Interviews with parents

Do you have potential families come over during day care hours? Why or why not?

Nope! It is disruptive to the kids and our routine and it takes my attention away from the kids. They are also a stranger and I don't allow strangers in my house around my dckids.

Interviews are evenings. That way often both parents can come. I want their first visit to be on my terms in the sense of I have control. With the daycare kids we all know they will not perform at their best with strangers around. It is disruptive to our routine and until I am comfortable with them I don't want strangers around the kids for safety reasons. Once a parent has decided to go with me or has narrowed it down I will allow a daytime visit. We do it first thing in the morning and they "just play" - I do not perform for the parent if you know what I mean. It gives me a chance to chat with the mom about what they are seeing and gives me a chance to see how the child interacts with the other kids in the group.

Great question and definitely a learning experience that I have gone through.

I usually always asked for evening appts. My husband is home by then and he warned me that I need to be just as careful about myself as the DCK. He said that the ad being online could attract any crazy....even couples can be crazy.

However I did have a couple of families specifying and INSISTING that they wanted to come during the day when the daycare was running because they wanted to see the age groups and see if their child meshed with the other kids etc. Being new...I backed down and agreed.

Well, each of those interviews was a bust. It is impossible to pay attention to your DCK while being interviewed and try to interact with a new child too. Parents would ask serious questions and I would start to answer but then one of the DCK would have a question or get hurt or fight over a toy and I would lose my train of thought.

Also...I would try to show the parents my menu or police check or my newsletter and then my DCK would want to see and grab the papers away. Papers were getting strewn about, ripped, bent = disaster.

I do not recommend the interview during daycare hours at all. :no:

I did let my daycare parents know in advance that someone would be coming into the home and they were okay with it but it was a disaster nonetheless. It is not normal to be doing your job and watching the kids and being interviewed at the same time. It makes you do a poor job on both fronts and is too much multi-tasking.

I learned the hard way. I am not doing any more interviews until the fall but they won't be during the DC hours. That is for sure :yes::p

When parents are wanting to come to see the daycare in action I understand but at the same time it almost always turns out to be a less than stellor performance by everyone. It is also very disruptive to the daycare in the sense that if I let every family that wanted to interview me come during the day we would accomplish nothing since it is common to do a dozen interviews before finding the right family. I want to meet with a family and make my decisions and then I will arrange for them to come and visit during the day if I think we are close to making up their minds.

I am new to daycare, but another provider just told me that we are not supposed to allow any adult in our home while the daycare kids are there unless they have their police records check. I had thought I would do interviews during daycare hours, but have found that weekends or evening do seem to work better and it is much less stressful as well.

I do my interviews on weekends because our evenings are busy. It's never been a problem. I'll do a second interview during DC hours, after I've met the parents & child, and think they are potentially a good fit. I will not make exceptions and will never welcome a stranger into my home while I am caring for other people's children, or when my husband is not home.

Never. I only do first-time interviews after hours. It is just too much to juggle, and I really don't allow "strangers" (outside of some close family and friends) in to the house during dayhome time. And knowing kids, that would be exactly the time that little Sally has a total crying melt-down, and little Jimmy decides to pop little Joey in the nose!! :)
If we have done a full interview, and they are interested, then I may allow them to come by during free-play time (as opposed to nap time, meal time, craft time, etc). I would like to see their child interact with others as well.