do?
Why ask it
The order to hear is emergency services first and you second, tried again afterward, not the other way round. Use the question to hand over what they would need: a second and third number, your address written where it can be read aloud, and where the nearest emergency room is. Ask your pediatrician's office whether a signed consent for a caregiver is worth having on file, since that works differently from place to place.
What is the most serious scare you have had while in charge, and what did you do?
Why ask it
A fall, an allergic reaction, a child out of sight for a minute: years of childcare produce at least one. Strong accounts are exact about the order of events and include when the parents were told. Be more cautious about a long career with no story at all than about a frightening story told straight.
If our child woke from a nap hot and miserable, what would you do, and at what point would you call us?
Why ask it
The worrying answers sit at the two ends: saying nothing until pickup, or doing nothing until you answer the phone. Where the line falls in between is your preference, so give it, whether that is a call for any fever or a text unless it climbs. Show them where the thermometer and the doctor's number are kept.
Have you given medicine or managed an allergy, asthma or another condition for a child in your care?
Why ask it
If your child has one of these, describe it fully and watch whether questions come back. Experience is ideal, but a careful nanny with none who asks to be shown the inhaler or the auto-injector and to have the plan in writing can be a sound choice. For any medicine, the habit to hear is confirming the dose with you every time.
How do you put a baby down to sleep, and where?
Why ask it
Only for families with a baby. Hold the answer up against what your own pediatrician has told you, not against what your parents did, and say so where it differs. How they take that correction, with interest or with 'I have always done it this way', is how later instructions will go.
Do you drive, and what would we see on your driving record?
Why ask it
For a job with no driving, leave this out. Otherwise ask about tickets and accidents in plain words, and find out how you can see the record yourself, which works differently from place to place. An old ticket owned up to is a better sign than a clean claim nobody can check.
Would the children ride in your car or ours, and have you installed a car seat yourself?
Why ask it
Whose car it is decides whose insurance, fuel and wear are involved, so ask your insurer how a nanny driving for work is covered before you agree anything. Have them fit your actual seat during the trial. Plenty of capable adults have only ever buckled a child into a seat someone else installed.
Can you swim, and how close do you stay to a child in the bath or at a pool?
Why ask it
Bath time makes this a question for every home, not only those with a pool. The standard to listen for is a hand's reach from a young child for as long as there is water, with the towel and pajamas laid out beforehand so there is no reason to step away. If they cannot swim, decide now that pools and beaches wait for the days you are there.
How do you use your phone while you are working, and do you ever post photos of the children you look after?
Why ask it
These are two house rules, and it is easier to set both at once. You may want pictures during the day and also a nanny whose eyes are on the child, so say how many and when, such as during the nap. On posting, state your rule as fixed: a feed full of other families' children shows you how yours would be treated.
Do you smoke or vape, including on breaks or in your car?
Why ask it
State your house rule plainly instead of hoping the answer makes it unnecessary. The car matters if the children will ride in it. An honest 'yes, but never at work' gives you something to agree terms on, while a no that turns out otherwise is a trust problem by the second week.
We ask everyone who cares for the baby to have certain vaccinations. How do you feel about that?
Why ask it
Raise it early if it is a condition for you, so nobody reaches the offer stage before finding out. What an employer may ask about health, or require, differs by country and state, so learn how it works where you live before making it a term. Your pediatrician is the person to tell you which ones matter around your child.
Duties and hours
What housework do you expect to do as part of this job, and what do you not take on?
Why ask it
Hear their list before you give yours. Most nannies count what the children generate, their laundry, dishes, toys and bedrooms, and treat the adults' laundry, deep cleaning and errands as a separate job with a separate price. Whatever you settle on, write it down item by item: 'light housekeeping' means something different to every person who says it.
Would you cook for the children, and what would you make in a typical week?
Why ask it
Ask for actual dishes. A candidate who lists a few a child would eat, and asks what yours refuses, is planning to cook; 'whatever you would like' tells you to plan the meals and the shopping yourself. If you hope the family dinner gets started as well, say so here and expect it to come up again when you talk about pay.
We have pets. Are you comfortable around animals, and with any part of their care?
Why ask it
Describe the animal by size and temperament, not only by species, and have it in the room for part of the interview. Filling a water bowl is a small extra, while a daily walk with a strong dog and a stroller is a real addition to the job and can fairly be declined. Ask plainly about fear and allergies, which candidates tend to keep to themselves when they want the work.
One of us works from home some days. How have you handled a parent being in the house?
Why ask it
Nannies who have done it know where it goes wrong: the child hears your voice and wants you, and every time you step in the nanny has to start over. Listen for a candidate who sets terms for you, politely: stay out of sight or appear at set times, and let them be the one to answer a cry. Not having done it before is fine; not seeing why it is harder is the concern.
We have cameras in some rooms. How do you feel about working with them on?
Why ask it
Ask only if you have them or plan to, and say where they are. Most experienced nannies have worked with cameras and mainly want to know which rooms and who watches the footage. What you may record, sound in particular, and whether you have to tell an employee about it depend on where you live, so check before you install anything.
Which hours can you work, and how fixed is the time you need to leave?
Why ask it
Give your real hours, including the days you tend to run late, and ask what comes after their finish time. If it is a second job or the last direct bus, then 5:30 has to mean 5:30. Better to lose a candidate over that now than to make them late every week.
How much notice do you need for a late finish, an evening or a day when school is closed?
Why ask it
Some nannies want the extra hours and some cannot do them at all, and you need to know which before the first snow day. Settle how you will ask and how the time is paid; overtime rules for household workers are set locally, so look yours up. Tell them a same-day request can be refused without it counting against them.
How would you get here each day, and what is the plan when that fails?
Why ask it
A long commute or a single bus line is not a reason to pass, but it is where late starts come from. People who have thought about it name the backup without being asked: an earlier bus, a ride, a message by 7 a.m. Agree how early you need to hear that they will not make it.
Would you be open to traveling with us or doing an occasional overnight?
Why ask it
Only raise it if it could happen. A thoughtful candidate answers with questions of their own: the hours each day, whether they get a room to themselves, when they are off duty and how nights away are paid. A quick 'yes, I love to travel' with none of those may mean they are picturing a vacation.
What happens when you are ill, and how do you feel about working when our child is?
Why ask it
These are separate arrangements, and families tend to settle only the first. For their own illness, agree how early they would tell you and what your backup is. For your child's, find their line now: plenty of nannies will come in for a cold and not for a stomach bug, and 7 a.m. on the day is a bad time to learn which.
Pay and contract
What rate are you looking for, and are you thinking of that before or after tax?
Why ask it
Whoever names a figure first, make sure you both mean the same number: a rate quoted as take-home and heard as gross is a gap that surfaces on the first payday. Check what the figure assumes as well, such as how many children, which duties and how many hours a week. If you advertised a range, expect to be held to it.
Have you been paid through payroll before, with tax handled on the books?
Why ask it
What a household employer has to register, withhold and pay depends on the country and often the state, so learn your side from the tax office or a payroll service before this meeting. If the candidate would prefer cash, explain what you are required to do where you live and see whether the job still works for them.
What have past families given you for paid vacation, holidays and sick days?
Why ask it
Hearing what they have had tells you what they will expect, without opening the negotiation yet. Minimums, where there are any, are set locally, so check what applies to a household employee where you are. Decide as well how the vacation dates get chosen, because a nanny whose weeks off always fall on your trips has had no time off of their own.
If we go away or send you home early, would you expect your usual week's pay?
Why ask it
Expect an experienced nanny to say yes. Their rent does not shrink because you took a long weekend, and someone whose pay swings with your plans will keep looking for a job where it does not. Decide your position before the interview so you can answer on the spot.
How should we handle money you spend on the children, and miles in your own car?
Why ask it
Snacks, museum entry and craft supplies add up, and a nanny should not be lending you money each week. Offer a way around it, a card in your name or cash left in a drawer with the receipts, and say what a normal week's spending looks like to you. For mileage, find out what rate is customary where you live and write the figure into the agreement.
Would you do a paid trial day or week before either of us commits?
Why ask it
Agree the rate, which should be the real one, and what the day includes before it happens. Stay in the house for the first hours and leave for the last ones, since you need to see both. Afterward ask the nanny what surprised them about your household.
What would you want written into an agreement between us?
Why ask it
Their list shows what has gone wrong before: hours, pay date, duties, time off, notice. A candidate who has never had anything in writing is not a worse nanny, but offer it anyway. What an agreement has to contain, and whether one is required, varies by place, so start from a local template or get advice.
How do you like to hear that something needs to change, and how often should we sit down together?
Why ask it
Feedback given across a kitchen at 6 p.m. with a tired child between you goes badly for everyone. Agree a regular time, monthly to begin with, out of the children's earshot. Find out how they would bring a problem to you as well, because the arrangement only lasts if it runs both ways.
If this stopped working for either of us, what notice would feel fair to you?
Why ask it
Awkward to raise before anyone has started, and far easier now than later. You learn how they left earlier jobs, and they learn you will not drop them without warning. Check what notice is usual or required where you live, and put the agreed period in writing.
When could you start, and where are you in your search?
Why ask it
Practical, and a courtesy too. If they have another offer with a deadline you need a decision date of your own, and you owe them a day by which they will hear from you. A candidate who insists on giving their current family proper notice is showing you how they will treat you.
What would you like to ask us?
Why ask it
Leave real time for this, not the last two minutes. A candidate who asks what your children are like, why the last nanny left and what a bad day in your house looks like is already picturing the work. Questions only about pay and time off do not rule a person out, but an hour with no questions at all should give you pause.
How to interview a nanny
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interview
Write the job down first
Hours, the children and their ages, duties beyond childcare, driving, pets and a pay range. A candidate can only tell you whether the job suits them if the job exists on paper, and writing it often shows the two parents were picturing different jobs.
Start with a short phone call
Fifteen minutes covers the things that end a hiring process on their own: the hours, the start date, the rate, driving and anything on either side that cannot bend. Keep the meeting at home for the candidates who clear those.
Learn your side of the paperwork
Hiring a nanny can make you an employer, and what that involves for tax, payroll, insurance and a written agreement depends on the country and often the state. Ask the tax office, a household payroll service or a local nanny agency how it works where you live before you quote anyone a figure.
Find out what you may not ask
Rules on interview questions about age, health, pregnancy, religion, family plans or where someone is from differ by country and state, and some of them apply to a household hiring one person. Check before the interview, and keep every question tied to the job: 'can you work until 6 on weekdays', not 'do you have children of your own'.
Pick the questions that matter in your house
Nobody gets through the whole list in an hour. Take a few from each group, drop the ones that do not apply, such as driving, cameras or a baby's sleep, and mark the three or four answers that would decide it for you.
In the interview
Ask what they did, not what they would do
'Tell us about the last time a child ran from you outside' is harder to answer smoothly than 'what would you do if a child ran off'. The first needs a memory. Where the candidate has no such memory, the hypothetical is still worth asking, and you will know which kind of answer you got.
Describe the hard parts of your household
The child who screams at drop-off, the two flights of stairs, the parent on calls in the next room. A candidate who hears the real job and still wants it is worth more than one who accepted an easier job that does not exist.
Have the children there for part of it
Twenty minutes is plenty. Watch what the candidate does, not what your child does: getting down to the child's height, waiting to be approached, talking to the child and not only about them. A shy toddler who stays behind your leg has told you nothing.
Ask every candidate the same core questions
It is fairer, and it is the only way to compare them afterward. Take notes during the meeting, or straight after it, because by the third interview the answers run together.
After the interview
Call the references yourself
Speak to families who employed the candidate, by phone, and check the dates and the reason the job ended against what you were told. Ask whether they would take the person on again today, with a child as young as yours, and listen to how quickly the answer comes.
Run a paid trial
A day or a week, paid at the agreed rate. Be home for the first part to show where things are and how you do them, then go out. Afterward, ask the nanny how it went before you say what you thought.
Compare on the same points
Line up two or three candidates on experience with your child's age, the safety answers, the references and the hours they can really do. Warmth in the room counts, but it is the easiest thing to perform for an hour, so weigh it against the trial and the calls.
Put the offer in writing
Hours, pay and pay date, duties, time off, sick days, expenses, the trial and notice. Use the answers from the interview as the first draft, and let the nanny read it at home before signing. What the document must include differs by place, so check locally.
When to pass on a candidate
No family you can call
Friends and character references are not a substitute for someone who left their children with this person. One past family being unreachable happens. All of them being unreachable is the answer.
Approach without examples
A candidate who speaks well about gentle discipline but cannot describe one afternoon when it was tested may have read about the job more than done it. Keep asking for the story, and if none comes, believe that.
Every previous family was the problem
Bad employers exist, and a nanny may have had one. When each job in the history ended because the parents were unreasonable, expect to be the next entry in that account.
Reluctance about checks, a trial or anything written
Each is a normal part of hiring someone to be alone with your child, and an experienced nanny will usually expect them. A candidate who resists all three wants to be taken on trust, which is the one thing an interview cannot establish.
No curiosity about your children
By the end of an hour a good candidate has asked their names, what they like and what upsets them. Someone who has asked only about the schedule and the pay may be reliable, but they are interviewing for hours and not for your family.