To find this article in a Magazine very weird?

[camaleon]

Junior Magazine, June number includes an article about au pairs 'Confessions of an au pair'. The whole article is full of cultural cliches, but in particular I was very surprised by 'A Rough Guide to Au Pair Traits', where you can find the following statements among others:

Australians and New Zealanders: Extremely well trained; highly qualified; highly coveted; highly motivated; not in the au pair price bracket: they want to earn big moeny for travelling, so usually work as mother's helps or nannies and expect £200 a week plus.

Easter Europeans Slovakians, Hungarians and Czechs are hard working: self-disciplined and self-motivated; good at housework; good with children; fast learners; quite reserved and sometimes appear more serious than they really are.

French. Avoid chic Parisian chicks as the girls from Paris rarely work out -too fussy and wouldn't be seen dead with a dustpan and brush; girls from provincial French towns and the countryside are hard working, kind, and loving; speak average English

German. Brilliant at English; very broadminded; hard working; good at childcare; very well organised; provide excellent support for a mother who is at work all day; similar Teutonic background helps them to fit in with the English personality; don't expect them to have a sense of humour about football or towels on sunloungers.

Scandinavian. Often blonde; very popular -in fact, sometimes a little too popular, especially with husbands; sportly; like nightclubbing; very good at English; good at childcare; not very keen on cleaning; unlikely to stay longer than a year, as they often move on to better-paid jobs.

Spanish. Very loving, family-oriented, emotional Mediterranean temperament; hard working; very good at childcare; good at housework; not very good at speaking English; heavy smokers; may leave to work in a restaurant and get their own flat.

Turkish. Often overlooked because of anti-Muslim prejudice, they're actually very pro-Western; very loving with children; hard working; highly educated; highly motivated and very keen to learn fluent English (English is the official language for commerce in Turkey)

I am in AIBU to think this is borderline racism/insulting

I don't think there is anything borderline about it. Shocking!

utterly

YANBU. How bizarre.

Extraordinary. What is Junior magazine?

Krecherlivesupstairs.
Junior Magazine is a magazine on parenting, that has little about parenting and lots about fashion. However, it includes a 'London edition' which I have found quite useful to know what is going on in terms of events sometimes

Is it supposed to be funny, maybe?

YANBU - this is disgraceful stereotyping! And I can't believe what they said about Scandinavians being too popular with husbands!!!

I worked in Kuwait many years ago, and this is how the expats I knew talked about their slaves maids. They told me that Phillipinas were hard workers but too likely to try to steal your husband, and that Indians are lazy and dirty.

I'm Indian. But I was married to a Brit (at that time) so I think they forgot that, and when I pointed this out, I got the ridiculous - "oh, but we don't mean you"...

There is no excuse for this - if it's humour then it's totally misguided.

I think it's supposed to be funny, but for a magazine that's touting itself as upmarket this is shameful.

FFS that is awful! The author and publishers would probably claim it isn't 'racist' because, hey, Australians/French/German people are mostly white but what is horrible is the smug middle class sense of entitlement, and the way the writer clearly percieves 'servants' as less than human.

hoping its tonue in cheek?

Nothing at all suggests this was meant to be funny. The rest of the article is equally shocking. I am with marrs - the whole thing is a reminder on how some people speak about servants.

Dreadful.

But I'm to say that when I was looking for an au-pair myself, I found it hard to stop myself referring to national stereotypes.

I decided to go for a Turkish girl in the end.

She was lovely - very demonstrative and loving to my dd, incredibly hard working - I used to beg her to stop cleaning but she insisted that she enjoyed it and it was how she kept her (enviable) figure in shape. 6 years on we're still in touch with each other.

The German au-pair turned out to be completely humourless, and the Swedish girl was a bit of a nutter (and not blonde). Had a lovely Brazilian girl for a while. My husband liked her best

I don't think it's racist but it is lazy generalisation and crap writing.

Surprised they haven't thrown in any Irish or MIL comments as well. Maybe because they couldn't get hold of the late Bernard Manning

"what is horrible is the smug middle class sense of entitlement, and the way the writer clearly percieves 'servants' as less than human"

You're supposed to look after these girls like they're part of your family. We gave our au-pairs the best bedroom in the house, took them out to dinner and brought them expensive Christmas presents. I went clubbing with my Turkish au-pair. And she would wax my legs and eyebrows for me (she was a woman of many talents!)

All of our au-pairs ate with us and were invited on family outings.

The only reason I stopped using au-pairs was because my children are now so rude and shouty I felt it was unfair to subject anyone other than family to their behaviour.

Aussies 'highly coveted' PMSL

it's another world, having servants, isn't it

YANBU. Horrible!

Camaleon - I get Junior (it was given to me as a subscription) and find it useful for the London edition stuff but not a lot else (My God who dresses their kids in those unbelieveably expensive hideous clothes) I read the article when it came through and was totally shocked at how horrible it was - and nope I don't think it was tongue in cheek.

I was so put off that I cancelled the subscription even though it was a gift and told them exactly why!!

So YANBU at all

Beagle - I guess this is what I will do too. Write directly to them - And never ever spend any money on this thing again.

I reckon it was written by a Turkish au pair