We talk about our interviewing weaknesses...

...maybe in this thread we can talk about what we believe our strengths are? What is your best interviewing tip/technique/detail?

Keep them moving and keep them talking. By that I mean I give them a quick tour of the upstairs before we move to the basement playroom. But as we do it I talk a bit about what activities are upstairs, we look out the window to the yard, we go through the kitchen so I ask a bit about feeding, then I show them where I do diaper changes and then we go downstairs - that's just the way my house is set up to do it in that order. Once downstairs the child usually starts playing if old enough or I get some infant toys for them. I do a bit more talking about some of the centres I have and why I have it set up the way I do and what centres they don't see and why such as craft stuff is put up and out of the way due to safety for the age - things that show I have taken into consideration the ages and stages of children. I try to not let them go through their list of questions like it was an interrogation if I see that they have brought one. I just keep talking, lol. but out of order in the sense of bounce around a bit as it comes up in conversation. Often my first question to them is tell me a little bit about the kind of care you are looking for. This lets me know how prepared they are, what they have thought about, how much they are self thinking and how much they are following a script they read in a book. It tells me how to procede. Then when I ask them if they have any specific questions they refer to the list and maybe a few questions but mostly they say no it seems we covered the important things. I intersperse it with asking them questions about their child and give antedotes about kids in care without mentioning names in terms of how their child will fit into the group in the sense they are interviewing me as well as the group.

The biggest interviewing tip is to ensure that they know that YOU "accept them into care" and not the other way around.