How did you find your nanny?

Ciarrai

I'm a WAHM and I usually have a PT nanny during the summers (the girls are in MDO during the year).  Anyway, my nanny is a college kid and she just got a promotion at her day job and decided not to come back this summer (understandable).  Anyway, how did you find your nanny?  Did you use a service or site?  Contact local colleges?  Craigslist?  Other ideas?  TIA

edmo

We found several people, and hired a nanny, from www.sittercity.com. It cost money but it was worth it.

tdub

I found my part time nanny on Craigslist, posted by her current family.  However, she just backed out today.  Aaargh!  I'm looking again - I just posted a job description on Craigslist tonight, and I've already received about 20 responses.  I'm also looking at Care.com.  A friend recently found a PT nanny on there.

jennynorene

sittercity but i will warn you that you may have to sift through a lot of applications.  of the 50 or 60 people who applied for our job, only three or four were worth talking to.  but we found someone we really like in the end and i think the service was worth what we paid, and you can run a background check from the site.

Madringal

Both of the nannies I hired came from my church network.  I just sent out an email to friends of mine at some different churches and asked them to let me know if they knew anyone in their congregation that would be interested.  Each time, I got several responses.  The girl I have now is FANTASTIC, and I would never have know about her if it were not for the emails I sent out.

itsmyturn2

I found both nannies on Craigslist - I used sittercity too, but ultimatly ended up with ones from CL. I would be super specific in your job posting about what you want, as that tends to weed people out who wouldn't work well quickly.

DallasHorn

jennynorene:

sittercity but i will warn you that you may have to sift through a lot of applications.  of the 50 or 60 people who applied for our job, only three or four were worth talking to.  but we found someone we really like in the end and i think the service was worth what we paid, and you can run a background check from the site.

I used care.com and gonannies.com. I like the usability of care.com better than gonannies.com. In the end, we hired someone from gonannies.com - but that was only after our 1st pick from care.com came back and ask for as much money as DH makes!  Hum...thanks but no thanks

Our first nanny we hired was a teach at the daycare DD attended before we had 2. We knew her for a year and had had the chance to see her interact w/ DD.

I did try posting on craiglist.com, but got a bit nervous and switched to the nanny websites.  As others have mentioned, you do need to weed through a number of unqualified candidates or candidates who you might just not prefer from their profile. I also had a number of mom's apply who wanted to bring their own child.

BizEB

I used a local agency.  I wanted a part-time nanny with a ton of experience who was background checked and I was just super picky and found it annoying to use the bigger sites where people who were like 20 responded to my ad even though I said I wanted someone over 30.  I also said I wanted someone Monday-Wednesday and I got a ton of responses from people saying "I can't work Wednesday, but how about Thursday?"  Um, no. 

I know it works for others-- I have used sittercity to find babysitters in the past.  It's usually alot of crap but a few gems.  

MissLinz

Local agency. We wanted a nanny/housekeeper. Got great applicants and now have a fabulous nanny. Had to pay a fee but worth it. I got sick of looknig on Craig's List and wanted someone that had CPR training and solid references.

Cyp40

I found my nanny on GoNannies.com. I had a great experience with GN and my whole family LOVES our nanny. I really liked the features on the site and was very impressed by the background checks they provided. I checked out the other sites mentioned but I didn't want to get stuck with recurring billing and they didn't offer great background checks.