To think that this advert for an live in au pair is grossly underpaid?

[salsmum]

I was just browsing on a job site and this advert came to my attention, AIBU to think that this is asking an awful lot of a potential au pair for £80 a week? and I thought carers were underpaid!.

Exactly calypso, it comes across as though they only wanted children because they're cute, but they're a bit of an inconvenience when it comes to their own jam-packed social calendars so they'll pay someone else peanuts to do all the boring bits

Don't want much do they! I hope they do see this thread

I used to live in that street!

To be fair, 200 quid a week isn't bad for that job, but, why does the mother need to be met from the station? Strange

The pay is better on that last one, but the hours are quite long, especially on Tues and Weds when work would start at 7am and end after extra babysitting at 10pm (so the au pair might work 7am-10pm on Tues and be up again at 7am for another 12-15 hours on Wednesday).

They want a photo because...

The last slave au pair was very pretty and got fired because she told the wife about the husband's groping and pointed out the cctv camera in her bathroom.

Wife has taken down the camera but thinks it safer to screen the applicants for hotness.

At least no smug photo with that one - I can't understand WHY anyone would put the photot of their children on an 'au pair' job listing. Nor do I understand the detail of the routine.

YY tiggy that's what I thought, there is a minimum age for the child to have an au pair and it is certainly not 1 1/2.

I think this thread is going to be reported when one of these women see it (which they will) Hooray!

Au pairs do not get market rate 'salaries' per se. The deal with an au pair is that give a few hours a day as a mother's help in exchange for bed and board while they imporve their English. They are usually short term postings of no more than 6 months. Don't confuse au pairs with trained nannies.

When I had an au pair about 5 years ago the going rate was 60 or 70 quid a week. It's just supposed to be pocket money.

At least James and Alexandra are willing to cough up for two au pairs and a self contained flat

All of these adverts have very precise locations on the maps (alternative to the photos). Is this wise? There's no way I'd be divulging the street I live on and photos of DS to all and sundry who browse the Internet.

But I suppose going through an agency costs money......

43.75 pence and 37.5 pence per hour respectively! And expected to do ironing whilst babysitting. That is truly shocking. Greedy grasping fuckers.

Why did the last couple have 4 children under 6 if they can't be bothered to see them? Hiring 2 au pairs for 12 hours a day & 2 evenings is ridiculous. Maybe they got some poor girl to give birth to them for them too!

I think the posters on this thread understand the concept of au pairs. I think it's the advertisers on Gumtree who don't seem to..........

nightingale you are making me laugh!

That last one, do you think they could actually give more information about their children/family/location? I mean, why post the names of the children.

Hilarious.

Gobbo at 'James and Alexandra'

I'm surprised that James and Alexander earn enough for 2 au pairs and 4 children as they seem incapable of operating a computer safely .
Posting your own names, the names and ages of all your children, your exact address and the fact that the house is empty most weekends, on gumtree (described by a policeman mate as "ebay for scrotes") is plain stupid.

Some nice, innocent girl in Spain who is looking to improve her English (like the ones I teach here, who are 18) does not give a flying fig about 'an address in Chelsea or the bloody farmhouse in Hertforshire.'

They are all so up their own arses these people - nobody outside the UK cares or understands these locations, but James and Alexandra need to show off anyway, they can't help it.

I would love to have an au pair living with us. I would be a pain though because I'd be forever asking them questions about where they're from, and probably treat them like they were a teenage child of my own (with hopefully less door slamming and aggro!) I think it would be a lovely experience though and I would very much like to give someone a chance to live and study here and be part of our family.

We are, however, poor as church mice and have a house that would probably be too small for a church mouse!

And the 4 children are all going to be in bed by the end of the au pair's shift looking after them Housewife, so even on the nights the parents are home and au pair is not working they won't see their children!

I can't have children. I have special guardianship to DD who I plan to adopt, and I know that I got incredibly lucky when she came along. What makes me really sad is that there must be so many women like me who didn't get so lucky, and will never experience being a mother, while women like these have 3+ kids only to leave them with au pairs 12 hours a day and have someone else look after them on family holidays. There is no justice in the world.

Any more nightingale? I am enjoying myself