who you can trust completely and feel comfortable living your kids with. So, where do you start?

Well, that's where the Nanny Doctor, Dr. Lindsay Heller can help. She's a former nanny who

is now a clinical psychologist. Thank you so much for coming in. >>Thanks for having

me. >>So, the first thing we need to figure out is our family's needs. Do we need a live-

in or a live- out and what the nanny schedule would be? >>Right. The first step in finding

the right nanny for your family is to identify those specific needs for your family. Those

beyond logistical, practical things like hours and days, what you're gonna wanna think about

are you specific needs such as, you know, are you an outdoorsy family, very active,

you go hiking on the weekends or do you like to sit around and play board games and watch

movies. >>So, how do you figure out what nannies are out there that are available. Should you

go through an agency because I know a lot of people don't want to pay the fee? >>Well,

fees can be high for agencies however an agency can offer you a lot of security and that they

can handle the background check and do a lot of pre- screening beforehand and they are

professionals in this business. However, you can go through the internet and do some other

things; the important piece is getting them checked out. >>So, let's talk about checking

them about because once you figured out who is available you really need to screen them

and you say should start before you even meet the candidate. >>Absolutely. What you should

do is you should check out the resumes, whether you get them through the internet or you get

them from the agency. What you're gonna wanna do is screen those first and foremost, after

that you're going to place a call to the candidate, don't do an interview over the phone but just

a sort of, you know, get the feel for them, and then following that you're gonna wanna

do some personal reference checks. And I would even go as far to say go for a third- party

reference which is when you talk to maybe a former employer of that nanny and you find

out if there's any other adults maybe at a party or a birthday party [ unk ] around this

nanny who could also speak to this nanny's abilities. >>So, then when you've done that

and you narrow it down to that one person, you actually wanna bring them in and you wanna

-- after you've met them and you think you really like them, you wanna have them work

a typical day or even a typical week. >>Right. Yes. If they are a weekend nanny, what you're

gonna wanna do is have them work a weekend day, and you're gonna wanna be present for

that whole phase, don't' run the show but educate them about your family. Model appropriate

behavior to your children, pay attention to how the children are responding to the candidate.

>>And then you definitely have to do a background check? >>Absolutely. Background check is absolutely

essential, if you're going with an agency this is going to be built- in, if you are

gonna do it on your own, in California we have Trust Line Registry, however if you go

on the internet and look at different, you know, different organizations that do this

thing, they usually start about $ 50 and you can even pay a little bit extra to have them

do the sex offender registry. >>Okay, and then once that's check comes back clean you

can offer the position. What do you need to know before you offer this job and how should

you go about doing that? >>Well, you're gonna want to look through their resume and you're

gonna think about your original -- the needs that you identified early on in this phase

or in this process, and those needs are going to direct you to kind of what this job description

looks like and how you're gonna negotiate salary and how you're gonna talk about what

the job description looks like with the candidate. >>And Dr. Heller, I know there's always an

adjustment period when the nanny and the family are getting to know each other. How do you

make that go more smoothly especially for the kids? >>Well, the first three weeks or

three months is a very critical adjustment period, and it's also a time when a lot of

early firings occur and it's usually due to poor communication. This is a time period

when you're gonna want to educate your nanny about you and the nanny is learning about

your family and they're telling you how they are nannies. >>And we want to make sure our

nanny stay for a long time. How can you make sure? What can you do to help that process

allowed and make sure you have a long term nanny? >>Communication is key. Good communication,

being open when there's a conflict and really discussing that, benefits are also, you know,

if you could offer them things in addition to medical, dental or vision, if you offer

them things such as use of a car or cellphone or trips, or something, people are gonna stay

around a lot longer. >>And giving them raises I would imagine. >>Raises, absolutely. >>Okay.

And what are some of the good questions -- going back to the interview because that's the most

important part when you actually bring them in when you meet them. What are some of the

most important questions you can ask a nanny? >>Some of the most important questions you

can ask, first of all you're gonna really wanna know about safety so you're gonna wanna

know if -- you might want to ask them a question about in other situations, have you ever had

a situation where there was an emergency, and then listen to how they responded to that,

you know, do they contact the parents first, did they go straight to the emergency room,

did they have that information on them to know what to do. That's definitely a big point.

Also, you're gonna wanna know about things such as the transportation, do they have,

you know, some other, in additional to background check you can wanna look at their driving

record, do they have a driving record. Again for me that relates to safety again in your

child. Their knowledge of the ages of your children going back to identifying your needs

with your -- you know, in order to find the right nanny you're gonna want to think about

the ages of your children and has this nanny had experienced working with these ages. You

know, you might want a nanny who has a lot of experience working with babies or older,

but those are some questions you're gonna -- and also food, kind of nutrition, you know,

that's something you don't want your nanny driving through a drive- through every -- >>Exactly.

>>Everyday for lunch. If it's really important to you that your children are receiving good

nutrition then they need to know that. >>Okay, finally, how about red flags? What things

should you be aware of when you're looking at a resume or you're in that interview that

should make you go, " Okay, this is not the right person ." >>Well, as a mom I think you

really should trust your gut feeling in a lot of situations. These are your children;

if you are feeling uneasy about it you should really pay attention to that. Secondly, if

you're looking at a resume and you see a break in employment, I would wonder what that's

about and if, you know, sometimes people would say oh those are family emergency while sometimes

it's not a family emergency and that's a key word for getting through the interview. >>All

right. Dr. Heller, thank you so much, great advice, and if you'd like more information

about Dr. Heller you can go to her website www. thenannydoctor. com. Thanks for watching

Parents TV, your source for the best information for your growing family. >>Thank you for watching

Parents TV. Our families, our lives.