Help with my child care ad?

[Ruby2]

Hello - I was devastated yesterday to learn that our much-loved care provider for our 2yo has to find full-time work asap. We are back on the hunt for someone exactly like her. :-)

I randomly found our current care provider on Craigslist. That was a lucky find, but I ran expensive background checks on her and her husband and don't want to do that again unless I have to. I need help! I want to post this ad on care.com. What do you think? Is it too much? The bottom line for us, besides experience and safety, is compassion. We believe in attachment parenting and I have a hard time communicating what it is that I want from a child care applicant. Any feedback is welcome. 

Compassionate, dedicated care provider needed.

Seeking child care for our 2 year old daughter.  We’re expecting our second child in May, and will need care for him/her as well in late summer.

We would prefer care in our home, but can be flexible for the right person. Schedule is... beginning as soon as possible. Moms of young children are welcome to apply; we would love for our daughter to have a play mate.

Our daughter loves to have adventures, sing songs, read books, and snuggle! A great candidate for this job would have experience caring for toddlers and infants and an understanding of child psychology and development. We're looking for someone who has lots of patience, likes teaching our daughter new things, and understands the importance of open communication with parents. 

Please include salary expectations in your reply. We look forward to hearing from you.

[JudiAU]

I think it sounds fine. Does your daughter watch tv? If she doesn't, I found it helpful in the add. Kept a lot of low-energy, lazy people away.

What about driving (licensed driver, car, insurance), work status (legal right to work in this country), do you want or need to pay employment taxes? How many years of experience?

[Ruby2]

I love the tv suggestion and added it - thanks so much! The rest I figure I can answer from their application or email. We live in a small city and I only got 20 applicants, so I didn't need to weed anyone out with having a lot of specifics in the ad. 

[JudiAU]

Also, I found the best way to appraise the situation was to just hire each serious candidate for a solid day and go about our day. I think I did this with three different people and it was really helpful and really worth the money.

[Anna Phor]

What about references? We specified that applicants must have references, and we also asked that they have experience with multiple children. We weeded out any applicants who didn't address either of these in their application. 

I'd take out the "prefer care in our home but could be flexible ..." One of the benefits of paying for one-on-one care IMO is not having to do drop-off! 

[Alphaghetti]

It is the norm in our area to ask for CPR, first aid and police clearance. Are you comfortable asking for this? I am a home care provider, and I would most definitely reply to your ad. :)

[Caryliz]

We also searched for a new care provider while I was on maternity leave with #2, and the question I found most useful was asking if they would wear the baby. Some thought I was nuts (they were out), some were inexperienced but thought it was cool and were willing to learn, others had experience wearing their own kids or children they had cared for and were enthusiastic. I found that one question was the easiest way to test applicants' openness to attachment parenting approaches.

We live in a pretty rural area and I was honestly worried about having care providers to choose from, but as my husband reminded me - we needed only one good one! In the end we selected a woman who cares for DS2 in her home, and she is FABULOUS. We couldn't be happier. She was nervous about wearing our baby but willing, so I bought a secondhand Ergo for her and she ended up loving it. Our backup babysitter is also a woman who provides care in her home, and the day I went to meet her, she came to the door wearing an infant in a MT! Sold.