No applications for au pair role... what am I doing wrong...

Maybe you did cyclist. My point was that the ad didn't seem to suggest that sort of arrangement but rather was looking for an employee. Good luck OP, I agree with your last post, sure you will find someone lovely with a few tweaks!

It's completely normal for an au pair Roseotta.
Au pairs live in, are part of the family, eat with the family, go on family days out etc. The cost for an au pair is much higher when you factor in the extra costs and many families pay for language school, provide an Oyster card and pay for a phone contract or gym membership. Mine did approx 20 hours per week over 4 days, which was light. The agency I used recommended 25 hours, two evenings babysitting, and pocket money of at least £80 per week (this was several years ago). We treated them like I would hope someone would treat my own daughter if she became an au pair, like one of the family. When the children were younger I had live out and paid £10 net. When they were older an au pair worked well for us.

I think the deal breaker is the flexibility/ possible weekend working. All my au pairs wanted a set routine, and despite me stressing flexibility never wanted to swap weekdays (they did a 4 day routine, 3 day weekend). The hours and babysitting are absolutely fine for what you are paying. I'd ditch the driving bit if you are in London, it will put a lot of them off, and also adjust your cooking expectations to boiling pasta. Anything else is a bonus. Good luck!

Sounds like you want a nanny housekeeper for £4 an hour? Is this normal? I'm looking for someone similar, but more hours and live out, and am expecting to pay £8-9 net! We have similar aged kids plus one 2 year old and the laundry (for the entire family) is a big job in itself.

It wasn't spiteful it was just my opinion.

You are of course entitled to your views. It just seemed a bit unnecessary to term it an 'odd reaction'. A bit spiteful towards someone who is generally a helpful poster and was only detailing how the ad read to her. Maybe she can come back and explain what specifically seemed strict to her? It could just be a misunderstanding of a word/phrase. English is her second language don't forget (as it will be for most of the au pairs reading the ad).

Well I think it's odd and I'm entitled to my views too. I honestly couldn't grasp why.

I have 2 boys, and our last 3 APs have been French males....all wonderful. Agree with most other comments, but I wouldn't narrow search by nationality. Agree with ages though.

I am on AP World at the mo and have had over 90 applicants despite similar nationality restrictions and tighter age restrictions (18-21 only). We pay £30 less than you but ask for 25 hours only, plus provide a three day weekend. We do ask for two babysittings and specify one is at the weekend. Like you we require a very high standard of English. So basically what I am trying to say is I suspect its the hours and the threat to the weekend that is the problem. Most APs want protected time to exploe the city and even travel at weekends.

I don't think it sounds 'strict' either, but I don't think it's fair to describe that as an 'odd' reaction. As someone who is an au pair with English as a second language that poster's views are valuable as to how the advert reads. A reaction different to yours isn't automatically 'odd'!

definitely put pictures up if you haven't though - there was something about au pairs who didn't send me photos that I found very offputting and I can well imagine an AP feeling the same.

BTW - I don't think you sound strict at all. Odd reaction.

Ad is completely standard for an au pair EXCEPT the weekend part. I would take that out. I don't actually understand why you've not had many replies- we had hundreds. "Lively" boys might be seen as a euphemism for badly behaved but many au pairs' English isn't that nuanced, so I don't think so.

For people who haven't recruited on au pair world before, there are only two metrics to limit the number of applicants - age and nationality. Many still won't read the ad and the other (employment law friendly) requirements properly anyway. I don't disagree age and nationality aren't brutal metrics and it is interesting this is still allowed but otherwise you'd be deluged in most cases. I can't see how the site would be functional if you didn't have at least these metrics of control -they could use other metrics I agree.

There is no way, for example, on au pair world to click a drop down box which states: EU nationals only (to ensure they have the right to work here). You have to go through and tick all the nationalities that would apply. Au Pair World also allows applicants from countries who have no right whatsoever to work in the UK, which is also employer highly unfriendly.

THe site is not perfect by any means.

Op your ad is fine and you will get plenty of applicants, but be proactive and apply to the girls you like. Nothing wrong with looking for certain countries only, the Scandinavians are pretty fluent in English and come for the experience rather than the language. Dont listen to all the negativity on here, you dont need a nanny, its an au pair role and its perfectly acceptable working hourS. Good luck! Choose wisely and you willhave a great experience!

As a former and current Au Pair who has been using Au Pair world to find my host families, a few things would put me off with your ad.

Unlike most people on here, I find the 'dear Au Pair' and the description of your family very good and the fact that you describe your kids as 'lively' wouldn't bother me in the slightest as most people seem to expect boys to have much more energy than girls anyway.

The part that would put me off is the part about your expectations. You come across as 'pretty strict' (even if that's probably just the wording that's at fault) and this would be the first thing to put me off. Then you seem to have a lots of requirement that do not necessarily match a typical Au Pair profile as most girl would come to the UK to learn English and it would probably their first experience out of home (especially if you are aiming for younger Au Pairs) so their cooking skills might not be very high. Mentioning being able to cook for an Au Pair may mean that you expect her to cook meals for everyone etc... if so say that in the ad, if not, just add that someone that can cook pasta and chop some veggies is fine.

I find the 30 hours per week pretty average so it wouldn't bother me ( as I have worked 45+ for far less than that) but the possible working on weekends on top of (two) nights baby-sitting would put me off greatly. You also mention more hours during school holidays, will she be paid extra for this or not ? If so mention it.

Finally, you mention light housekeeping which is totally normal and expected yet the only example you give is laundry while the Au Pair is supposed to do child related house chores. I do the laundry of the entire family here but that's because it doesn't change anything for me to add the parents laundry with the one of their child. So instead as an example I would say '' like any member of the family we would expect you to give us a hand to keep the house tidy by cleaning after the boys (with their help) and doing their laundry, so nothing really heavy as we have a cleaner."

I really think it's all about wording really. What I am personally the most attracted to are families that show me from their ad that they are excited to have an Au Pair and ad a new member to their family (aka me) but in your ad you make it sound as a job and not something an Au Pair would naturally enjoy. If you enjoy camping or going hiking or whatever talk about it in your ad and tell the potential Au Pair that you would love it if she joined but isn't expected to if she would rather do something else.
Make it sound as you'll treat them as a new addition to your family and not as a simple employee... :)

If you don't require the Au Pair to speak a specific language to your kids then I would forget the specific countries as most Au Pairs will make friends no matter where they are from. (I am French and my friends here are German, Polish, Australians, Chinese etc... no Frenchie and I am perfectly fine. ) why do you only want Au Pairs between 19 and 24 ? ( out of curiosity as it's also limit your potential candidates.)

Sorry for the huge response but hopefully it helped a bit and help you find the perfect Au Pair for you and your family. :)

I'd make it clear that your 4 year old will be in school full time. Maybe they think they'd have him all day? How does just before school and after school (not including babysitting & weekends) add up to 30 hours anyway?

I think it sounds more like a nanny job - exp with kids, able to cook, driving licence? and aged under 24? sounds like a rare bird tbh. Maybe reduce your criteria a bit or look for a nanny and pay accordingly.
I know others will have told you, but 'au pair' means 'equal' to be treated like an elder daughter would be.

Surely if you are asking for specific Nationalities is because you know people from those... Have you asked EVERYONE you know if they know ANYONE how might be interested and suitable?
There is a new app called WouldU (www.woul.com) that makes it very easy for an add like yours to travel through extended private networks... and maybe your friend's cusing is waiting for the right opprtunity to come to London! Good luck!

Broaden your search criteria! I have two boys also and I actually prefer to have a male au pair...I was on au pair world a couple of months ago looking for my 3rd au pair, and had over 100 applicants...mainly Spanish males, mainly graduates. If you have 'lively' boys, someone who can play football with them is ideal. I'm about an hour from London.

Agree with the driver part. I got loads more responses when I took out the age range, made driving optional (the kids are anyway walked everywhere) and extended the country list to all EU ( I don't want visa issues and I want to be able to afford a flight home as a Christmas perk)

Also you mention a driver would be good but want someone between 19-24 you do know that adding anyone under 25 to your car insurance is probably going to cost a lot more than someone over 25 would it worth making the age range bigger?

We are profile no 2890342 if you want to compare. But no nicking my applicants

I'd also cut down the length of your ad - don't mention things like references until you get further down the path (most good candidates would expect to be asked, so no need to add words up front)?

I'm currently recruiting on ap world and have an advert up that mentions my lively boys :-) If you search for 'stirling' you can probably find it on there. It's been up two days and had about 30 applicants - with the search criteria set as Spain and Male/Female. This is our third year recruiting - ime the quality and fit of male candidates is generally better than female (lots of sporty trainee teachers?) - have you considered that? There's also lots of good Spanish candidates due to (a) economy and (b) requirement for good English skills to get in to eg state teaching posts. So think about that?

Also - site has been crashing loads last couple of days so could be that has caused problems for your applicants.