I had a woman contact me looking for care through Craigslist. Very short email, asking if I have openings and if she can come see my place. I reply back that I do have openings, and ask about a schedule. Her reply was vauge Monday-Friday maybe full time. Didn't give me any ideas on hours. She did let me know she needed care because her son was getting custody of his daughter and "as much as she wants to, can't watch her full time" and if she could come by on Friday.

Um...OK, so, a few red flags...why is grandma looking for care and not her son? Not a deal breaker but odd. Second, I really don't want to waste my time interviewing if the schedule isn't something I'm open to. I don't require a phone interview (I have very limited times I can use the phone without one of my 3 kids "needing" something lol). But I do like to talk a bit in emails first.
What do you think? Should I press for more information or just do the interview and go from there?

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I won't schedule an interview without more info. Interviews take time and energy, and I don't have those to waste! I never give my address until I feel like we could be a fit.

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Bare minimum I need to know what days of care they need, the hours, and for them to know my rate.

Otherwise it's a waste of my time.

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I agree it's important to know schedule needed first before doing an interview. What I will say is I don't find it too odd that grandma is making calls and not the son. Maybe dad just doesn't know where to or how to start looking for care. Maybe grandma will be helping raise the child. Just throwing a few suggestions. I had a grandma call for her daughter once, a bit different situation but child has been with me for 10 months already.

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Hmm maybe it's more common then I realized! I just never had a grandparent being the one to interview etc. Unless they had custody of them. It wouldn't keep me from taking them, I just kind of was like well that's different...lol.

But yeah, I need to know more. I don't want to give out my address to someone I know nearly nothing about. Plus, they need to be OK with my rate, and that I don't take subsidy payments. Suggestions from anyone on how to respond?

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I would ask her to shore up the hours needed, so that you can give a rate. Tell her you can't give a quote without it. At that point, I would give a quote and let her know you don't take subsidy payments. I would also tell her that her son would need to come with her, as he needed to be part of the decision making process and will have to be the one to sign the contract.

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I agree with PP. I use craigslist as well but never have any luck. I never give my address out either. People using craigslist in my area are looking for cheap care and I don't offer that. There's too many cheap sahms and babysistters.

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It's not too bad here...about 50/50. I used to have better luck with fb but that's at about a 50/50 rate lately too. I'm not sure why because there's not a lot of sahm/babysitters in this area. There is a lot of providers, but we're all within 10$ of each other rate wise. I seem to be getting a lot of people who want really long hours (like 5am-5:30pm) and don't want to pay more then "average daycare" rates for that or ones that are sort of OK with a higher rate BUT don't want any rules attached. It's changed so much since I started this!

But yeah I emailed her back asking for more specifics. We'll see if I get any response...

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I usually do a mini interview on the initial phone call just to see if it works or not.

I would say just do the interview. I have had many occasions that a grandparent might step in to help with a busy parent trying to find care. It usually is a positive sign of a good support system. The only thing is in this case maybe gran doesn't know all the particulars with scheduling and such. So I say do the interview.

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I'm pretty blunt so I'll just put this out there. Every single person who has had their mom call has been a weird client. Expecting more than I would offer (they needed "special") and expecting me to coddle them.
I
would still interview, if the hours/days/rate is good for both parties, but I would be watchful.

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I personally would not allow a grandma to come and do the interview, nor would I get her to sign a contract etc. Unless she is the sole guardian of this child she is not coming to my home. I wouldn't mind her coming WITH the parent but not by herself.

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Yeah, I'd like to know more about the situation and why grandma is looking/interviewing. I could see getting names of people who have openings and passing them on but not doing the actual interview. She still hasn't replied when I asked her for more info so I'm not sure if I will hear from her again. If I do, and it doesn't seem too weird, I will interview but definitely proceeding with caution.

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(^bolding^ by me)
~Exactly! My worst clients ever were the grandmothers who called looking for care for their grandchildren. I know this is not the case for many, and there are all kinds of success stories, but for me it has been.

Usually it was a situation where the grandparents were keeping the kids for free and were getting burnt out so they went looking for the care, interviewed with their child/grandchildren...then never to be seen again. It was then the mom/dads place to pay, keep up with policies etc. and they just weren't into it because after all...they weren't the ones who wanted the children in daycare in the first place.

In every situation, the grandparents, after they got a little break, started wanting to watch the kids again a day or 2 here & there, then to watch them part time, then etc. and of course the parents felt like they shouldn't have to pay for those days. I could keep going and write a book about this type, but I won't. So, I would just say watch out for these red flags and if they don't seem to have them, try them out...after you get more info of course.

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Same. Exact. Scenarios. Here.

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Never heard back....I'm guessing she wasn't impressed with me requesting more info I suspect I dodged a bullet with this one!

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Probably so!

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I am very sorry you had these experiences, but also glad to learn that I'm not the lone ranger in this...I had been wondering! ...'s to you!

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