I agree with the other ladies ~ doing a prescreening interview either by email and than by phone allows you to avoid wasting time with in person tours during your family time on someone who is just not a match over something that is not negotiable that could be discussed over email or phone .... those basics of non negotiable things such as days and hours of care needed, the age of the child, financial commitment and access to back up care is understood and the basic services provided that are a 'red flag' to some clients ~ aka we do field t rips off site and transport via a vehicle cause nothing worse than getting all the way through an interview process and having someone say 'oh I do not want my child traveling' or 'oh my child has an allergy to grass and I do not want them outside ever' or something.

Also my spouse works for the RCMP and so I hear horror stories all day long about the lengths people will go to con people so admittedly I am paranoid and I will not book a tour over the Internet ~ a potential client must call from a work or home phone number that matches the info given to me so it is a 'traceable' and talk to me in person in order to actually book a tour so I have the peace of mind that it is indeed a client seeking care on the other end and not someone trying to determine when my home might be empty by pretending to book an interview and using dates I claim not to be available as an indicator that my home is sitting 'empty' so to speak because I have inadvertently mentioned that oh cannot do Tuesdays cause the kids have soccer and so forth

So by the time we get to the in person tour of the program I prefer for us to both be 98% sure we are a match and we are just meeting to confirm everything we have talked about on the phone holds water in person and to 'see' them with their child and so forth and for them to see the program first hand .... this helps to minimize the number of hours I spend actually touring the program to serious candidates only.