This is a good time to do some research also – if there are questions about what you should do with a nanny once you hire them, like if you should give paid sick leave or if you should pay for the nanny’s car insurance, or insist that she buy it herself -- this is a good time to find out what her previous employers did so that you can either do the same, or make an improvement on the situation for her.

The purpose of the reference questions are three-fold:

First, you want to find out about the nanny, and learn if she was a good nanny to this particular family.

Second, you also want to find out if this family is like yours at all. If the nanny was fired from a family that has a staff of ten, and strict house rules, she may not have been right for that family, but if your home is just the four of you (or however many of you there are) and no other employees, and you work at home, or some other combination of factors, the nanny who was not right for the family that fired her, she may be right for yours.

The third purpose for these questions is to see if what the nanny has told you about her employ is true or not.

You are looking to see if she is lying or covering anything up. This is one of the few times that you can find this out the easy way – by seeing if the nanny’s answers to questions match up with the reference’s information. If they do not match up – immediately question the person you are talking to. For instance, you can say, “Gee, the nanny told me that she worked for you for three years, and you’re telling me she only worked for you for six months. Is there some reason for the discrepancy?”