Is 30+ hours sole child care too much for an au pair

[LizLemonparty]

DD has just finished a gap year (stayed at home and worked to save money) and is off to university in Oct to study Italian. She's been offered an au pair position near Milan for a couple of months. The family want her to care for their son (4yrs) from 9am - 3pm each week day. The mum has said she might sometimes be home "a bit late", so it could be longer.

I've never had an au pair but that does sound like quite a long time for a teenager (ok I know she's technically an adult!) to care for a young child. Any thoughts?

Sounds like it's against the Italian guidance on au pair hours.

Thanks for the link, Red.

DD thinks she'll manage the hours no problem as she's been working long days in a restaurant and office during her gap year. BUT she's never even done any babysitting so I think that that much childcare per day is too much.

I am married to, made (from scratch) and am surrounded by Italians who say they "might be late sometimes".

2 decades of the above has led me to interpret the above declaration as "will be late, possibly very, a lot of the time".

How near to Milan are we talking ? We are offically near Milan, it's half an hour away on the motorway, but is a different world from the city and some of its surrounding areas. Moved out of the city when DS was 3 and it transformed the choice of stuff to do on a daily basis with a squirto.

I texted DD to find out exactly where she'll be and she replied "in Milan" so, until she's more forthcoming, I'm not exactly sure where.

If she was just helping out with child, doing a few hour of hours babysitting, bit of housework, I wouldn't be concerned. It just seems a lot of sole childcare. Or maybe I'm just biased as I found being a SAHM hard work!