What to ask, what to listen for, and what standard screening misses — the method behind twenty years of nanny placements, in seven pages.
Tammy Gold, LCSW, spent years matching families with nannies before writing Secrets of the Nanny Whisperer (Penguin). Today she works beside families, and their agencies, as a neutral expert: defining the job, interviewing candidates, checking references and setting up the first 30 days.
Most families hire backwards: they interview, fall for someone, then call references hoping for confirmation. This kit reverses it, so references come before the interview and shape what you ask in the room.
It's the same sequence I've used placing and training nannies for twenty years, adapted so any family can run it.
Tammy Gold, LCSW, MSW is a Columbia-trained psychotherapist, founder of the Care Map Method™, and author of Secrets of the Nanny Whisperer (Penguin). She has appeared as a national parenting and childcare expert on TODAY, Good Morning America, CBS, and in The New York Times.