Is 16 year old too young to work as an Au Pair?

Incapable*

I'm a bit shocked at those of you who seem to think a 16 year old is totally incapable of caring for a child! Personally, I agree that I would not take on an au pair who was only 16, my reasons being that technically she is a child and it could cause more problems for me in the future than it's worth. However, to say that all 16 year olds (and up to as high as 20?!) are uncapable of safely looking after your children is ridiculous IMO. I'm a childminder. I'm 18. I've been nannying since I was 16, not as a 'live in' however.
I know more about children than quite a few of the parents I work with, and quite often have parents come to me for advice on potty training, sleep routines etc. My mum has been a childminder my entire life so I was raised around children being cared for in a great environment.
I bought my first home in November, have set up my business entirely by myself, am in my second year of a levels and currently look after 3 full time children who will be arriving here in the next hour.
One of my best friends, who is 20, gave birth to her daughter just over 2 years ago and is one of the best mothers I have ever met. I've never met a happier, more well-rounded child (and that's saying something with the amount of children I've known). You could say it's her own child so it's different but I don't see how it is. My mum always treated the childminding children like one of her own (if anything they were her no1 priority) and I continue to do the same thing. The children I look after are 9 months, 18 months and 22 months.

This thread is 7 years old Charlie.....

It depends on the person. When I was 16 I was au pairing in the states away from my family and friends in the uk. Yes I had dropped out of school as soon as possible but I have very good reason to and it didn't affect my responsibility that I know I had and that I took very seriously. The couple that I was staying with we amazing and I'm still very good friends with them.

It really does depend on the person. And whether you would feel ok with them looking after your child.

I wouldn't = all my au pairs under 20 have been pretty disastrous - just like having another child in the house imo.

I was an au pair at 16 in france - mainly to learn language and cos i love kids and it seemed a great short term opportunity.

I could not cook (i actually learned to cook an omlette and cook spaghetti when i was there!). i also didnt know much about kids. that said i was kind and caring and would not have left kids to themselves at the park (although i had no ideas how to discipline them!!). the family didnt work at taht time so i was really there to play with the kids and so they could pop out for the odd hour /eve here or there.

i agree with everyone's comments 16 is too young esp if you need to leave this person in sole charge of your kids on a regular basis .......but might be ok for occasional babysitting in an older sister kind of way

i have just read that susan griffith's guidebook to nannies and aupair or whatever the name is says that uk has not ratified the europian treaty on aupairs (1969) because it says an aupair should have an contract and uk government was worried about the need to control the whole thing if it fell under the employment law.
cant link as the documents i read were in czech but perhaps someone has access to this book?

To dikkertjedap - yes I know about Canadians, Australians etc - I had written "APART FROM Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis and Japanese people can't."

Absolutely caterpilarr - more traditional countries like France, Germany and Scandinavian countries have been enjoying the au pair program for many years. Nothing at all has changed that means people from these countries can no longer participate and take up au pair positions.

I have had lengthy conversations about this recently with my agency and au pair status is still recognised by European and government organisations such as the Immigration & border agency, HMRC and others.

i am with you treeesa on the fact that it's only the aupair visa that has been abolished, not aupair jobs as such. the french have been able to take up an ap position for years without needing an ap visa and still are.

The status of au pair only exists if you're Romanian or Bulgarian though, with the restrictions on working hours etc. And I'm still not clear whether the language course requirement is still attahed or whether it just has to be an enlgish speaking family.

Everyone else is a home based childcarer to nab OFSTED's terminology. You can call them an au pair if you want but the old ideas of it being a cultural and language exchange and not having to have a contract etc are now out of date so a French person can't legally be termed an au pair, only Romanians and Bulgarians.

Treeesa - Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and Japanese can come to the UK as au pair under Tier 5 Youth Mobility Scheme see Annex A

Going back to what you said EvaLongoria then you were right almost.

People from EEA countries can live/work as au pairs here in the UK, but people from outside the EEA apart from Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis and Japanese people can't.

The job status for "au pair" still exists and there are rules for specific nationalities within the EEA. Those rules still have age limits and restrictions on hours worked. It is still considered as a status a cultural exchange and is not an employment position.

If someone is from France then they are free to take up the same type of au pair position.

So it is only the au pair visa that has been removed, and not the au pair status.

The person you mentioned at 16 though is too young to be considered an au pair. If you take her on as a family then you would be really acting irresponsibly according to someone I have spoken to about it.

Hando it's very different when it's your own child and it's different in a nursery where the majority of staff will be trained or in training and supervised. There is no way this French girl at 16 can be qualified in childcare and caring for someone else's children is different to having your own. Incidentally you can leave school in France at the age of 16 but it is rare to do so, as it means leaving after the first year of lycee.

If colditz wouldn't leave a child in the sole charge of someone under the age of 20 then fair enough, but that is probably a minority view. Plenty of nannies are qualified and looking for their first sole charge job at 18 but the difference is they have 2 years of training behind them.

16 is still too young to have extended sole charge of someone else's child IMO.

Also, Colditz - I appreciate you weren't able to look after a child at 16. But you go on to then say that you wouldn't leave an under 7 with anyone under 20. I think that's a pretty bold statement. Many nursery staff are under 20, LOTS of parents are under 20 - I was under 20 when I had and cared for my own dd.

Sure, some under 20's are idiots and irresponsible, not all though, I wouldn't even say most are.

She may be more than capable of looking after your dd wonderfully. Or, she may be nothing more than a child herself and require "mothering" and be totally unsauitable.

Please remember lots of 16 yr old have thier own babies and make wonderful parents. Who said a 16 yr old couldn't have their own 2 year old? Many do nowadays!

totally and utterly yes she is much too young.. sorry but you would be out of your mind to trust a kid of that age..

I run an au pair agency and we would certainly not contemplate placing a 16 year old, especially not with a family with a two year old.

Also, you will be responsible for the au pair, especially given that she is clearly a minor, so rather than making your life easier this might actually make it more complicated.

I don't know where you are based but I am sure that there are plenty of au pairs around who would like the position you are offering and are a little older and more mature.

Also, on-line agencies might seem cheap but ultimately you are leaving your child in someone's care who might not have been properly vetted.

I had a 15yr old helping me out.I thought she was much older,she was 5ft11 and she was helping run a youth club and an after school group.She was also the eldest of 8,so very used to being in charge.However she lived nearby and was not having to come to a foreign country.She babysat and was a holiday time mothers help.She was one of the most mature and level headed helpers i ever had.
Age doesnt tend to equal emotional maturity imo.
But for lots of the above reasons i wouldnt employ a 16yr old Aupair...but i have had a couple of 17yr olds,one great and one dreadful.

I wouldn't. There is a big risk IMO that this person will need a LOT of managing and end up quite like another child.

if you are realy wanting her she could come and stay with you as a house guest and language student and maybe attend a local school or college and then you could train her up to look after your daughter in the future. it would be like fostering another child to start with but worth it in the long run if it gave someone keen a start in life.

Yes that's sort of it. One of the key differences is that under the Au-Pair agreement, I don't think the au-pair was considered to be an Employee. Now they are!
Now that they are an Employee, they have more rights... though due to being live-in they are still exempted from National Minimum Wage.

We have a lot of job titles in use for people who care for children in a domestic home. It gets so confusing... I'm not surprised that Ofsted had to come up with yet another name - Home Childcarer - to try to cover all the job titles currently in use.

X-post!

What nick is trying to say, I think, as we have this quite often, is that the job status doesn't exist any more as the visa category has been removed so there are no restrictions on working hours.

There was previously an international au pair agreement, not legally binding, which laid out what an au pair did in countries which allowed the status of au pair. Can't link as on phone! Eea nationals have been allowed unlimited working since the uk joined up. The difference was that there was still such a job as an au pair in law and that person lived with a family, helped out, got pocket money and learnt English. That job no longer exists which people are only realizing with the abolition of the au pair visa.

Anyway all that to say the although certain countries have been legally allowed to work more hours this idea of an au pair persisted until last year when suddenly it stopped existing. With me?

But there were rules covering some people from some countries and those rules were removed in November 2008.

Think it affected people from:
Andorra, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bulgaria, Croatia, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Macedonia, Monaco. Romania, San Marino, Turkey.
People from: Nationals of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Turkey also needed a visa before they travel to the UK under the scheme.

There were rules regarding age, hours etc.
Found this old info:
Au pairs are aged between 18-27 and their chief purpose for being in the country is to learn the language and assimilate the culture.
An au pair lives with you and should be treated as part of the family. Au pairs earn board and lodging and a small amount of money each week in return for childcare and light housework.
R.E.C (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) stipulates that au pairs should never have sole charge of children under the age of three.
An au pair should have their own bedroom and be allowed proper time to study English.

Found a link to the old INF16 (this no longer applies... it was removed in November 2008 - but it DID apply up till then, for those from the countries it lists).

My point is that "au-pair" no longer exists, as it was the terminology used for the scheme (INF 16). Now that people from more countries can come to work in the UK without needing a visa, without needing to be limited to working to 25 hours a week, without needing to attend language college - I feel there is very little difference between an "an-pair" and a "live-in nanny".

people from EEA countries did not fall under the aupair scheme!
i dont know how it worked before 2000 when i first came to the uk but in 2000 EEA nationals were able to come and work /including work as an aupair/ in the UK with no restrictions or paperwork whereas we /'easterneuropians'/ needed a work permit or an aupair visa until we joined the EU in 2004.
i even remember that we were officially only allowed to work 25 hours a week as oridnary aupairs according the the home office regulations whereas the EEA aupairs were allowed to be an aupair+ and work longer hours.
what i am trying to say is that UK rules for aupairs from EEA countries have not changed for at least nine years /and i guess for much longer/, or rather thay havent been any rules in the UK for at least nine years.