Ten Tips

I was recently provided a link to an article offering Ten Tips for Choosing Childcare. Perhaps I might like to share it with my readers? It’s a decent enough list, as these things go, covering the basics quickly and efficiently. Nothing new and radical in there, but choosing childcare, while an important task, is not one which requires radical creativity. Just good communication, common sense and a gut feeling.

The wasn’t of great interest to me, mind you. I’m on the other side of that equation. And then I had my creative notion: it occurred to me that since you come here to get the inside scoop from a daycare provider, you might be interested in the other side. What’s your daycare provider thinking during that interview? How do you make a good impression?

Because an interview’s a two-way street, of course. Not only are you deciding whether you want to work with this woman, she is making the same decision about you.

Maybe I should be writing a list of tips, tips from my side of the babygate. A few lists occur to me, right off the top. Which would you like, I wonder? Ten tips to make a good impression at an interview? Ten tips to ensure your provider love you? Ten tips for dealing with conflict with your provider? (All this assuming I can think of ten discrete things, of course…)

Are there any tips you’d like? Things you’ve been curious about, but didn’t know who to ask?

And, I know! The lists won’t be just my opinion. I will solicit the opinion of two other caregivers I know, one a fellow home provider and one a nanny, all of us with 15+ years experience.

So, ask away. Which of the lists I suggested would you like to see — or are you interested in something else entirely?