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Original poster

The madness of aupairs

42 replies

Quattrocento · 10/06/2008 00:23

Just sifting through applications now

  1. From a wannabe grunge rockstar who assures me he will be fully prepared to care for the DCs 15 hours a week right after he has finished touring North America with his band
  1. One who started a letter with "I am a happy boy" and signed off "God save the Queen" which had me giggling for an hour
  1. One who is likes to make things with her hands and make art all the time "see i have lots of ideas" but confesses to believing in reincarnation, being vegetarian, and untidy (that would Never Do)

Clearly madness would be an advantage in the Quattro household - but is this normal?

OP posts:
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ingles2 · 10/06/2008 23:19

sorry jura 'tis true...
next time I'm just going to randomly pick one regardless of profile. pin in map kind of thing. Will probably get a good one.

jura · 10/06/2008 23:17

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ingles2 · 10/06/2008 22:45

You really don't Boyz, they're a nightmare these days.

ingles2 · 10/06/2008 22:44

LOL's Quattro sounds sooo familiar. That AP boy I had last summer signed God save the Queen too.
Well, I'm waiting for AP to come back from holiday to see what we're doing. But hopefully I won't be reading between the lines in the rubbish that is APW.

blueshoes · 10/06/2008 22:42

Oh, Ripeberry, I use a ft nursery AND an aupair. With complex schoolrun and commute, it is a necessary evil.

Ripeberry · 10/06/2008 22:36

You're all very brave. I would never hire an Au-pair, would rather have a nursery, childminder or nanny.
Don't you ever get worried?

blueshoes · 10/06/2008 22:19

Are we all hiring for September already? Gosh, need to get my skates on ...

BoyzntheShire · 10/06/2008 21:24

oh i miss some of my aupairs. 2 of them. the other one, not so much.

hmmm, maybe i need another aupair

inceywincey · 10/06/2008 20:24

Have you got rozario's details? I quite fancy learning to high jump

jura · 10/06/2008 18:09

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poppy34 · 10/06/2008 16:04

why jura -he sounds ideally qualified .. am sure could keep your dc amused over summer months with some athletics practice?

jura · 10/06/2008 12:40

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inceywincey · 10/06/2008 08:02

you have me laughing my head off! We had exactly the same, last year, when we used an agency. The first girl was bulimic, and ate us out of house and home in the dead of night (poor thing-her mother had sent her to 'sort herself out') 2nd one was absolutely fantastic, but only needed a summer placement, and then the 3rd one claimed that I had her scrubbing my house from dawn till dusk! (not true, obviously!) On a more positive note though, I did have an application from Enrique, a spanish fitness instructor....unfortunately DH was not to keen on the idea of taking him on

Original poster
Quattrocento · 10/06/2008 00:33

Yes, number 2 is very endearing. I worry about this sort of stuff and spend hours vetting them but in the end, probably closing my eyes and pointing would be just as scientific.

Current one is lovely generally so think we've been lucky. We had a slight freshness problem which seems to have gone away.

Is it okay to ask them if they have any (mental) health issues?

OP posts:
QuintessentialShadows · 10/06/2008 00:32

pmsl.

I never had those. My last one was very serious on her application, yet she proceeded to give my ds2 (2 years old) a large mug of hot tea with milk and sugar every time she fancied quiet time with her book (all the time) as it would keep him occupied for absolute ages. You know, wait for tea too cool, then start sipping, etc....

NormaStanleyFletcher · 10/06/2008 00:27

the first au pair I had was mad as a box of frogs - it wasn't ideal though as she fed my (7 y old) son pepper sandwiches, ran up 450 on the phone bill in 2 weeks, and then planned to skip without telling me (I found out before she did) (and skipped the next place the agency sent her to, leaving them with a surprisingly empty room when they got up on the Monday morning)

Herodias · 10/06/2008 00:26

Number 2 deserves a trial period, at least!