Interview time?

[Spixie33]

I only interview after hours. I have done a few where parents would insist coming during daycare hours and ALL of them were a nightmare. The children would act up because I was focused on the conversation with the interview or I would lose my train of thought about my program because I would have to tend to the children and then not remember what I had or hadn't already mentioned about my program.

No one has ever signed who came during daycare hours. Now my firm rule is after hours ONLY.

Imagine doing a job interview for any other job while you are watching 4-5 children. Not a good scenario.

I like to do interviews somewhere between 5:30 or 6 p.m and expect them to last about 45 minutes to an hour. It gives me about 20 minutes to tidy up the house and have a few deep breaths.

I have recently done a couple of weekend interviews and I actually liked that too. It gave me the morning to tidy up and then be very calm for the interview.

[Bugaboo]

I'm pretty much the same as everyone else. I will only do after hour interviews. There's a few reasons for this but the main one is because I just cannot focus on answering the families questions AND properly care for the kids in care. The other reason why I won't do is my kids act VERY different when someone comes to the door. Usually they just get excited which can make them be a bit hyper but it goes back to not being able to properly care for them and interview at the same time. The last reason is for safety. Incoming families are just as much strangers to me as I am to them and I will not have unknown people in my home around my daycare children until they have been screened by me.

I think my interview process is the same as everyone else's. The first step is getting an inquiry either over the phone or through email. I prefer to talk to talk over the phone so that I can gage what kind of person they sound like and I ask all my deal breaker questions over the phone as well so that we don't waste each other's time interviewing. (Deal breakers are things like fees, due dates of fees, hours, do they require the care advertised (full or part time), nap time policy, age of child...) Once the parents "pass" the telephone interview if they too are interested in proceeding we schedule an evening interview around 6pm (the entire family must attend or I will not schedule the interview). That time works best for me because I can do a quick clean up, change my clothes, and feed my own children a quick supper before the interview. The interview itself is very much a mutual interview. The parents for sure are interviewing but many families do not realize that I am interviewing THEM too. While we are asking each other questions I do A LOT of observing. I look for things like what the family dynamic is, how is the child behaving, does the child get down off mom/dad's lap and explore, can they play individually, is the child open to me when I engage with him/her, and anything else that peaks my interest. My observations usually hold a lot more weight then how the parents answer my questions. I learn a lot just by watching.