Interview...The Kid Sounds Perfect, but..

[cheerfuldom]

go with your gut. That "odd" feeling about her should not be ignored. If she didn't bring her daughter, my first guess is that the child is very badly behaved or might be special needs even. I know that sounds bad but in my experience, parents leave their kids home during daycare tours or interviews for a reason.

[nannyde]

I require the kid to be at every interview. I want them with me as much as possible before the first day. I also want to see how the parents do with their baby. It tells me a lot about how comfortable they are being a parent. The easy going, calm, realistic parent is going to fit right in to my program. If the parent is nervous with their kid and doesn't seem to be able to manage them when they are here they will most likely have unrealistic expectations on me.

[SilverSabre25]

As I said, the reason that she didn't have her dd with her was entirely one of logistics. But, I wasn't thrilled with it either which was why we were going to arrange a playdate prior to the decision being made. But, when she gets off work 3 mins away from me at 5:30 and her current daycare/sitter is 30 mins away, if not more at rush hour, I couldn't see much other way around it. I don't like to do interviews that late (my DD is too squirrely by then) and the lady is a single mom with, apparently, no family to help.