Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Flip

Original poster

Recruiting Aupair to live in small village?

9 replies

xmyboys · 11/10/2011 14:52

Want to hear your thoughts or experiences. Considering a move to a village with approx 1000 people. Ten min drive to town centre and then one hour on train to big city.
Would I find an Aupair be interested in this?
Would be before and/or after school care.
Would they be bored?
I don't even know if the local town has language schools?
........was much easier living in big city :(

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

ragged · 11/10/2011 18:31

Not been an employer but I knew a German au pair who was miserable in a local village. So would think carefully about it.

JustAnother · 11/10/2011 19:29

When I was an aupair in Germany, I ended up in a place like that. And even with the better public transport they have over there, I found it unbearable and left as quickly as possible. I had never been so miserable.

catepilarr · 11/10/2011 23:39

there should be an aupair who wouldnt mind. i have been in villages in most of may ap/mh jobs and was very happy. as aps 12 year ago be cycled everywhere but it doesnt seem to be that popular anymore. i always manage with combination of local buses, bike and lift from the family.

StillSquiffy · 12/10/2011 06:38

Our village is 10 mins drive from a town, one hour from London.

We have no problems recruiting but you need to make it look as attractive as other options that could be available to AP. For me that means providing a car that they can usually use in their own time/weekends, making sure that pay is at higher end of the scale, and providing lots of details in the profile itself of what is available locally (ie in the local town) to help them get a social circle going.

EG in our profiles I tell them that there are english courses running locally which start every Sep/Jan/April; that there is X gym and Y pool within 5 miles, etc.

FWIW I also only recruit male AP's, for many reasons, one of which is that I know they find it much easier to get a social circle going. They can mooch down to the local pub and join the footie club and stuff like that, which makes it much easier for them.

singlevillagemum · 12/10/2011 08:08

I'm in a village, 10 mins either way to the nearest town.

I had a lot of APs apply for the post even though I stated clearly in my profile that it is at least a half hour walk/15 min cycle for the school run, but the school is right next to the train station.

I made a point of repeating it in every email that I sent while recruiting. Our AP has been here nearly a week [so early days and fingers crossed] but I gave her a bike and she has been off exploring the local buses and trains as well.

However, because of the rural location, she is working a lot less hours than average probably - morning school run plus one after school per week only, no weekends and only 3 babysitting per month. She said this was important in her decision as it meant that even though it was a longer journey to get to the city and towns, she wouldn't need to come back quickly most of the days.

Libra · 12/10/2011 11:48

We live very rurally.
Our first au pair was happy here - comes back to see us quite regularly. Our second one was completely miserable and went home early.

We offered use of car when I was not using it (i.e. at night). The second one, however, was nervous of driving at night.

There is a bus once an hour into the big city and both used this a lot.

The first one made friends through her English course - the second one did not.

Interestingly the first one was from a large city and the second one was from a tiny island where she lived in a remote farmhouse.

I would repeat the advice above about really stressing how rural you are. Also agree that boys might be the way forward - there are few social arrangements for girls in our village but there are football teams and two pubs so boys might have found more of a social life here.

FetchezLaVache · 12/10/2011 12:03

I was a nanny in a village like that in Germany, but I'm a country bumpkin farmer's daughter and it suited me right down to the ground! I agree you need to stress that it's fairly isolated, I'm sure there are lots of potential APs who'd be happy with that.

Do you have friends with APs? My employers had quite a network of friends with nannies and APs of all nationalities for me to be friends with, which got me off to a good start!

Original poster

xmyboys · 12/10/2011 14:46

Thanks for feedback. DP doesn't like the house so all a no go but think I will consider slightly larger village/town just in case. (maybe my sanity too!)

OP posts:

cjn27b · 12/10/2011 15:39

Well I'm the opposite and London based, but have friends with au-pairs in villages. From what I can gather is an au-pair will be happy once they have a social life going. So a car is key - they need to get out to see their friends somehow. Get them to find local au-pair networks, go to language school to find friends etc...

Also, if you're only an hour from London, get them the odd day ticket in the first weeks and off to some au-pair meet ups (use facebook and join the au-pair in London 2011 group to find stuff going on). Our au-pair has friends to stay pretty much every weekend. They're all country au-pairs.

The other thing is to keep them busy during the day too. Can you find some local voluntary work that might help their careers? Some extra odd jobs with other local families to help earn extra money. When busy there's little time for homesickness etc...

Flip