Sacked the AP, atmosphere in house.

I am now very worried with all these stories and my limited experience. I have put an advert up on an au pair site and been completely honest about the duties etc. I have already had one reply saying that I am asking for a housekeeper/pet sitter not au pair and a very direct one refusing to help with the guinea pigs. I have asked for 1 hour in the morning and 2 hours a night of childcare/housework and 2 evenings babysitting. With 2 full days off a week and all weekend free but the problem seems to be feeding indoor guinea pigs morning and evening 4 days a week. Not cleaning them out or anything. AIBU?

Lol at natural blonde !!!!

Hopefully you have found someone
Boffy

Have you found hammy? :(

Anchorage - you have made me - though I doubt it was funny at the time.

Our best one was 17 years ago. She was from Ukraine. She ran up 400 quid on the phone bill, calling Canada and Germany mostly. Then we found that she was going to leave with no warning, and negotiated a 2 week stay. The agency (who were facilitating her leaving) found her another family. I found out afterwards that they got up one Monday morning and she had packed and gone.

She also used to stay out all night, and call me 15 minutes after I should have left for work to say she would be another hour or so. And she stole money. And she smoked in the house.

at Anchorage's au pairs. I think a couple of full stories are in order.

We had a chicken pox scare with our current au pair. DD came down with it 10 days after he'd arrived, and he'd never had it. We had a logistically tricky time trying to keep them apart while living in the same house. He'd already been exposed obviously, but we were still trying to be cautious. Au pair's DM Skyped him every evening to see if there were any spots. We were lucky though and he didn't catch it.

I forgot the Spanish one who gave our car away to a chap who knocked on the door...

Boff, if it makes you feel better, last years AP walked out claiming we were criminally negligent because she caught chicken pox off our daughter (her parents then consulted a legal firm about suing us)...

Au pair before that was so busy shagging my mates au pair that he kept oversleeping at hers and turning up late. It didn't occur to him that every time he raced half naked across my mates lawn in desperate attempt to get back to us my mate would give me a call, and he was very affronted when I refused to believe his car-breaking-down stories...

Then there was the Swedish one who wore so little that I could tell she was a natural blond, and the Turkish one who argued that giving way at a roundabout was for wimps (I swear the BSM man was shaking when he dropped her back) and the one who snuck into our supercar when we were on holiday and didn't notice the back window left down, and wondered how we found out...

Our current fab one is leaving in August and will probably be our last. Life will be boring without them.

Sorry you have gone all though this, how is the search going?

Also hoping the college that you do not name is not the one I went too :/

Depends where you are but can you try some localish nanny agencies? Normally smaller and then fees are lower too.

Boffin how have you managed to remain sane through all of this. Sounds like I really need to lighten up. I am dreading the idea of getting another au pair for September. Despite that I've been lucky with this one.

We are on our 3rd Spanish au pair. They have all been fab. So far each one has found the next (first was from an agency). It is quite a useful way of doing it (you have to have a good one to start with obviously) as they can be honest about what we are like, what is expected, the area we are in etc. We do interview them too of course.

Ahem. Finn. Of course.

Oh Boff I've been reading this thread and feeling your pain and trying hard not too think too hard about the hamster cos it makes me giggle :(

We're only 4 years and 5 APs in, after 4 years with Brilliant Nanny Who Turned Into a Bunny Boiler, and it's tough out there. I hesitate to mention aupairworld, as it's definitely not a short term solution but more like online dating (I'm guessing...) so takes a bit of time and effort. But we've had 1 decent Hungarian, 2 bloody brilliant Germans, 1 rather princessy Fin and a bloody good Aussie from there. Only the Fin was a bit of a waste of space, but nowhere near as bad as your lot - just a bit precious and not really into the whole AP thing, so came to an amicable end after 4 months.

I do insist that the cleaner has access to the APs room every Friday to keep it under control, but I've also learnt to ask the cleaner how they find it, since I discovered that the Fin couldn't be arsed to pick up her dirty underwear, wet towels, general crap in advance and the cleaner was just edging around the mess....!

Good luck with the next one, and with the book. How do I find your ebooks?

Blimey,if your youngest is only 5 you have at least another 6/7 or more years left of APs. You are going to be so happy when you say goodbye to the last one.

oh good grief

Any sign of the hamster yet?

and snuggles boffy

I think you did mention breakdown to me :(

Insane that stress and childcare and work can do that - but guess easily happens. Thank god for mr boffy !!

Ah OK, fair enough re the kids, I'll allow you a lifetime of nannies.

Write the book.