Not sure first 'interview' went well..

[5 Little Monkeys]

The first interview is always nerve wracking! Tbh, I still get nervous with them lol. It's a two way interview and rejection doesn't feel good so you of course want to impress.

I was lucky in that I didn't really have a first interview when I opened. The family I nannied for came here when I opened so technically my first interview was my 2nd family and having another family signed on already probably helped!!

As for length of interviews, I always seem to get talkers!! They used to last on average 1-2 hours, I think the longest was 2.5. They are now 30 minutes because I started to say your meeting will be from 10-1030, so they know ahead of time when I expect them to wrap it up! Lol

I don't do phone interviews but do everything via email before meeting. I send them my parent pkg (contract, permission form, sick policy etc) and if they agree to all that, we meet. I ask their hours needed, age of child etc before the meeting too. The meeting is than basically just showing them my daycare and getting a vibe for each other. I also have a smaller play area but my whole basement is the daycare and the size has never been an issue. I also suggest extending your outside time to just 1-2 longer periods. Three times is ambitious and IMO too many transitions for the children...plus in the winter, you'll exhaust yourself dressing and undressing them haha

Hope you hear from them soon! Did you give them a deadline to contact you to let you know if they're interested or not? I very rarely give the impression that the spot is theirs because I like to think about the interview afterwards and decide if I want them or not. Only a few have I offered the space on the spot....and thank goodness irs worked out well lol

[Lee-Bee]

Everyone needs a few awkward first interviews to get better at it.

Mine were all pretty long, 1hr+. A large part of that was just sitting on the floor with the babies interacting while chatting with the parents.

I would reconsider your 3x a day outside as well. It is too much transition and really by the time you factor in snacks, lunch, nap there isn't much time to be going outside 3x. It means you would have very short chunks of time for activities which means less in-depth playtime for the older kids.

The less transitions the better when managing a group of young children. Depending on the age of your group and the helplessness of the children it can be quite the task to get them all dressed and outside. I wouldn't do that 3x a day, no matter how small my play space!!