Au pair candidate has changed her mind, and I need to find a replacement in two weeks!

[BelleCurve]

Help MN!

My au pair candidate has changed her mind, got a summer job locally and I need to find a replacement as I will be starting a new job in two weeks. To complicate matters further I will be out of the country next week.

I've started emailing other candidates on aupair world, but is there anywhere else I should be looking?

Please stop me having a minor meltdown!

If you had a shortlist on ap world go back to it and if there is any chance of postponing your start date at work by a week or so do it. Any chance you can identify suitable people from the country you are going to next week so you can interview them when you are there?
Failing that, does anyone local to you or with kids in the same school has an au pair or nanny who can help out for a couple of weeks until you find a replacement?

The exact same thing happened to me early last year, I had three weeks and I was panicking big time. We ended up finding the most wonderful au pair who has been with us now for 15 months and is just perfect. Keep at it. It can work out brilliantly in the end (but I realise it feels rubbish at the moment).

Just sending some good luck vibes.

We've had similar glitch - au-pair all lined up then failed her uni finals and has to stay to re-take. 5 weeks until we need new au-pair in post (bit easier than 2 weeks, but I feel your pain)

I've hopefully just found another via au-pair world - took 1 week to find them (and could have offered earlier if I was less fussy - though am not going to recommend a non-fussy approach!). I did speak to a couple of candidates who said they could have started 'tomorrow' - so I think you've got a good chance.

Seems that in Europe the end-of-year uni exams are finishing right about now. So I think it could be a good time to recruit?

Also UK universities are out, and summer jobs have been hard for students to find this year. We've had great summer holiday childcare in the past from local uni students studying primary education - any chance you could get in touch with anyone like that for a few weeks cover?

Thanks for the moral support. I don't think I can afford to delay my start date at work and hopefully my mum can help out for a while.

I'm working through the shortlist on AP world, Also, I just had a call about an event tomorrow called NannyClub - I'm not sure about it, has anyone heard about it?

PS - I find quickest way on au-pair world is to quickly move (after one or two messages) to Skype video chat. Easier to weed people out for language and 'click' factor when talking in person.

Second time I have seen mention of NannyClub this week. No idea what it is, might be a speed dating type thing - speed recruiting. If it is, may be a way to find an au-pair who is alreafy in the UK.

There is a Facebook page called au pair in UK (something like that, anyway). Often has people on it already here in UK with urgent need for work.

I think nanny club tends to be used by nannies rather than au pairs. It makes me think of the book with a similar title about nannies who worked pt as high end escorts so it just makes me smirk and I've never used it so have nothing useful to add!

As for finding an au pair recontacting everyone you can and trying Guntree etc is a good bet. I'd put a profile on every site that's free to put a profile just in case an au pair contacts you.

Good luck! It can be done

Ok, so the update is she now thinks she might like to come after all!

I don't know how parents cope with this stress. I think my new job will be a piece of cake in comparison