Hello,
I am sorry but this will be long! I will try and give a lot of info in the hope that I can benefit from everyone's experience.
I am a single mum to three children aged 3, 5 and 8. I am currently in teacher training and about to start looking for a job for September. My children all attend a local primary school (youngest is in nursery there but will go into reception in September) and they are in breakfast and afterschool clubs at the cost of approx £650 a month (from September, it's a bit more at the moment, cost is evened out over 12 months if you see what I mean). Breakfast club opens at 8am - which seriously limits my job hunting area as really I could do to be in school by 8:15 but certainly no later than 8:30am). I would prefer to rely on school for childcare and will be trying to find work close to home but obviously, this may not happen. My back up plan is an au pair. I am qualifiying in MFL and am fluent in Spanish and have passable French, and can converse basically in Italian and Portuguese. I have contacts at my nearest high school where there are foreign language assistants every year so could put an au pair in contact with other young foreigners in the area immediately. However, I doubt very much that there is a huge au pair network locally (not looked into it, however, I might be wrong). We are close to public transport and I would be willing to pay for a bus pass to cover the local area on top of wages. There is a college within 20 minutes walk - but I have not found out if they do English for au pairs on that particular campus (it's on the 'to-do' list!).
School is one mile (exactly from home). I would need the au pair to deliver the children to school between 8:45 and 8:55am and then she would be 'free' till 3:15 pm. I cannot provide a car - we live by the seaside so can be very wet and windy! I would expect to leave home around 7:30am every day and be home around 5 - 5:30pm every day so she would be responsible for having the children dressed and in school on time every day. She would not need to do a pick up on a Wednesday evening or a drop-off on a Thursday morning as my ex has the children then and does that (so effectively she would be free from Wednesday 9am - Thursday 3:15pm every school week). I would not ask for any routine weekend working (might ask for the occassional one-off, or babysitting) and my mum will help me generally during the week in the evenings. All I would ask for for babysitting would be for the au pair to cover parent's evenings or late meetings (approx 3 -4 a term) which would mean having the children from 3:15pm till they go to bed. She would get a week off in October, February and May and two weeks at Xmas and Easter (school holidays) - I would not ask for any childcare support during school holidays but would pay my usual amount. I might, however, have the occasional issue with 'Inset days' - so up to 5 days a year she would have to have the children all day for a full day.
I would expect some 'light household duties' to be done: I am thinking in the region of dusting, running a hoover round once a week, picking up basics such as milk and bread (Sainsbury's is a 4 minute walk away), and providing the children with tea (simple stuff like beans on toast, reheating food that has already been prepared, managing to turn the slow cooker off, that kind of thing), having the children's washing up done, supervising their homework and helping with reading prior to me getting home (as a general rule).
My children are generally well behaved although one is dyspraxic and dyslexic and has some difficult behaviour to go with it (loud, over-sensitive, can cry very easily, quick tempered). The youngest child has a speech delay which may prove problematic for someone from abroad in terms of understanding, I guess.
I could give up my room to the au pair - it is the largest room in the house in an attic conversion with a bathroom and it's big enough for a small settee as well as a double bed and usual bedroom furniture. There is a television arieal up there and I would get her her own (small) TV. This would afford her some privacy. I wouldn't necessarily have an issue with boyfriends staying over but would obviously need to establish week-day boundaries on that score. I consider myself pretty easy going with my only 'bad point' being that I can't stand lateness. I am not particularly tidy and can live with a layer of dust so no exacting housework standards! Alternatively, she can have a double bedroom with sink on the same 'floor' as the children. Our home is a slightly larger than average semi in an OK area. Nothing grand. Could be worse.
We live in the North West so I am thinking around £75 a week plus a bus pass plus a phone and, say, £10 a week top on it.
Can anyone comment on whether or not they consider what I am asking to be reasonable? If it's too much, what can I do to tone it down a bit? Is the 'wage' reasonable?
Where have you found your au-pairs? is it worth paying an agency or can I do it myself? can anyone recommend any websites? Are there any countries I can't 'recruit' from? Anyone got any good experiences with particulary nationalities? What happens if they walk out?!