Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Original poster

Au pair couples

63 replies

PixiNanny · 19/04/2009 20:00

Me and my partner are looking at au pair coupling from next March onwards, I was wondering if any of you guys know of some websites where I can find couple work?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
frAKKINPannikin · 16/06/2009 13:55

I would also try and give a bit more detail about Andy's current job.

There are a lot of exclamation marks in there... (but that might just be a personal stylistic thing I don't like)

You might want to put higher up that you speak basic French (if you do) and he speaks basic German.

Do you both have a 1st Aid - if so then put it down (apologies if you did, I missed it!) and what type you have.

Not having a location would put me off as well if I happened to be looking. How about specifying that you'd like to be in, say, France but you're open to other locations? You would have good reasons for France - you'd like to speak French and Andy's worked out there already.

Original poster
PixiNanny · 16/06/2009 13:36

*can't

& thanks for the tips lol, I will be getting on it this evening

OP posts:
Original poster
PixiNanny · 16/06/2009 13:34

sorry for the tl;dr!

OP posts:
Original poster
PixiNanny · 16/06/2009 13:34

Lol, I knew it would be mentioned the minute I hit post!

We can put things about previous employers on most sites, at least, when I put PGL I get an email from the site that tells me my profile will not be shown until info about previous employers has been removed!

I'll try make his part a bit better though, he had no input in it really as he's not in the country haha. He works with kids for PGL in the Ardeche at the moment He's better with teens though I must admit.

Maybe I should make cleaning more clear then? I'm okay doing light cleaning, like hoovering and dusting and the kids beds once a week, but I don't want to be shoved into doing every little thing every day, if that makes sense? I'm not a great cleaner myself, my opinion of clean is not really spectacular lol, though I must admit, Andy is the complete opposite, he was in the army & marine's and because of that he even folds his undies, thats how bad he is (and I love antagonising him by moving everything around, military lads are so fun to wind up!)

I will also mention our CRBs, as both of them have had them done.

Also, the families willing to have couples have generally been less paddling/climbing orientated, which is a pain in the arse for us lol, I miss paddling like crazy and I know Andy would miss climbing (something I'm getting into myself lol) and sailing (also something I want to do).

On your nosiness (), We don't need time off to study though if I stayed in the UK I would like to be able to do a BSL course, and if he could find something, Andy would probably want to do a personal trainer course as we're trying to fit that in around our travelling plans so if he could do some of it whilst working here it would be benefitial. Also, same could be said for outdoor courses. If I were to stay in the UK then I'd love to be able to attend a few courses and get more outdoor qualies. Still torn on my future career, either Nanny or Instructor, so having kiddie and outdoor qualies works well for me haha

I know that I can't expect a great wage as one half of an AP Couple, nanny or not (I will have my NVQ3 by then so therefore 'qualified'), and I'm not too concerned about earning a lot as I don't socialise much and when I do spend it's from my savings, like I save for a month and then spend a couple of hundred on a new peice of hardware or something haha

And lol, available from Jan with no plans so far looks like we might end up back at PGL at the moment () with plans to try get into another company or couple job next summer (no way in hell am I doing more than 3/4 months with PGL again!)

My turn to be nosey lol, what paddling do you do?

OP posts:
Millarkie · 16/06/2009 08:39

Nosy question - Are you 'marketing' yourselves as au pairs because you need time off to study, since (in my eyes) you will be a qualified nanny by that time. (Or do you need to change your 'expected pay' range?)
(Again, from a personal point of view, I would love to have an inbetween AP and nanny (with an inbetween expense ), since our 'job' really is too small to justify a full-time nanny (although I've just asked to go full-time at work with a view to potentially shifting back to a nanny again), but we have had a mixed experience with au pairs (even though I try very hard to find ones with childcare experience when I recruit).

Millarkie · 16/06/2009 08:20

I was going to recommend teeth-whitening and a good hairdresser - but now you've ruined my joke

I like couple profiles where each person has talked about themselves (a paragraph each), you get both 'voices' that way.
Have either/both of you been CRB checked recently - might be worth putting that in, and being a bit clearer about your bf's experience with children (it says working in France for...but not name of company or type of employment..is it a children orientated job?)
And although I would love an au pair who paddles and in particular we would love one who climbs (dh is a climber and the kids are just starting out climbing) I would be wary of taking on one who doesn't like cleaning - because at the end of the day there just isn't enough childcare in termtime to make it worthwhile having an au pair..having the dusting/hoovering done makes it worthwhile.
Having said all that, if you are available next summer and would consider rural UK then I'd 'find you attractive'

Original poster
PixiNanny · 15/06/2009 22:34

Dammit, before anyone calls me up on it, I mean attractive as potential APs

OP posts:
Original poster
PixiNanny · 15/06/2009 22:23

Regurgitating this thread, can anybody give me some tips on how to make me and partner look more attractive? We're looking for work from Jan '10, I've joined most AP sites that come up on google, with an exception to AP-world, having troubles with my profile there because I say that I don't mind where in the world we go which apparently is a cardinal sin of APs who want to travel So yes, any tips on how to make us look more attractive? Here's our general profile that's been repeated everywhere:
www.greataupair.com/showprofile.cfm/locatorID/944793/

Obviously Jan is a long time away, but I'd like to get at least a few families on the line by Sep/Oct as I need to tell my host family by then that I'll be leaving!

OP posts:
Original poster
PixiNanny · 21/04/2009 13:07

I'm on that site, but there's no way for me to search for families who want/would have couples so it's useless to me at the moment as mainly I'm trying to get a feel for things and see how much the going rate is etc, but obviously if families wanted to contact me they can but as I'm not after anything until next April not many have (which I am not expecting for a while yet! Lol). Otherwise, it's a good site and one I used when looking for a job!

OP posts:
UniversalAuPairs · 21/04/2009 09:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
PixiNanny · 20/04/2009 01:33

If I were to work in the UK, as a qualified nanny but part of a live-in couple, what would it be fair to charge for me and partner together? Newly qualified mind you.

I've been looking up ap couple jobs in the UK and they usually offer about £80 per person, however live-in nannies get well over £200 (however they are working a lot longer hours than me!) and I worked out that in my current job I could technically earn £180 weekly live-in based on a top end live-in nannies hourly wage in my area (usually between 5 and 6 quid) and no, before you ask, I will not be demanding this off of my host family as they hired me whilst unqualified and they are lovely, generous people!

But yes, based on this, would it be fair to offer working as a couple on a live-in's wage, so around £250-300 weekly for the pair of us? Considering a live-in nanny costs around £250-350 dependant on area and hours?

OP posts:
Original poster
PixiNanny · 19/04/2009 20:14

I'm on great aupair but most families are in the UK. I'll be a qualified nanny by that point but I wouldn't mind ap positions if I were in a different country, but I'm also considering the fact that we're young (we'll be 20 & 21 by the time we search for work) that people advertising in Lady Magazine may be put off, which is another reason that I'm looking for normal ap jobs :/

OP posts:
Millarkie · 19/04/2009 20:08

You could try Greataupair.com - I'm pretty sure that when host families search they can tick a box to specifically look for couples.
Are you looking for au pair level positions or for (better paid) nanny/housekeeper/gardener type positions (in which case The Lady magazine might be a better option).