I hired my current nanny precisely because of her daycare experience. I have four children with schedules, and I wanted someone with experience balancing the needs of multiple children and the willingness to follow reasonable procedures about cleaning up and getting them ready.

The most valuable quality her daycare experience gave her, in my opinion, was a really good sense of how to deal with multiple unhappy kids, or two people who needed something at once, or a messy craft project with multiple kids.

In your case, the nanny share candidate also has that experience, so it wouldn't be as much of a bonus.

I would not base your decision in other people's experiences with either category. If there is no clear answer do a second ((or third) interview to discuss some of the details more. I think many details should be saved for a second interview. Then if you are still unsure, do a working interview where you leave for a bit to allow nanny to get to know kids and then spend a little time when you get back observing the interactions. Go with your gut!

Funny, this just came up recently for me. A friend of mine just had her nanny of 4 months quit with no notice. Nanny had been a daycare employee for 3 years, and was hired to care for my friends infant full time. Nanny said she loved the baby, but felt bored and missed her daycare coworkers. I even had my nanny reach out to her for playdates (she only came out for one playdate that I'm aware of), and I know she had access to their car for outings as well. Friend said she was overall very happy with nanny, but had previously told me she was disappointed that nanny wasn't much of a self starter when it came to baby related chores or planning outings.

The daycare worker has no experience balancing the needs of two employers. She also may not be aware of the same resources within the community for teaching/socializing infants and toddlers, as day cares do most activities and socializing in-house.

We are looking at 2 candidates for our nanny share.

One has been a nanny share nanny in our neighborhood for a few years (same family), so I am confiident she could do this particular job.

The other is coming from a day care background and has obviously been around a lot of kids.

Both have excellent references.

What are the pros and cons of hiring a day care worker as a nanny with little direct full time nanny experience? Why don't I see more of my peers doing this?