Au Pair World experiences. Yay or Nay?

[EastCoastDamsel]

Owing to a medical event, I am currently not allowed to drive. Given our complicated school run/home location/work commitments , I will require some live in Childcare for at least the rest of the school year.

We have previously hosted a German teenager on a language exchange, so am pretty comfortable with the idea of an au pair.

Has anyone had any experiences with using Au Pair World. Good or not? What should I look out for?

HELP!

Anyone?

No doubt here will be lots more people to provide advice on this thread soon, but meanwhile..

An au-pair lives as a part of the family and provides a few hours help, as a teenaged child might.

From your description of your requirement, this sounds more like a full-time nanny / housekeeper. HTH.

It only says "complicated school run", what else in her post makes you think she's looking for a full time nanny and a housekeeper? Am I missing something?

Au pairs do about 25 hours a week, so will be fine for your situation.

I'm a big au pair world fan, we've successfully hosted 4 au pairs all from au pair world. The only drawback is that its more difficult at short notice. It takes a good few weeks to find someone and then get them to have a police check/check refs etc. If you need someone quickly, you rule out getting a someone who needs a VISA, so stick to EU countries.

If you need a driver, you need someone over 22. I also specify 4 years driving experience. Check to see as well if they have speeding points or have had a an accident recently as this can really bump up insurance.

Read other host families profile to get an idea of what people write. You want to sell yourself, whilst also making it completely clear to a potential au pair what you're looking for. You need 3-4 nice photos on your profile as well.

As well as having an active profile, you can approach potentials yourself.

Thanks! I really only need help with the school run and a couple of hours in the afternoon. So about 1hr in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon/evening. Certainly less than 25hrs a week.

I definitely don't need a full/part-time nanny

DC are 5 and 7 and are at school all day.

We have hosted a German Language exchange (teenager)in the past and loved the experience becoming really close and have visited her and her family in Germany this summer.

I have joined up to AuPair World but have also approached some agencies.

You could also join the au pairs Facebook group for your area and advertise / see if there is an au pair on there looking for work. Would mean that you could meet the au pair beforehand, and get references from the last host family.

Au pair world is great but you need to be prepared to put the effort in yourself - so first emailing lots of au pairs, then narrowing it down to skype interviews with a couple, then getting a police check and following up references.

If you need someone quickly and an older driver you might be better looking for someone already here though.