make some preliminary reference checks before you meet the candidate. If there are any red flags, you can cancel the interview and save yourself the time.

Meeting the nanny candidates in person is an emotional energy investment. Your adrenaline pumps and when you’re finished meeting the first few, you may be physically exhausted. Knowing this, you should only meet with candidates that you have already screened through the phone interview and preliminary reference check. Weed out anyone who is not right, as soon as possible.

If this seems like a lot of work up front, the reason for it is that you will avoid hiring the wrong person. Many employers hire nannies glibly and without thorough checking – both of their own needs, and of who the person they are hiring really is. As a result, they end up firing the nanny or she quits, and they find themselves back in the nanny hiring process all over again, not sure what they did wrong, even chalking it up to bad luck – despite the fact that the same thing happens over and over again.

Make the interview dates with them for the following weekend. While this doesn’t leave you a lot of time to continue with your phone screening process of other incoming nanny queries, you don’t want to lose momentum. The truth is that the nannies that are answering your ad are answering lots of other ads and are looking for jobs besides yours. If they feel that you are not serious about this job, they will move on. It is out of consideration for them to keep the process moving at a “normal” clip.

Make a meeting date at your home, and ask her to phone you if she can’t make it.

You should schedule two interview days, preferably on a weekend when your husband will be home to meet the nanny, also. Schedule four interviews back to back, allowing for forty-five minutes for each meeting with a 15-minute window of overlap time in case your next appointment is early or late. After four nanny interviews give yourself a break. You won’t be able to process more than that at one time. You will need lunch and a nap – if you can get one. Schedule the next four nannies for three hours later that day. That should give you eight nannies on Saturday and eight nannies on Sunday.