In a pre-interview phone call or email I ask the parents to tell me a little bit about their family. It makes them comfortable to talk about themselves a bit first. I ask all the questions playfelt mentioned, about food, naptimes, temperaments. I make sure they read my website and are looking for care within my business hours with a 9 hour day maximum or overtime fees apply. I ask them if they have family in the city so that they will have help when I'm on vacation. I also like to know approximately what areas of the city the live and work so I know if I'm on their way or out of their way.

Since these children are not babies they will have learned their habits from somebody else and I'm leery to take on children of that age, but sometimes it works out. I've only had one little 2.5 year old boy who was transferred here from centre care and within a couple of weeks he learned my rules and routines and was completely on our schedule. But ask questions about all of that as playfelt mentioned.