How long did it take you to recruit your au pair and how many

We lost an au pair to her "weekend" hairdressing job, so I don't blame you for being wary. I use greataupair and aupairworld. On average, I'd say it takes me about 3 weeks of fairly intensive searching to find an au pair (about an hour each evening looking at profiles, then follow up emails & phone conversations). There are loads of German girls looking for au pair jobs in UK. We're on our 2nd German AP and both have been brilliant: good English, no culture shock, drive well, level-headed, really interested in the children. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I'm tempted to limit my search to German girls when current AP leaves in February.

Harriet it really depends when you are looking... if you are looking in August or June it's quite quick to find an AP through APW / NAP etc. I've used a few agencies, when I've been looking out of season and it's taken 6 weeks or so.
2 of my AP's have had weekend jobs in a pub and tbh this has been great. They have a social life, some more money, somewhere to go. I don't think it's too much work, let's be honest neither APing or bar/cafe work is stressful or that demanding and they are only 20ish.

Current one took five weeks of looking, but being a single dad in a rural location I wasn't inundated. But the most depressing thing is when you get an expression of interest through APW (I also use newaupair.com) and you send them a short questionnaire, 90% never respond.

Talking to the parents, I have only ever done this by email, and yes my questions are about how they will cope. They tend not to ask questions back of me but I do get "and my parents would like to know ..." from APs. Tends to be practical stuff about health insurance (explain not required for EU citizens dues to good old NHS), driving lessons, English lessons that sort of stuff.

harriet - seven days a week! So when will they get down time, relaxation time, social life, meeting up with friends, getting to know the area, culture, country, when will they have time to get to know the family? errrr, on your time, when they are doing au pair duties?

seven days a week is not sustainable. you will have no flexability with babysitting or her other hours and she may well make herself ill

i sympathise harriet the spy. we are also looking for a nanny/ aupair but the other way round we are in aus. ive been trawling all the sites and so far au pair world seems the cheapest to subscribe to, almondbury looks good but very expensive and they dont seem to do anything much.. can someone corect me if i am wrong there before i make a choice where to subscribe to?
great aupair looks good too but loads of asian girls that cant get work permits here so no good,
My aupair worry is how do i ensure continuity of care? If finding one is this hard???? how will i ind another in a few months? or please does it get easier?

Less than a month - used AP world.
Have been half-heartedly looking for her replacement for early next year for the last 6 weeks or so but can't get into it. I find that the APs want you to commit to them so quickly it feels so rushed - or else you lose them.

3 weeks, used AP world and got someone who was already in the UK and able to do a face to face interview.

4 months, but I recruited one and her successor in the same round of searching.

I used two sites and one agency, but both times actually ended up with someone via AuPairWorld.

I ended up doing interviews with around 20 people each time. Was very time-consuming but important to find the right person.