Should I fire my au pair?

[katherine999]

For the second time in two days our new au pair (our first) was late picking up our three year old - actually the first time she failed to wake up! She has lied about leaving a message with the kindergarten office, and she lied last week about smoking. I like her but I am losing confidence and trust. I am staying home from work tomorrow just in case she's late again. I want to give her a chance and am not sure if I'm over-reacting. And if I do fire her, does anyone have any advice on the best way to do it? She is English but doesn't have a parental home, so if I fire her she has no-where to go. Sorry this is so rambly, I'm feeling very fraught!

Fire her

I would give her a verbal warning first. Explain that if she cannot be honest with you & do the things you expect her to do properly (i.e. pick a child up on time), then you will have to ask her to leave.

Then follow through with that if things don't improve pretty quickly.

Fire her.
If you cannot trust the safety of your DC with her then she needs to go.
Didn't wake up? really?
Your DC is worthy of more...

Agree with Santa. Tell her she's in the last chance saloon.

sounds like to me she is a mothers help if english, not an ap and in the nicest way its not your problem she has nowhere to go

regardless if she is not reliable then she needs to go

sit down and give her a formal warning and say if happens again she is out

smoking, did she say she was a smoker? assume not if she lied about it
again if you want a non smoker you can give her notice as she lied

I don't trust her anymore; she is sulking right now. I'm going to ask her to leave tomorrow and will give her two weeks of pay. Dreading it!

Is it possible that she is au pairing in order to give herself a home and not because she is genuinely interested in it?