AP keeps breaking things! Should I bring it up or just let it slide?

[WonderingWillow]

AP is lovely, and has been with us on a 6 month placement... But she is such a clutz! Tonight I have just thrown out the last of my Le Creuset set of stoneware dished (wedding present) and its the second broken one in a week. Since she's been here in January, we've gone through a steam mop, 4 dishes (oven ones, dropped) a kettle (lid broke when dropped), magimix bowl (shattered when dropped).

Is this normal breakage for some girls (maybe a clumsy phase?) and should I bring it up gently, or just leave it? She is fab in every other way but I seem to come home every week to a new broken item in my home

It depends on whether you think having a word will make any difference.

If she is being careless or breaking things because she's distracted/drunk/tired etc. then having a word may make a difference i.e. she can start being more careful.

If she is being as careful as she can be, but is clumsy due to dyspraxia or another issue beyond her control then having a word isn't going to make any difference. It may be better to get her some cheap oven dishes to use and pack away anything you really don't want getting broken.

Is she dropping stuff taking it out of the oven when it's hot, or just from tidying/drying up? I would maybe avoid her having to get heavy stuff out of the oven especially if it's an eye level oven and tricky to reach up to. (I struggle with reaching my top oven a bit).

Definitely pack away anything fragile that you really care about. I'd be so sad if I lost my le Creuset!

Definitely have a gentle word and pack away precious things.

I would raise it with her, in a nice way that the cost of all this is starting to rack up and she needs to be more careful. You'll both be mortified but it needs to be said unless it's an irritating hassle but the replacement cost doesn't really bother you, in which case get her to sort out replacements.

The average teen/early 20's doesn't have the faintest idea or appreciation of the replacement cost of this stuff and is in my experience genuinely horrified that you could spend that sort of money on a dish/saucepan. You need to make her more aware of the value of what she is holding or in this case dropping, and in the short term I would buy some cheap and cheerful lasagne dishes or similar from Sainsburys.

That would drive me absolutely round the bend and I would have to say something. Is she dropping plates out of the oven that are too hot? She knows where the oven gloves are right? Is there anything about the set up of your kitchen that is unusually (limited counterspace, etc). How did she break the kettle?

Our current AP had the habit of putting things away helter skelter in the cupboards - the doors wouldn't close properly, they were that disorganised. I had to tell her several times to please put things away more carefully as things could break and/or fall out onto the DCs who get their own drinks.

It only got through to her when the entire contents of one cupboard (thankfully the DCs plastic things) fell out onto my head one evening after work.

This is our first au pair with this issue; I don't think it's a 'thing' with teens really.

Have the conversation but think about whether there are any 'hazards' in the kitchen maybe that could be making it worse.

No - I don't think that amount of breakage is normal at all.

She's maybe trying to do things too quickly.

I would just ask her to be much, much more careful and I would second treads suggestion of explaining how much things cost.