Where to look for an Au Pair online?

Our au pair came through newaupair.com, the matching wizard doesn't work but the profile browser is fine and the au pair candidates seemed good to us (once you narrow by language and so on).

The thing about APW is it seems to have far more volume of both families and au pairs. So when I put my profile up I will get 2 or 3 enquiries a day through APW but 2 or 3 a week through GAP (or EAP), there is no difference in apparent quality so I therefore have a wider pool to choose from.

And yes GAP has better date functionality but IME a lot of APs get confused by it and don't use it properly.

DIOM - out of interest, what particularly you can do on apw that you can do on gap? just asking as i prefer gap for the very same reason - it has more questions to answer, especially about dates and the search is more detailed. i need to add i am not a family but looking for jobs through them plus i am never a member.

Germans good - Austrians - GREAT! All of mine from aupair world. All excellent english, great childcare and easy going, nice to have around and all short term -2 months - 5 months longest. Non have been at all demanding of us and all seem much happier with a quiet village life with a few city outings (far more thatn I imagine an English girl of same age would be...) Also had a lovely Italian, housework was her forte though, the kids were safe and fine but she didn't do much with them, my house, for the first time ever though was completely clean and tidy, all the time (OCD creeping in towards the end, children putting out train track, au pair already putting it away from the end they started at at one point!)
You can be very fussy on au pair world as someone else said, there are so many to choose from but it seems you have decided against that site for fair reasons.
Good luck, I really enjoy finding our next au pair, it is fun!

I use au pair world all the time with no problems though I know other who find them rude once you you have problems.

The do ave to have a genuine address and phine number as a security precaution and to check that you are not an agency. If you have declined to provide these then I think they are quite justified in refusing your profile.

I have tried Great Au Pair and although their site is more user friendly than APW they just don't have the volume to be able to be as fussy as I like to be.

Don't give up on the Germans yet Strix. Could be a beautiful relationship.

in my view english children are wilder than teh german ones! ( i worked for several english families and one german family plus i always met tons of the kids' friends).

do you mean Abitur by arbiter? ;)

aupairworld is a german site.they read every single profile and if they dont like something, they just delete it altogether without saying anything. they delete my profile as well when i didnt put my address in. and they often even dont react when you try to email them or call them.

Cheered me up to no end, Strix!

BTW, our terms: current AP does similar hours to what you are offering, but we pay £80 p/h. No gym membership. But she has a very cool room, which she was pleased with. £5 p/h for extra babysitting. Internet/telly with many channels. She seemed very happy with her arrangements, so I think we did okay on that front. There was one person she knew getting sheds and had a car. But there were many downsides (in her view) to that arrangement so for some APs it really isn't all about the money.

What I've learned is that what some of them want is SUPPORT - like being babied a bit if they're sick, etc. This is what is tricky if you're used to a nanny and also have pretty much NO TIME left at the end of the day after work, catching up with your own kids etc.

Your AP will love a gym membership I'm sure.
I think yours are absolutely fine.

Oh dear I'm procrastinating now and must get on.

I am, Strix. The girls who have been to the grammar school (studied for their Arbiter) seem to have outstanding English. I know others who were really happy too with their German APs. No one whose hosted a Swede yet.

Congratulations!

We used au pair world.
We've had 3 German au pairs. All different personalities. Two were excellent, one was OK with the kids but not easy to live with. Their standard of English was excellent, and they all had previous childcare experience. They were not particularly regimented or strict. All of our au pairs have been very fit and went to the gym frequently, but this seems quite unusual since all of their au pair friends that I have met have been very unfit!

Ours is German and we've gone for another for next year. Dabbled with the idea of a French girl. But the excellent English coupled with the high education levels of these arbitur girls was a winner for me, when you're looking at people with similar levels of childcare experience. I also agree that they are culturally quite similar to the Brits - and for sure the Yanks (I'm one).

Your German candidates sound great. Our au pair is Dutch and she is a trained kindergarten teacher with an English boyfriend who wants a nice safe but relatively independent start in the UK and we are very happy with her.

I used to live in Germany - must say they're not strict with their children at all! Very into fostering independence and self sufficiency though, and German children tend to be a little on the wild side compared to the English

Germans are a good bet though I'd say - culturally quite similar to Brits and generally a good standard of education and English.

Strix - congrats on your baby! For such a shot term contract, i would really try and get someone already in the UK who's already (sort of!) adapted to life here and whom you can actually interview F2F rather than recruit someone from abroad and face the angst of not knowing if they will turn up, the potential for homesickness etc. I take it your nanny is still with you til Sept? saw that you were trying to help her find a job earlier? Depending on what circles she mixes in when out and about with your kids, does she meet au pairs? perhaps ask those au pairs is they know any friends who are looking for a job as well. doesn't hurt to advertise locally in colleges, local post office etc.

i might be going down the same route as you as i'm also going on mat leave and thus my nanny will be leaving. would love her to stay but can't quite justify the costs when i'm going to be at home all day! good luck

I just don't see where people get the stamina to go through all those CVs from AP World. And deal with the timewasters. I would be as pissed getting a rubbish person after all that effort as I would be having spent the money on this particualr agency. But that's just me.

Anyway Strix good luck and have fun!

Have had some fab girls from Aupairworld, some awful ones too. I know of a few looking for work Sept-Dec.
Agencies were not any better than doing it myself i must say.Have had dreadful girls from agency to but had to pay loads to,much more galling i find.
For 35hrs you will need to offer £75 usually.Goodluck in your search

I say advertise £70 but be prepared to up it to £75 for a good candidate to hold them because it's a pretty short time frame and long hours for an au pair, even though you get a nice gum membership.

From what I recall you do quite early starts, don't you?

For 3 months you might get quite a good au pair who is serious about improving their English. It's short time for them to stick out - most people can deal with a Dec end point from Sept, even a teen!

Given the age range you've specified you're likely to get a school leaver. If they're French ask what their plans are, why they aren't going onto (govt subsidised, completely free) further study and when they decided to become an au pair. The likelihood is they either failed their bac or are looking towards one if the grands écoles and need to up their English level. I spent an hour yesterday dissuading one girl from the former category from becoming an au pair. She doesn't like children but she was saying 'oh but Incan say I like them and they won't know...' so I totally agree with Harriet about the general quality/indecision/motivation of au pairs. Works the other way round too - there were some horrific ones when I worked in Paris who weren't doing it for any good reason.

Many many more time wasters in my experience, people not really sure what they want to do after school, think why not test the waters with ap-ing. Not sure which country they want to be in (should I hold out for Oz). Not sure it's enough money. NOt sure they like kids enough. NOt sure they can bear to be far from the BF. Whereas nannies are professionals, so if they reply to your ad it's pretty much a cert...they are in fact looking for a job!!