Nanny attributes list continued:

Artistic

Educated and/or experienced with special needs children

Fluent English

Speaks multiple languages

Good with active children

Good with book-ish children

Vegetarian household

Kosher household

Shopping involved

Must be able to travel on vacations with family

There are probably dozens of other assets that you could think of if you dream up your perfect nanny, but these are some starters to get you thinking.

If you’ve already placed an ad in a newspaper, an internet site or on a bulletin board – or all of the above – and more – be prepared for a deluge of calls.

How can you be prepared?

Have pencils by every telephone. Get a three ring binder and a stack of three-hole punch loose-leaf paper. On the paper, make a chart with columns for recording incoming phone calls, and returned phone calls that you make to the callers.

There should be a column for the following:

Date candidate phoned

Candidate’s name

Candidate’s number

(If you have placed more than one ad) Where candidate got phone number

Best times to reach candidate

Called back (for times you called back and left a message)

When you do reach an answering machine or a live person who is not the nanny, either ask what would be a good time to reach the nanny on the phone, or leave a good time to get you back in person, on the answering machine. The former is a better idea because you have a little more control of the situation in case you are continuing to be deluged by phone calls.

When you do get the nanny on the phone, your phone interview should include the following: