Best way to find an au pair/part time nanny?

[alltheworld]

My nanny is leaving me at rather short notice (see other thread about depressed nanny).

As she came to me via a friend, I trusted her more than I would have otherwise and was shocked when I found out the extent of her depression and that she was locking my daughter in the garden.

I have lost confidence in my ability to find and select someone.

As I mainly need before/after school care, I could manage with the right au pair or part time nanny (live in or out).

I have been on au pair world but am concerned that (understandably) the priority of most of the candidates is to have fun in another country.

On the other hand, I also know that au pairs can work.

Does anyone have any tips on searching for and then interviewing. I am really concerned and anxious now about leaving my children with a virtual stranger.

I may also explore the childminder route, but there are very few in my area that do the drop offs I need and also my working hours can be unpredictable.

Many thanks

How about using an agency? It's not cheap, but they do pre-screen for you.

How old is your daughter? If she is under 3 I would have a nanny.
Regarding the au pairs, you do have to wade through a lot if frogs to find the right one. I read over 100 profiles and communicated with about 15 to 20 others before I found my current AP who is brilliant.

The kids are 3 and 6.

I can only speak from what I do and what works for our family. I use au pair world and my criteria for interviewing is; scandinavian (hardworkers, independent and great fun and speak perfect english. They also know what to expect. This is my choice and im sure other nationalities are equally good. Age must be 21. This means they have done something else for a year after school, most have travelled and had other jobs. Thirdly I find applicants looking for their second year au pairing in the uk after having a year in a different country. Finally i read what they have written, having been an aupair myself 20 years ago I look for someone who writes what I could have written at that age, who sounds like me. I have been very lucky and had amazing aupairs who have made our family complete. Good luck and think about what your ideal au pair would be like. Then write an ad that clearly portrays this and clearly sets out your expectations.

Many thanks HRH!

I think it depends v much were you are in the country.

Bizarrely on 2 separate occasions of nanny recruiting I got the best response and the best candidates from and online ad on Gumtree
Childcare.co.uk and Care.com also give good exposure, but we never found the kind of person we were looking for, but we do live in the sticks and not in the South East.

So stressful, nanny search - v best of luck.

Apologies for the slight thread hijack but OP are you finding any problem with looking for cover part-time? I've just been told by an agency that I need to pull my youngest out of nursery or I won't get a part-time nanny

I agree with everything HRH as my criteria is almost the same.

I found my Danish au pair on au pair world. Yes you have to sift through hundreds if applicants but the more you sift and Skype and ask questions the more aware you become of what you absolutely want and don't want. You get a real gut instinctive response to people speaking to them in Skype and like HRH says, reading their answers and working out their wave length from that.

I think it's important to consider as well not only how great they will be with your kids but whether you will actually like them as that's really important if you are living with them and the Skype interviews you have to do when hunting on au pair world really tell you this. They can be great on paper but humourless on Skype. Don't be afraid to ask personal questions like 'are you generally a happy person, how do you deal with feeling sad?' Etc. nosey but important!

Good luck!