I know a lot of people who have this for about 1500$ ,however to me it’s more convenient to hire locals for 2000- 2500$ for 7:30-17:30 ,overnight- extra hours compensated addionally ,my wife select the oldest least attractive one out there every time cuz she doesn’t have trust in our 2 year old son
Are you guys OK with your children loving your au pair more than loving you? Children are attached to their caretakers.
@fba34 Damn, son, that's a pretty bleak world view. I'm picturing rough men manhandling a poor deprived mother of fifteen away from her sobbing family, only to be thrown onto a river gunboat to be sold into Au Pair slavery. People in Au Pair are volunteers who apply for it. It's always college age people, usually women. They get room & board and a federally mandated $195 a week spending money, as well as $500 for tuition while they are here. @DonkeyMagic Am dissapoint, you can do better. @iconoclastic I've already stated that it's value added to have your kids love someone else more. Less time commitment, less expectation of gifts. Obviously.
I have a friend that uses one for their special needs kid. They get a new one every year. You essentially pay them half a years pay upfront(probably so they can get their visa) and then pay them less per week/month. It's not as cheap as you are saying but it's cheaper than getting someone here.
We did au pairs for almost 2 years. I have 4 kids and my wife runs a small business, so we needed the help. The logic was to get an au pair from France to help the kids get exposure to French, since that's part of their identity. That part didn't work at all because my French au pairs wanted to practice their English. It also didn't go very well on housekeeping, it seems European young adults are as entitled and lazy as their American counterparts. One of the au pairs asked if it'd be okay to invite a friend over. We said, no this place looks like a wreck (hint, hint). She said, don't worry I told them it would be. Geez. Our first au pair needed some extra time to get her affairs in order in France, so we waited a couple months to get her. When she arrived, she was depressed and missed her boyfriend. She was also obviously surprised and dismayed I didn't live in a mansion. After the second night, she said she thought the house was haunted (not by ghosts, but it had bad energy) and was afraid to sleep there. I think she may have been suffering withdrawal on a drug addiction. We called the agency and shipped her back to France asap. She stole a couple of things on her way out. The agency scrambled for a replacement and found a girl who had to leave her family and only had a couple months left on her stay. She was pleasant and got on great with the kids, but older for an au pair (24) and wanted to go back to France and get on with her life. We found a full year replacement, but she wasn't available yet so the agency gave us a Russian-German whose family didn't want her anymore. She could give us 8 weeks. We got along with her okay, though she was a party girl. Wore revealing things around the house, went out with her girlfriends to clubs all the time. She obviously liked children and liked engaging with them, though after she was gone we heard about some irresponsible episodes. She wanted to stay and work for us under the table when her contract was up, but we didn't want to do that. Instead, she hooked up with some guy, had a baby, and so far as I know is still living as an illegal alien in town. She also stole some things. Finally our full-year person arrived, and stayed the full year. She was great with the kids, very responsible, and we got along well. The last time we went to France, we actually visited with her again and stayed at her flat a couple of nights. She was bad at keeping house or talking to the kids in French, but otherwise a great success. We were friends. My wife and I didn't want to do au pairs another year though, so she went to another family in California, and now she's moved on to working a real job in France. I don't think the problems @Nook pointed out were too bad. There wasn't an economic resentment because these were young Europeans who may achieve the same lifestyle when they're older. If anything, they might have resented I wasn't richer, because I didn't have a pool for them to chill next to. There wasn't a sexual problem, except perhaps with the short-lived third au pair who dressed too slutty around the house and probably would have had sex with me if I had tried, but I didn't. I did make sure I acted the gentleman, because I didn't want there to be a problem. I wouldn't say the kids loved the au pair more than us. They loved their au pairs (at least #2 and #4), but we were around plenty too and I don't think our relationship suffered. Certainly, I'm not jealous of their relationship with her.
@JuanValdez - That's exactly what I'm looking for. I think you ran the gamut of what I had envisioned for Western Au Pairs. We wouldn't look for any Western Au Pairs for precisely those reasons; spoiled, superficial and entitled. When/if we start our search in earnest it will be Asian or Latin American. Overall more humble and value family more. @rockbox -Out of pocket is around $18k total.
Sure. Though, of the Europeans, I'm told the German au pairs are the most fastidious, if you ever think of going that way. I think getting a Latin American or Asian au pair opens a different set of issues around race relations, power, class, and money. I'm sure it's workable if you go in with your eyes open.
No, I have never had an au pair. However I am not big on dragging someone halfway across the globe for cheap child care.
Well if you're expecting a Filipino college-age young lady to volunteer leaving her family to take care of how many kids you have and do housekeeping on top of that because it's cheaper for you than other options cos it's an exciting opportunity for her to experience the inside of an American home, than you're full of ****.
Friend of mine back in the day grew up with a French nanny and a Mexican maid and he was fluent in 3 languages when he was 12.
Au Pair is a legal term for using and abusing young girls for doing your dirty work for "less than honorable wages" and justifying it by saying you are doing them a favor.
i saw her on skype video when he walked me thru his house one time and she looked really good. however, from my other post, my old secretary's best friend is the one u want pics of. nena from montenegro. petite blond ooh la la. i met her once and ginger kept her off limits after that. too bad there was no social media back then or i could have still hooked it up down low! however on a side note, allegedly she had slept with MJ (basketball) for $1700 in the late 90's
Naive to think that service X always costs price Y. Don't take my word for it, though. Google provides.
lol ....well sometimes I wonder if my children nanny is an actual Dude ,I don't have problem with that....but the bathroom floor could be a bit less sticky In seriousness, they became part of our family, they (2 Ladies split days in between) are not asked to cook,clean or anything else but to be a companion to our kids , so far it works great
