pros and cons of using an au pair?

I think it's a bit early for Jan recruitment Harriet - I am meant to be recruiting for jan/feb start now and I'm getting poor candidates compared to my aug/sep start lot.
I recruiting for aug/sept in may (because I was told to get going before the good ones were gone but tbh there was a flood of applicants about end of June time (ie. after I had found my au pair) which were fine. I think that maybe October time might be better for a Jan start. (I'm logging on to apw once a day in case a fab. ap appears but not stressing too much yet)

Overthemill - I don't mean to hijack, I am an au pair novice and currently recruiting our first au pair for January and am as interested in this as you...it's just that I have to say one tiny thing to Millarkie...

Okay, got an email back regarding the phone call..."This time might be good, if not, an hour later, just not sure what is happening." No further explanation, it was as if I were her mate or something. Oh dear.

I'm thinking of switching to Almondbury or using one of the (few I know) agencies recommended on here. But then maybe leaving it to October? Is that too late or too early for Jan? There's the rub.

Overthemill - I don't mean to hijack, I am an au pair novice and currently recruiting our first au pair for January and am as interested in this as you...it's just that I have to say one tiny thing to Millarkie...

Okay, got an email back regarding the phone call..."This time might be good, if not, an hour later, just not sure what is happening." No further explanation, it was as if I were her mate or something. Oh dear.

I'm thinking of switching to Almondbury or using one of the (few I know) agencies recommended on here. But then maybe leaving it to October? Is that too late or too early for Jan? There's the rub.

overthemill - not sure if Romanian au pairs have visa issues - might be worth looking into before you commit.. I stuck to EU countries to make sure that they wouldn't need visas.

Harriet - I'm not the only one with a real aupair world girl in the flesh! A couple of my neighbours and a work colleague have also used the site successfully. Having said that I was contacted by about 50 au pairs, rejected about 80% outright (due to not matching my profile), got into email discussions with about 10 of them, got to reference checking and telephone check stage with 3. Got turned down by 1 of the 3, got turned down by 2nd of 3, was about to offer to 3rd when the 2nd one changed her mind and asked to come to us...so it is a time consuming process with lots of 'wasted' time.
We suffer because it is a rural location and although we are commutable to London I don't want my ap's to go to London during the week (although weekend is fine) due to train unreliability..but on the good side, I made the job as minimal and enticing as possible ie. 17.5 hours, mainly supervision of school age kids, no cooking, no ironing, small amount of cleaning for extra money.

I am starting to think these au pair world girls are imaginary. We have friendly exchanges and then hear nothing again. I THINK I am finally talking to a real person tomorrow morning. But we'll see. I've just noticed there are many old threads about this.

millarkie it's great you got one that materialised and is really helpful. How long is she planning to stay?

Jessie - we found our au pair using www.aupair-world.net.

We also live in a village, but we have bus and train service, even so I am only looking for au pairs who drive (they can have use of my car during the day) since I was worrying about them feeling stuck here. (Having said that, my au pair does not like driving and has made friends with other au pairs who tend to pick her up and drop her off).
We have not offered to pay for language classes but we are thinking of offering something towards current au pairs language school fees because she is finding it difficult to find a cheap course which suits both her level of english and has sensible hours (there are a lot of evening classes but she would rather not be out on winter evenings). She is much more help than we expected which is why we are thinking about paying out more than we had agreed.
We live in a 5 bed detached house..not huge compared to some of au pairs friend's host family houses, but bigger than a 'normal' family home. ..on the other hand it is in dire need of refurbishment and currently has 2 bedrooms being decorated and the kids are shoved together in a third room.
Au pair's room has an ensuite shower and we spent quite a bit on making it pretty and cosy (new furntiture, bed linen, curtains, cushions etc)..but this is partly because it (like the rest of the house) had not been decorated for about 30 years (we bought the place last year).

I am also considering this as I work from home and once a week go into office and there are big demand for childcare in our area. Therefore no one can help me out few hours a week. I have just been registered as Childminder but only starting in January. In mean time im considering using Au Pair to entertain my 10 month old whilst i work few hours at home. Can someone also say whats the best way get one

We've had our au pair for about 3 weeks and she's marvellous. She helps out before school and looks after the kids for a short time after school, also does some cleaning, and walks the dog. She is doing far more than I expected (ie. simple but useful things like emptying bin because it's full) and is far more competent than I expected. In the evenings she prefers to be in her room (she has tv and computer there) or out with her au pair friends. She has spent most weekends out with her friends so we haven't had any issues re: privacy yet.
On the cons side - Au pairs are more expensive than after school club (although mine's saving me some cleaning costs, dog walker and babysitting fees). And you never know if they are a good'un or not until you try living with them.

Our first ever au pair arrives a week today so I'll let you know in a fortnight lol!!