Summer Nanny Search

This past Saturday, the search for a summer nanny began. I posted an ad on Sittercity.com and within an hour, my cell phone started ringing. I got 5 messages over the weekend from people who are interested. Mind you, I don't pay well, it's 3 days a week, and it's only from May 15 until August.

I went online to my sittercity account today to check and see who applied. I thought I had 14 applications and thought that was good. Then I clicked onto the Next Page button and realized that I had 14 PAGES of applications, at 10 applications a page, that is 140 people who have applied. I contacted 6 of them -- one because she called, has my same bday and goes to the University of Iowa like I did.

So now we are setting up interviews. Unfortunately, a few of the girls are students and can't come home for an interview until May 10th. That's cutting it a bit close and how can they compete when I have 140 options and many of them can come in for an interview? And do I have them come all the way back for a weekend just to interview for this position? Really?

I'm going to start with the 3 or 4 I have already set up. I'll interview my current nanny's friend --Dave -- Ada might like a manny. And if I don't click with any of those women, then I'll do phone interviews with the 2 at school.

The other bummer about interviewing so many people is the amount of time it takes. We have to prep questions, schedule them, keep track of who's coming, when. And it will eat up a bit of our Saturday. That's a small price to pay to find someone to watch our daughter I guess. And I'm glad to see that we have so many applicants. I think in the future, I'll be more blunt in my posting and say the start date is non-negotiable, the pay is non-negotiable, and you must be available to interview this week or Saturday. Some people are applying just to apply and can't start until June. That isn't helping.

Wish us luck!