Where to look for an Au Pair online?

[Strix]

I think it have the whole nanny hunt sussed. But, I am about to embark on an au pair for Sept. - Dec., at which time I will be heading off on maternity leave. So, a rather short fixed term contract.

Job is 30.5 hours per week including one mid-week babysiting.

Job comes with gym membership, mobile phone, bus pass (no car), and (very snall) own room.

So... where is the best place to look for such a person?

I want someone young (18 - 20ish). Must be female (DD does dance festivals and they don't let men in the changing rooms back stage).

I am, Strix. The girls who have been to the grammar school (studied for their Arbiter) seem to have outstanding English. I know others who were really happy too with their German APs. No one whose hosted a Swede yet.

Oh.... I knew I like you, Harriet.

(fellow American)

Cheered me up to no end, Strix!

BTW, our terms: current AP does similar hours to what you are offering, but we pay £80 p/h. No gym membership. But she has a very cool room, which she was pleased with. £5 p/h for extra babysitting. Internet/telly with many channels. She seemed very happy with her arrangements, so I think we did okay on that front. There was one person she knew getting sheds and had a car. But there were many downsides (in her view) to that arrangement so for some APs it really isn't all about the money.

What I've learned is that what some of them want is SUPPORT - like being babied a bit if they're sick, etc. This is what is tricky if you're used to a nanny and also have pretty much NO TIME left at the end of the day after work, catching up with your own kids etc.

Your AP will love a gym membership I'm sure.
I think yours are absolutely fine.

Oh dear I'm procrastinating now and must get on.

in my view english children are wilder than teh german ones! ( i worked for several english families and one german family plus i always met tons of the kids' friends).

do you mean Abitur by arbiter? ;)

aupairworld is a german site.they read every single profile and if they dont like something, they just delete it altogether without saying anything. they delete my profile as well when i didnt put my address in. and they often even dont react when you try to email them or call them.

Au Pair world has thoroughly hacked me off. I have written them twice asking why my page was They worte me back to say that it had been deleted? Thank you, Einstein, I already know that part. Very very very rude in my opinion.

Maybe if this is the German way, then I am barking up the wrong tree.

I have given my money to Great Au Pair, with pleasure.

Don't give up on the Germans yet Strix. Could be a beautiful relationship.

I use au pair world all the time with no problems though I know other who find them rude once you you have problems.

The do ave to have a genuine address and phine number as a security precaution and to check that you are not an agency. If you have declined to provide these then I think they are quite justified in refusing your profile.

I have tried Great Au Pair and although their site is more user friendly than APW they just don't have the volume to be able to be as fussy as I like to be.

"The do ave to have a genuine address and phine number as a security precaution and to check that you are not an agency. If you have declined to provide these then I think they are quite justified in refusing your profile."

If this is the problem (still don't know if it is) and they had taken the time to type as much as you typed here I would have no problem. I have now e-mailed them 4 times to ask them why my profile was declined and also pointed out to them that I could only fix the error of my ways if i knew what it was, and still they only wrote me back with a one liner stating that it had been declined.

I have now given up and am determined never to give them a penny. Bloody rude doesn't really even begin to describe what I think of them now.

I have found another place called easyaupair.com. So am using them in addition to greataupair.com.

Germans good - Austrians - GREAT! All of mine from aupair world. All excellent english, great childcare and easy going, nice to have around and all short term -2 months - 5 months longest. Non have been at all demanding of us and all seem much happier with a quiet village life with a few city outings (far more thatn I imagine an English girl of same age would be...) Also had a lovely Italian, housework was her forte though, the kids were safe and fine but she didn't do much with them, my house, for the first time ever though was completely clean and tidy, all the time (OCD creeping in towards the end, children putting out train track, au pair already putting it away from the end they started at at one point!)
You can be very fussy on au pair world as someone else said, there are so many to choose from but it seems you have decided against that site for fair reasons.
Good luck, I really enjoy finding our next au pair, it is fun!

DIOM - out of interest, what particularly you can do on apw that you can do on gap? just asking as i prefer gap for the very same reason - it has more questions to answer, especially about dates and the search is more detailed. i need to add i am not a family but looking for jobs through them plus i am never a member.

The thing about APW is it seems to have far more volume of both families and au pairs. So when I put my profile up I will get 2 or 3 enquiries a day through APW but 2 or 3 a week through GAP (or EAP), there is no difference in apparent quality so I therefore have a wider pool to choose from.

And yes GAP has better date functionality but IME a lot of APs get confused by it and don't use it properly.

Our au pair came through newaupair.com, the matching wizard doesn't work but the profile browser is fine and the au pair candidates seemed good to us (once you narrow by language and so on).