Interviews During Care Hours?

[Gemma]

I'm just curious when you all prefer to initially meet with families. I usually prefer to meet after care hours only for safety reasons. I know I may be a bit paranoid, but if I've never met someone in person before, I feel a little nervous inviting them into my home while I have other children in care.

I currently have a family inquiring about setting up a meeting and would like to do it during the day. What are your thoughts on meeting during care hours?

I only schedule interviews after all the kids have left, this is my policy and so far I have never had a problem with it

[WBee]

Only after hours for all safety & chaos reasons above plus my STATE does not allow ANYONE to be in my house during business hours unless they are part of my immediate family(hubby & kids), clients or on my emergency contact list with BC on DCYF file. Not even a plumber or electrician are allowed. If DCYF shows up and my own mother is here, they would ask her to leave.

[knoxmomof2]

I only do after hours, for several reasons. First, I prefer to give the interview my full attention. The things we are discussing (policies, pay, their child, expectations on both sides) and trying to tune in to these parents in order to detect any possible red flags would be too difficult for me to do while also wrangling the 4 children in my care. It's worth it to me to "give away" my time. Interviews are usually 2 hours with lots of visiting and chatter and I prefer it that way because I want to get to know them if I'm going to be caring for their child for (hopefully) the next few years.

Also, safety would be a concern when I'm meeting a random stranger and then inviting them into my home during the day with my own children and the daycare children present. I try to schedule interviews for nights my DH is home, but now he's on nights so that's going to be impossible. I just try to do a lot of "reading" them ahead of time, based on our conversations/ emails and I do try to find them on Facebook.. that helps a LOT!

I've only had 1 parent ask for that. She was torn between a daycare center and my home care, so I'm sure she read a lot of advice about asking to see the provider in action with other children. I just let her know that, once we met, if we both decided it was a good fit, I could check with the other parents about her coming to visit for a bit one day and expressed that my setup was much different than a center, in that I didn't have the "safety in numbers" aspect that they did. I also mentioned that I would pay the same amount of attention to the safety and security of her child, were she to hire me. She was very understanding of it once she realized the issue.

I didn't get the job, but she was on the fence about center care and her best friend worked at a center, so I get it. The baby's father spent the whole time on his cell phone as we chatted and really seemed disinterested in the whole thing anyway, so I wasn't really impressed. This was an infant, 6 weeks old and they were looking for care around 12-16 weeks. HOW do you not pay more attention? Yeesh!

[Josiegirl]

I only do interviews during daycare hours as well.

I give the times I am willing to interview and the parents can choose what time works for them.

I have safety rules in play so that part isn't an issue for me but I refuse to devote my time outside of work to work.

I wish I could be you. Every single time I'm spending hours on a weekend doing something related to dc, I'm thinking 'how in heck does BC do it?' Lol AND with so many more dcks than I have! I must be disorganized or have never been able to train these kiddos or something.....
Anyways, I used to meet during dc hours when my family still lived here. Now I meet after hours because I have so much free time(as in no family to take care of), feel less stressed trying to answer questions, show them around and explain things, and all that jazz. And if they ask, I am right up front and tell them. If they choose to stay a few extra minutes their first days here, then that's fine too. I remember parents in the past who ended up staying for hours, joined in our activities, oooh I didn't like that but never really knew how to kick 'em out.

[Texasjeepgirl]

I do them during DC and I prefer it that way. I try to make it so that all DC work is done during the dc day, and this includes interviews. I arrange them when my assistant can be here so she takes care of the kiddos while I run the interview. I also let parents know that I *allow* 30 minutes for interviews as they can be disruptive. This way they know coming in that the clock is running.

EXACTLY THIS... every word....
I have a very busy life after hours.... my husband and I are pool players....so many nights per week I am waiting for the last child to leave so that I can shower and get ready to go....on the nights that I'm not playing pool...I can assure you I'm busy doing SOMETHING...and I have ZERO interest in meeting with clients... I find it bad enough that I have to attend training sessions after hours......Many years ago I tried a few times to meet with clients after daycare hours and it was always SOOOO ANNOYING.... no matter how you stress ahead of time that the interview needed to be brief...seems they would always stay FOREVER...and the children would drive me INSANE because well...it was after hours... I spent all day caring for children...it's the LAST THING I want to do after hours.... I do the same as the person I quoted... I schedule interviews only for when my assistant can be here to care for the daycare children so that I can focus on the potential client..

[cassiesue]

I also agree with PlayCare's rules and that is basically what I do. As I offer 23.45 care anyway all interviews have the potential to occur when dcks may be present.

I prefer to schedule them after breakfast, but before lunch. I require they fill out all paperwork on the premises, but allow them to do that in my living room. I even allow them to use my wifi or a tablet if need be as most do not have all the info required to fill out the form. I only do interviews when my assistant is present though.