No-one wants to au pair for us

[AuntSylvia]

Hi, hoping I could get some pointers as I'm obviously doing something wrong.

Been looking for an au pair since mid-May for a mid-August start, 6 month stay. We live in France and are bilingual. One toddler who is at crèche three days per week, no weekend or evening work, au pair has own apartment (shared kitchen) and car, and very long holidays as I am a school teacher. They have to be European and have a driving licence.

I can barely find anyone to interview. We had one interview and the girl chose another family in the end. Other interviews have been cancelled beforehand or the au pair just doesn't answer, and then tells me they found another family. I'm on Aupairworld with lots of nice family photos, send lots of those 'I'm interested' messages and mostly ignored or rejected. A few responses but have mostly been from people who can't start until much later (despite what it says on their profile) and a couple of girls who didn't really want to interact but just say what they wanted (over the course of many emails over many days, I really wasn't trying to press my agenda on them).

Have also posted on workplace noticeboards of me, husband and friends. Noticeboards at old universities, at Alliance Française in a few countries with which we have links, and have asked all European friends to ask their friends and families.

And absolutely nothing! I don't know what I'm going to do if we don't get this sorted out soon.

Thanks for reading my tirade . Please tell me where I'm going wrong!

Hi there. I've just recruited for an au pair who arrived yesterday. I went a bit nuclear on aupairworld and contacted as many au pairs as possible (I reached the maximum message limit within the first 24 hours).

If after sending messages you aren't getting much interest then you may need to increase the money - especially if you are not in a city.

For London at least, there are a fraction of the au pairs compared to 2 years ago so you'll have to put in a lot of legwork for a few weeks until you find someone.

OP - remember to log onto au pair world regularly to make sure your profile is near the top.

There are a few changes I'd make to your profile too - I'll PM you.

Looking for a driver does significantly narrow your search. I also wonder if you live to rurally for most au pairs? Most want to live in big cities (though your op doesn't detail where you live).

How much pocket money are you offering? Perhaps you need to offer more?

How old is your toddler?

What is your local area like? Perhaps that’s what’s not appealing to people?

Are you somewhere quite rural? If you are you might have to over pay to tempt someone.

Yes we live in the countryside with no public transport. It seems that most au pairs want to live in Paris or at least a big city. It is a lovely area though - in the Alps - so was hoping that would appeal!

That’ll be the problem then.

Perhaps be upfront about the area but highlight whatever it has to offer, socially and activity wise. And how far it is to any popular destinations and cost. You might need to pay for some “perks” to make up for the unpopular (for au pairs!) location.

How good is the location for sking? might attract more people