Do 'live-out' APs exist or would I be looking at a mother's help position?

[emeraldgirl1]

Further to my thread the other day (!) I am starting to look for someone to help with low-level housework (laundry, ironing, tidying) plus the occasional hour of playing with DD (6 months) if possible. (NB I know APs can't do childcare alone but I work from home so would be in the house and it would only be an hour-ish a day).

Would I be best looking for an AP to do this (roughly 2-3 hours a day, maybe 4ish days a week) or is the definition of an AP someone who lives in?

We really don't want a live-in (God, that sounds really unfriendly, I don't mean it like that!!! We just value our privacy and don't really have the space!!!) so is it actually a 'mother's help' I am looking for?

I don't even know if it's the kind of position anyone would want!!!

I already have a cleaner but a) she has no more time to give me and b) I was hoping for a different kind of thing, no proper 'cleaning' as such but just helping with the things that take me away from work time (eg dishwasher stacking) and potentially spending an hour ish with DD from time to time.

Live-out aupairs do exist, but they would probably charge the same rate as a cleaner or a mother's help.

Thx blueshoes!

Wouldn't at all mind paying the going mother's help rate for the right AP! Would obv expect to pay a proper rate rather than whatever live-in AP would get.

It's more about finding the right person to take away the time spent doing household stuff; I have just won a freelance project with work that I would have killed for pre-DD but which I am trying to work out how to do with a small baby! I would rather pay someone to take household tasks off my back and then try to fit work in around DD's naps/sleep-time etc, rather than hire a PT nanny. While she is still so small I would rather keep most of her care just down to me and my mum who is going to help me one day a week.

It's just juggling the other stuff so I can fit in work when I would otherwise be doing laundry etc.

Oh and does anyone know what a mother's help would expect to earn, per hour, in SW London...? And/or where I could go about trying to find someone for this kind of job? AP or mother's help...? I have a vision of hiring a foreign student who is here studying as part of their degree, I'd rather hire someone in their early-mid 20s as I'd feel happier about leaving someone with DD for an hour here and there if they were just that bit older.

Are you working from home with a baby?

I paid £9 per hour for a mother's help in SW London to help me with laundry/housework and looking after my twins. I found her on gumtree. She was a lot older than you want - late 40s with her own DCs, but she was and is fanstastic both at housework stuff and with the DTs.

I went back to work part time when they were 10 months old and she is now our nanny so it worked out really well, like a very extended trial!

ceeveebee that sounds amazing!!! Pity she's taken!! :)

blueshoes, yep, working from home with a currently almost 6mo baby DD... It's a lot harder working from home with a baby than people think, obviously it's lovely not to 'have' to go out of the front door and leave them behind, don't get me wrong, but the logistics are tough and somehow apart from anything else I spend my day doing household stuff and not getting enough (vital) work done...

Frankly I don't think it is possible to work from home with a baby without childcare, unless your baby stays a baby forever or you are happy with close to zero productivity.

I think you will find it much harder once your child is mobile and talking. I would build in a lot more childcare into the equation and continue to use the cleaner, if necessary.

blueshoes, yes in a way I am happy this project has come up right now and not in a year or so because I think at least this way I have time for us all to get used to me working from home BEFORE she gets too mobile and starts talking. I really would love it if she were to gradually learn that there are times in the day when I may be close by but that I am not in charge of her IYSWIM. I think this way will be the least unsettling for her.

I am v lucky to have help from my mum and DH is going to look after DD all day one weekend day each week.

I dunno, emeraldgirl. I think it might work for a few months but then you get to separation anxiety and even after your dd is older, she might actually be more unsettled knowing you are there but you don't go to her when she cries.

I guess it is worth a go though. Good luck.

I have a live out aupair she's A-mazing. Just fell upon her at the right time really. They definitely do exist

If they live out then they're not an au pair and they'll probably have a second job so you need to operate payroll etc. Being an au pair means you live with the family you are an au pair for.

It's entirely possible to find someone who is an au pair with another family but it's much better all round think of it as a mothers help position and be open to applicants who have an 'au pair' type profile if you don't mind someone with less experience/improving English.

I'd do it if I lived near you. I work part time and am at home part time but DC starts school in September so I could have done 4 hours a day a few days a week. I suppose what i am saying is that maybe advertise the job, and let people decide if they can do it. D

That was going to say, don't worry too much about a job title. Could you advertise in the local library and children centres?