Au pair & babysitting

[duplotogo]

If an au pair works 25 hours a week with 2 nights' babysitting, are these 2 nights included in the 25 hours or extra? A evening's babysitting could be 5 hours (e.g. 7 to midnight) so it makes quite a difference!

Thanks

Extra - though I'd say babysitting commences when children are in bed, if there are hours when children are up then it seems fairer to take these out of the 25 hours rather than call it babysitting.

25 hours PLUS the 2 nights. Mine works out at roughly 5 hours a day Mon- Fri, then on the odd occasion I go out in the evening, it is included.

Thanks, we've had an au pair for 2 months now and she's had an easy time of it so far because I have been at home on maternity leave and only ask for help really at bathtime.

I think it would be an unusual week if we asked her to do 2 nights babysitting but just wanted to check to manage her expectations as she has done a couple of nights' babysitting for our friends who pay her £6.50 per hour.

This seems odd to me. If au pairs are employees now (as there is no longer such a thing as an au pair visa) then surely you can not require work at a time when you are not offering pay... or maybe I'm stuck in the nanny employer mentality?

I am offering an au pair job for SEptember, where I have included one night of 3 hours of babysitting and that has taken the hours to 30.5. If babysitting is extra I could advertise the job at 27.5 hours and stick in a second night of babysitting. Doesn't really seem fair.

Au pairs aren't paid by the hour though - so the pay (and board) is for 25 hours plus two nights babysitting. Plenty of nannies have babysitting as part of their contracts too.

I think that's why it's important that babysitting starts once children are in bed though.

We had 25 hours plus 2 nights babysitting in the contract although we very rarely used the babysitting.
It's not like our experience of nannies where the working hours are very clear-cut and may make a difference on how much the nanny is paid and if he/she wants the job or not. Au pair jobs tend to be varying number of hours between 15-35 but about the same pay (beware of offering less money than the neighbours as, once the au pairs start socialising you get a very unhappy au pair even if you are asking for half the number of hours work). For our au pair job there was only 10 hours of childcare and at my speed, 5 hours of cleaning/dog walking but I advertised at 25 hours simply because au pairs often take a lot longer to do some tasks.
Duplotogo - assuming your au pair has friends who are au pairs hopefully she is not expecting extra pay from your family for babysitting (because that is the norm IME)

Two nights' babysitting does seem to be the norm. We hardly used it for socialising that is (sometimes I have to work late).

We always pay extra for weekend babysitting, though. Fiver per hour which was mroe than the 'market' rate for APs (some didn't get a bean).

I think her au pair mates have it worse, they seem to be acting as low paid live-in nannies. We are trying to do things by the book, but she is not very well informed other than by us, if you see what I mean.

agree with others, babysitting comes on top of the hours during the day. plus, in my opinion it is not fair to ask her to babysit on her day off ( some people do it but i would never take on a job that demanded that).

I think babysitting should only come on top of the hours if you don't mind her taking a shower/going to bed/doing what she would do any other night she stays in. If you insist she's awake and (other than being restricted to being in the house) not free to do as she wishes then she should be paid.

OK will try and keep it to when kids are asleep then - so probably no babysitting for a while! If I'd thought of it I would probably have put 35 hrs in her contract instead of 25 as due to her experience (trained kindergarten teacher and experience of weekends looking after 3 children, 4 months old, 5 and 7) she is more of an au pair plus so we pay her £95/week anyway.

It's interesting that all the au pair websites say "+ 2 nights' babysitting" and it does seem that they all mean the English meaning of children asleep, babysitter watching TV and eating biscuits, whereas my Dutch au pair used the word "babysitting" to describe her weekend experience which I would definitely call "nannying" having spoken to the referee etc.

americans call looking after children in daytime babysitting too, unless you are a full time nanny, then its nannying.

btw babysitting in britain often mean put the children to bed, as well as feed them or bath them and entertain them for a couple of hours before bedtime.

It's fair to ask her to babysit on her day off if you are planning to pay extra AND you also don't mind if she says no. Our AP would have thought it was weird if we hadn't offered her first refusal for Saturday nights and some random other girl was turning up, if she did't have plans. But the way she socialised suited nights in at our place with friends round for a meal or movie.

OUr 'included' babysitting during the wk meant she could have friends round to socialise and go to bed as well when she wanted. Although she did keep her door open until we got back. If you keep it to the two nights mininum and are flexible about what she gets up to during this time and also take the trouble to ask which day would be most convenient for her, when you can be flexible, this should be well within the expectations.

But we mentioned the babysitting arrangements in the 'invitation letter' we sent her before she arrived. I think you have to clear it up early on.

Sorry two nights max.

I used my babysitting I think 5 or 6 times in 3 months. ONCE it was twice in a week but quite often not at all, and she mostly went away weekends so I never asked her then anyway

Mostly he was already in bed (so after 7.30) but not always asleep

Duplotogo your set up sounds fine to ask for some sitting during the week

i agree harriet, i was talking about babysitting included in the weekly pocket money!

It's in the handbook we gave her (cribbed largely from here). I don't think we'll use it mch but I might work late sometimes on the same night as my husband might possibly still like to go to the gym or something.

We have an au pair plus (35 hours per week) and we include 2 nights babysitting in her weekly salary/pocket money. What that means is that in addition to her normal role of looking after the children from 5pm to 7.45pm, that is extended to X o' Clock in the evening. So she puts the children through the normal bed routine but then besides having to stay in the house she is unrestricted to watch TV, have a shower etc. One a month one of those nights may be a saturday night. If we asked her to babysit at a weekend before 7pm we would pay £7 Per Hour as then that is more like being a nanny

AP actually prefers "baby sitting" nights, she is free to do whatever she wants (as long as she is in the house) and it means she has control of the TV to watch all her rubbish (i.e. just about anything on the Living Channel).