Au pairs, gossip and ... blummin nightmares!

[Mummyoftheyear]

Have had a really difficult week. Last Sunday, my au pair who I
A) treated beautifully
B) depend on for my job
"Happened to meet another family in the park who told her about another family in our small village who needed an au pair to start the next day."

Still in shock, I was told that the mother of the 'new family' had informed her that if she didn't accept the job immediately, she'd not find another family as nobody needs au pairs after September.

I was also told all number of lies - some too horrible about my own child reminding her of a man who she'd been in a violent relationship with. Debts in her own country, etc.

I'd believed the money worries story and offered to buy her a weekly train ticket, in addition to her wages, to London so that she didn't make her new au pair friends feel bad when they went on a weekly trip into London.

She'd politely declined, which I found slightly odd, and said she was meeting a friend's au pair to stay in shenley that day.

That was last Sunday. It now transpires that my friend's au pair had been trying to find her another position on Facebook.

I telephoned the 'new family' and the number came up as recognised! I explained to the mother that, despite the lies she may have told, (for why else would anyone take someone else's aupair), we had been nice to our au pair and that I depended upon her for my livelihood!
"That's not my problem. Thing is, I need an au pair; she came for the interview; I offered her the job and she accepted."

Asking whether she could've found her own au pair or whether she felt bad - she just repeated her statement about needing an au pair and mine accepting.
Are people really this selfish, callous and lacking in morals? Am I naive?

I've now been hearing the lies that she has been telling - along with the lies that other mothers have been spreading, thinking that they know me and my children well enough to pass such comments around. The mothers I'm talking about are actually those who, despite my attempts to smile and say hello for an entire year of my son being at the religious school, snubbed me and turned their backs - only conversing to ask questions about who was invited to so and so's party and passing comments about the size of others' houses (having google mapped their postcodes)!
It's disgusting behaviour.
I am very disappointed to be living in a community where such slanderous gossip exists and is spread by people with, clearly, too much time on their hands - and too little going on in their lives and heads!
I also would live my au pair to have friends (and I HAVE introduced her to two lovely girls her age already which is great) but I'm so afraid that she'll come into contact with these liars and start to believe some if the rubbish they spout. A long time ago I had an au pair who wanted a job in the centre of London and who left us but alleviated her guilt by slagging us off to her friends as she wanted me to let her go immediately and I said that if she didn't give a week's notice (nothing really and not nearly enough to find someone to cover for my job) is not be able to give a reference. Fair enough.
Feel so helpless to be in such a shitty place.
My son is both charming and a right pain in the arse at times - it's like pushing a lead ball up hill to get him to do what I say (ESP at bath time when I'm teaching - but I run up to help if I Hear him not doing what he's asked) repeating a thousand times. But the job itself is not at all hard. My daughter us easy peasy. I'm in verge of giving up a job I love because of the uncertainty and deceit going on.

MDMidget, do you have a contact with a minimum period of notice for your aps?
Was it YOUR new ap who told the others at her welcome party about her recent 'move'? Nothing surprises me any more.

Au pairs are quite notoriously troublesome. You might be lucky and find a good one. It sounds as if you are well rid of this selfish person if you have treated her well. Just concentrate on finding somebody else.

mummy - yup, it's down to jealousy. Keep smiling and they will find someone else to bitch about soon due to their low self esteem.

Thx Viv & Power. Will do ;)

I think you probably have to expect that an AP leaving you will justify their position with lies. I met a woman this weekend who has had several APs, she told me that one of them (male) just didn't work out and when they gave him notice, he packed his things and went and knocked on the neighbours' door and told them he'd been chucked out (not true)!

She was sanguine about it, said you just have to let this stuff wash over you.

mummy. I would be extremely upset by this too. It is shitty. Onwards and upwards, I hope you have some luck with other childcare options.

I think it quite normal, though shitty, for au pairs to start off in a nice family in a rural area (easier to get the position) and then "upgrade" once they're in. I knew someone who's aupair defected to another family because her room at the new place had an en suite and at the old one she had to share with the kids! I think you are maybe being a bit over emotional about all the other stuff or merging te issues. I think I'd concentrate on the childcare side of things and ignore all the gossip school mum stuff - if you are going off to work who cares? you've got a life, they quite possibly have not.

fwiw I have always used nurseries for this reason - they are professionals run by a management structure, not impressionable young girls that haven't yet learnt a sense of responsibility. Theyvlive locally and have their own lives amd arent in a foreign country, possibly homesick or lonely. you can still get issues of course but any bad apples are diluted by other staff an eventually sacked. I have found a very good childminder too for the same reason - they tend to be older, more experienced, have of time had their own children so are more understanding of normal child "bad" behaviour.

I have always though you get what you pay for with au pairs. for reliable childcare, which you need when you work, you need to fork out go a nursery or childminder I think - as you are now doing. they have chosen childcare as a profession and are qualified. I think that increases the chance of it all working out. I am a responsible person that could look after children well and understand their bahaviour through having my own. I understand about contracts and notice periods and the need to not let people down. when I look back to when I was 19/20 thought, pre children, pre responsibilities, travelling the world, I don't think I could say the same things.

aps/nannies etc rarely move from a job/or look unless they are unhappy

other family quite within their rights to hire ap

ap quite within her rights to leave you

but she should have given you notice

with your next childcarer, though you mean well by My son is both charming and a right pain in the arse at times - it's like pushing a lead ball up hill to get him to do what I say (ESP at bath time when I'm teaching - but I run up to help if I Hear him not doing what he's asked) repeating a thousand times

but just makes the ap look as if she cant cope and children esp boys pick up on this quickly and she wont have any control or respect

i would leave them alone

Thank you, ladies! I think I was taking it all a bit personally and scrutinising my son's behaviour rather than the irresponsible and dishonest ap's. Ev a temporary solution and have found two responsible teaching assistants who, together, can cover the days (evenings) I work.
I'll see whether the temp. cover lasts and then change tactic ;)