I posted my ad for a nanny on the Peachhead Nanny board. I got around 30 responses and I tracked 22 of them on a spreadsheet. There were some who contacted me that I didn't even bother to record on my spreadsheet because they had poor responses or were just confusing in general.
Out of the 22 applicants that I considered, I interviewed 7. Out of those 7, I'd say 4 were good options, 2 were okay options, and 1 was unacceptable. The unacceptable one seemed like a good person but she blew off two interviews and to me that didn't bode well for timeliness and responsibility in the future.
For the information below, note that I have good notes on about the top 10-12 applicants. On the rest, I didn't correspond with them too much so I only have what I received in the first email.
I stated very clearly in my ad that I would need house cleaning as well as child care duties. Out of the 22 applicants, 11 agreed to house cleaning duties while I received no information on it from the other 11. I also made it clear that I need more than "light housekeeping" - which is what most offer, picking up after the children and such. I said I need help with laundry, bathrooms, floors, etc.
14 of the applicants said they spoke good English. Of the ones I interviewed, 4 actually did. This was very important to me as I need to give instruction and want to be sure I am understood.
6 had a car, 5 said they did not have a car, and I'm unsure about the rest.
4 were legal US residents, 4 were not and I am not sure about the other 14. I was not comfortable with those that did not at least have a green card and I preferred them to have a social security number and driver's license or state ID card.
9 said they knew CPR and had taken classes.
Out of the 22, 8 did not contact me initially, I was contacted by the family they were currently working for. It appears that people are very committed to their nannies and want to place them in a good home when they are no longer needed. At the time I was interviewing, a lot of nannies were out of work or losing their jobs soon because of the poor economy.
Now the question I get asked most often - what is the hourly rate? I asked this question of everyone and got far enough in the process to hear from all but 9. Here are the results:
1 - $18 per hour
2 - $16 per hour
3 - $15 per hour (this seems to be the unofficial going rate in the area)
2 - $14 per hour
1 - $13.50 per hour
3 - $12 per hour or said negotiable
1 - $10 per hour
I offered $12 per hour as that was our budget and even those who had higher hourly rates at first agreed to it after discussion. Well, except the people in the $16 and above range, I didn't even try to negotiate with them.
Today the little one and I had lunch with 5 of my coworkers. I was initially going to lunch with just one friend and the other 4 were all heading to the same place so we had a big table together. It was really fun, just like old times. Well, just like early August! Seems so long ago. Also I saw one of my Mommy & Me friends taking her baby out for a walk. Small world.
The little one is doing pretty well on her naps today. My next goal is to get her to sleep through the night better. I don't mind her waking up every three hours which she does around 11, then around 1 - but then she gets on this pattern of waking up every hour or so and it's tough. This morning she ate at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5! WTF??? Ahh!!! Oh yeah and also at 6. Then she was just pretty much awake from 6-7 and DH got up with her and played with her just before 7 but after that she went down for a 2 hour nap. I think we're going to try feeding her more at each feeding in the night so hopefully she won't wake up again. She eats a little then falls asleep so we just have to make sure she eats more I guess. We'll keep working on it.
Here are some cute pictures from today - she got all dressed up to go to lunch! Thanks to Trish & Sami for the outfit - very cute.
Well, time to go clean up our place - it has really degraded into a pig sty!
