considering au pair - does this sound like it's workable?

[PrincessScrumpy]

job coming up at work (currently I work from home but this would be full time in work - school hours)

We have 3dc - dd1 would be at school so au pair would be caring for dtds (2yo). The hours would be on a fortnightly table of 8-3.40pm Monday-Thursday 12.30-3.40pm Friday then 12.30-3.40pm monday, Tuesday, and 8-3.40 wed-Friday. No evening or weekend work but welcome to join family at these times. Work will largely be childcare and occasional hanging out washing, tidying. She will need to do lunches (sandwiches) but I will cook evening meals.

Her room is a small double and could either have a double futon (with a mattress topper to make it more comfy or a single bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers, TV/DVD player and small sofa if singe bed. Bathroom shared with dc.

DC will share a bedroom - something they are keen to do.

We are located in south Somerset so an hour from bath and Exeter.

Is this a set up i'm likely to find an au pair for? What would I need to offer? What countries? -i'm thinking Canada (where my brother lives and dc have visited), Germany, or Netherlands but not sure why these countries. I'd like Assn English speaker but local college offers evening classes for 10 Weeks at £240 -would I pay for this? Part of me thinks is rather pay more pocket money and leery them pay for it so they are mute inclined to go iyswim
What does everyone think?

Sorry for typos - using phone Swype. Dc would share with each other not the Au pair -incase it's unclear

The hours come up to roughly 35 hours a week, which is fine for an aupair plus.

Your 2 year old dtds are a little young for an aupair to be looking after them. Generally, aupairs should only be looking after children older than 3 years old. There is no law rule against it, just common sense about leaving non-verbal children with untrained childcarers. At that age, I put my dc in nursery and used the aupair for wraparound care. Dtds 2 year olds would be quite full on for an aupair if she is going to home alone with them for up to 7-8 hours a stretch. I would be careful about that and, if you insist, look for someone with childcare experience (not just babysitting) of children that age.

I would go for the single bed configuration with more storage. None of my aupairs have complained about single beds and they have had female friends over.

I don't offer to pay for English classes. However, if you are in a rural location (I am not sure), then you might find it more difficult to attract aupairs and might have to pay to sweeten the deal.

I only go for aupairs from EU countries to avoid any visa hassles. Canada would not qualify and I almost never see Canadian aupairs on aupairworld so that is probably moot anyway.

That sounds to me like a nanny job not an au pair role. Too much sole care and no time to go to college.

Dtds will be 2.5 when they start and have good language skills of that helps. Nursery is too expensive so a childminder is another option but I quite like the idea of having their carer being part of our family - might be rather optimistic. I was thinking over 21 year olds only.

College is 4pm to 6pm so could fit in. nanny is an option but ni and tax scare me

Ok might put another thread re nannies. Thanks, just trying to get my head around options (probably won't even get the job) :)

nI tax are easy if you use a payroll company. need to do for an aupair if paying £109 a week or more.

I would say for those hours you're in the realms of tax and NI anyway.

Tbh youngish twins will be a lot for a classic au pair. There are qualified and experienced candidates out there but you can expect to pay more for that on top of the premium for the hours so you're really approaching live in nanny rates quite fast.