After you meet with your nanny, ask her for any other references she would like to give you.

Sometimes nannies will show up at an interview with a resume as well as a sheet of references. Other times, they will jot down names and phone numbers on a piece of paper.

This is one of those fields where just because a nanny has a professional looking resume, doesn’t mean that she’s a better nanny than someone who has names and numbers jotted down on a piece of paper.

Make your reference calls after the kids are asleep and you have some time to talk uninterrupted.

Ask for a family or friend reference – someone who has knowledge of the nanny candidate or has known her for more than three years.

There is nothing wrong with hiring someone who has no professional references – except that they may not have any professional experience, and you will know that you are hiring someone who needs training.

The problem comes if they do have professional experience that they are hiding from you because they don’t want you to know what went wrong.

What you do need, if you feel that that is the case, is an accounting of what the person did for the past six years, and references that can vouch for the time spent – whether it was working for McDonald’s, being a student, or raising their own children. If you come up with “holes” in the timeline of the nanny’s recent past, and after directly asking the nanny what happened during those years, you still don’t have an answer you believe, then trust your instincts, and do not hire this person.