Au pair work?

[JoJ48]

My daughter is thinking of taking a gap year working as an au pair in France. Can anyone recommend a safe or the safest way to secure a position?

Safest way is to ask everyone you know personally, and get a friend of a friend of a friend type situation.

Or there are various agencies but there’s no real way of making it 100% safe I guess, just like getting into a taxi is never 100% safe.

I assume she’s an EU citizen so has right to work there etc.

Agencies are a really good thing. Agencies have standardized contracts, which give clear guidelines and boundaries about what an pair is expected to do, what she(or he) should receive in return (pay, food, accommodation,
transport costs within reason, often basic phone costs). This prevents families asking for unreasonable hours or chores or expecting the au pair to pay for her own bills etc. Agencies will also mediate if families and au pairs clash and help both match with different a different family/au pair if the relationship breaks down.

I’ve seen girls have a shit time with unreasonable families and go through their Agency to sort it/change family. Not fun but not really a dangerous situation. The out and out abusive cases I’ve seen/heard about happened to girls who did not have an agency. - Some of those girls felt they had to flee the family - leaving a note and disappearing. Not fun and not a safe situation.

Going through an agency gives you power - you have someone to call if you’re in trouble who knows the rules and who the family want to keep onside. Agencies blacklist families who repeatedly mistreat au pairs.

I did a year as an au Pair a long time ago and I always recommend an agency to girls thinking of trying it. Especially if getting home on in a hurry is difficult/expensive if everything turning to shit.

From the point of view of someone who had au pairs when DD was younger, always through an agency as the au pair is better prepared for what it entails and has someone else to turn to if it doesn't work out. It protects them.

Years ago, I found an au pair job from an advert in The Lady magazine.
These days, I'd recommend an agency though.

Thank you. Good point about EU citizenship.

Sorry I’m new to this. Thank you all for your comments. I will definitely be trying contacts and if not agency. Good point about EU citizenship. Many thanks all