Leaving your child with someone other than you can be a difficult thing to do. According to KidsHealth, finding a trustworthy and competent child care provider for your child will take time and effort. There are many ways to go about finding someone to care for your child, including recommendations from others or advertisements. Narrowing down your candidates by asking a series of important questions will help you choose the best person to take care of your child when you are away.
Do You Have References?
Checking a potential child care provider's references will help give you insight into her abilities and past experience with children. Healthy Children recommends calling any references before making a decision to leave your child with someone else. Most experienced child care providers will have at least one or two references of people from past employment that will provide you with more information about how competent each candidate is and how well each works with children.
What Kind Of Activities Do You Do With Children?
When interviewing potential child care providers, make sure you get a sense of how each candidate interacts with children. Ask what ages each candidate has experience with, and have her explain what types of activities she does with different age groups. If she is unable to give examples, she may not be a good fit for your family. You can also ask about what types of activities she enjoys doing with children, recommends Healthy Children, so you can make sure to have supplies on hand when she is caring for your child.
Are You Certified in CPR And First Aid?
Safety is one of the most important responsibilities that you have as a parent. Ensuring that those you leave your child with are trained and aware of potential accidents will give you peace of mind while you are away from home, writes KidsHealth. Ask each candidate if they have had CPR and first aid training before hiring anyone to care for your child. You might also quiz each candidate to see how she would react to certain situations, such as your child falling down and scraping his knee or is choking on something.
How Would You Handle...?
Give each prospective child care provider a few scenarios about typical child behavior to see how each would react. Healthy Children recommends posing scenarios such as your child refusing to do his homework, to see how each candidate would react to difficult situations. This question will help you get a sense of each candidate's discipline style so you can choose the person whose discipline style aligns most closely with your own.
