Annoying Habits That Au Pairs Have

[roses2]

Maybe I will get flamed for this but I'm in an a bit of a fed up mood today so thought I would start a thread that annoying habits that au pairs have.

Don't get me wrong, they are totally worth their weight in gold and their annoying habits are all part of the parcel but some things just get my goat.

I'll start with my current au pair:

• uses 1 roll of loo roll per day (seriously, WTF?)
• puts things on the shopping list then leaves them in the fridge to go mouldy (meat; fish & other not so cheap products)
• Goes out partying until 4am on Fridays/Saturdays & doesn't wake up until 2pm meaning I need to work hard to keep the kids quiet so as not to wake her

Our old au pair (who is returning to us next week):

• talks non stop especially whilst I am trying to watch tv
• sends me constant selfies of herself throughout the day on whatsapp

In general they have been great with the kids and if I ask them to do something they will do it but the little things often niggle me (especially today).

Can I hear some other stories?

Sounds like you need to discuss these issues with your AP! Not sure any of those issues are reasonable and completely ok for you to raise, especially wasting food snd staying out until 4am. Certainly not something I would leave unaddressed.

I don't see that you should have to keep the kids quiet until 2pm so they don't wake her, it's up to her to deal with normal weekend household noise if she decides to party all night. You shouldn't have to tiptoe round your own home.

I would stop buying the food on the grounds that it is not being eaten. The toilet one is not so easy, she may have a medical problem.

She's leaving this coming week end and my old au pair is coming back. Whilst the old au pair talks non stop and is constantly sending me selfies of herself that's a bit easier to manage (I can ignore my phone) :)

I thought partying week end was par for the course though. I know two other families who have au pairs that parry a lot. We all live in London which probably makes a difference. My last au pair was very homely and rarely out past 10pm.

With regards to the toilet roll, I don't think she has a medical problem. She just like a to use a lot when she goes...

I did know someone who had an au pair who walked around the house in the nude - and I mean 'nude', no pants or anything. She'd come downstairs, go into the kitchen to put kettle on - in the nude.

My friend's husband didn't know where to put his face.

In the end she had to go.

I was an au pair, I doubt they kept the kids quiet when I sleept in. The kids would have climbed into bed with me and chatted, or make me a cup of tea with 5 sugars. I usually went out over the weekends.

I spent a summer being an au pair in Spain, when I was young to an American family, brilliant experience!

I remember about half way through being given a list of things to try and stop doing included some great ones such as:
-Not having more than 2 pieces of fruit a day
-Pronouncing mum 'mom'
-Letting the kids play the floor is lava because it makes them to excited (in the garden, on foam blocks not on furniture)

We don't keep the children quiet over the weekend! If AP wants to party all night that is fine just as it is fine for the dcs to use the house as normal over the weekend.

A friend got a list of what she could eat, and how many tea bags she could use.

I really hate telling au pairs what they can and cannot eat as I don't like to restrict food. What I have started doing is when I cook meat (which she eats A LOT of), I now cook a set portion size, put aside what me, DH & I need and leave her the rest. Any meals I prep for me/the kids I put a label on in the fridge so she doesn't eat it.

Yesterday she took half a chicken from the freezer and ate that for lunch. For dinner she ate the meatballs and chicken curry I prepared (which I told her was supposed to be two meals for her - it was a lot of meat!). She ate only meat. No veg, salad, potatoes or rice.

That's interesting about what people say about not tiptoeing around the house. I'll bear that in mind :)

My au pairs gain on average ten pounds in the year they’re with me 😂

I try not to sweat the small stuff but my peeves have included:

1. Elaborate lunchtime meals - I doubt they have a three course dinner at home
2. Cooking and baking for their mates on the weekend. One did a full picnic and multiple cakes.
3. One decided to follow an Instagram diet and put chia seeds, five avocados, salmon, and all sorts of other stuff on the shopping list. Then complained when blueberries were no longer in season as she used about a handful each day for her second breakfast.
4. General safety - leaving house unlocked, windows open, candles lit, tv on etc.

My number one pet peeve though is the ones that do F all for the entire year, then decide to explore the entire island in their last month.

Ive had a really great au pair. The only thing that grated was being a bit 'negative' around the children.

I had to politely explain how they learned, and that being told micromanaging a Lego ship being built wasn't something she had to worry about

She was very sensible, tidy and reliable so it was a great experience.

Yikes i was an au pair and at no point would any of my families have tailored weekend noise to my hangover.

I'd definitely have pulled up the food thing too, what a waste.

I got told by one family i was too adventurous 😂 the kids apparently got bored when i was on days off because i always had something planned & the parents wanted quiet days when i was off

The fucking phone.

Always on the fucking phone. When with the kids, when in the loo, when waiting for the kids, when making a brew.

It's like the thing is mechanically attached to their hand.

The worst one stole from us on leaving - we told her she had to go because she left the kids alone in the house and abandoned them on the way to school (they still mention that, 2 years later - I have such guilt).

But we've been very lucky. No irritating 'living with someone' issues - the husband has those wrapped up...!!

We have our best ever au pair coming back to us soon. I am beyond happy. Elated.

Our current girl is exceptional too but was only ever a summer au pair. We love her a lot.

THe first one (abandoning thief) hid she was vegan (I did ask) and used to wash the outside of a banana for fucking ages under the tap, all the while the water meter ticking over. She used all (ALL!!) of our cup to soak things (beans etc) all over my kitchen. She was also very expensive to keep. She said to me "so I must put on some weight and you must loose some, shall I make a diet for you?"...I wasn't too offended, she was right! It made me laugh but I know others might not like it too much.

My landlord recommended a au pair to us early last year when I was hunting for a professional childcare provider. I initially thought it was a good idea but I altered my mind six weeks after that when we were negotiating her contract. I ended up hiring a decent babysitter for the kids instead. Don’t regret my decision.

Re noise at the weekend.

My aupair is absolutely fanflippingtastic. Love her. Love her.

But part of my welcome pack/letter had a paragraph that said something along the lines of "this is a family home and as such the children will make noise and their needs come first" (within reason obviously. I won't (couldn't) keep them quiet because someone has been out all night.

Eating only meat is one that I have had in the past.

Taking my matching bed covers for her bed (they were in the cupboard outside family bathroom but she had her own sets on her floor). She just fancied them I guess but I'd made it clear which ones were hers.

The phone- very much so with the last au pair we had. Constant.

Defrosting random stuff from the fridge and not eating it. Defrosting different stuff from the fridge when I'd mean planned a different meal with her requirements in mind and she knew that.

I basically expect aps to be on the phone a lot of the time. But my kids aren't tiny, so it's less of an issue if ap doesn't have their eyes on them all the time. Our new ap seems to get through a lot of loo roll, I'd noticed and DH commented on it this morning, and we laughed about it , as there's always something. 1st ap got through lots of bread and second one lots of apples! Last ap did nag a bit about getting the food he wanted when I knew what it was, but tbf, he'd had a bad experience with a previous family who'd just made not effort to get him anything.

If I as a professional nanny did this about my bosses it be considered incredibly unprofessional and rude. Talk to your employees like a grownup don’t slag them off on the internet.

I’m sure of pressed your Au pair could come up witg some things about you and your darling family that annoy her.

I think that when your own DCs have got to their teenage years you will realise that most of the "au pair annoying habits" are actually teenage bad habits!

Just had to add OP that I have found most au pairs use vast quantities of loo roll, as you say, often around one roll a day. I have no idea what for! In fact I posted about it on here a few years ago and people came up with all sorts of suggestions including using it to pack around things she was sending home! But I now realise they just do, weird one.
Another for me was an incredibly competitive au pair who had no concept of occasionally letting small children win, she was all out for glory every time annoying but also quite amusing too!

We've had loads of au pairs, I sort of miss having them now that the DC are older. They've all had their strengths and weaknesses. We had one who had a masters in some sort of child psychology. She was lovely but didn't really know how to play with children, she was more inclined to analyse their play than join in with what they were doing. She also insisted on wrapping up left overs and putting them in the fridge, but then didn't want to eat them herself. I would forget about them then find them about five days later and throw them out. She also managed to often be standing in the exact part of the kitchen that I needed to access, DH noticed it too. Between her blocking the kitchen and the dog blocking whichever door I need to go through, I spent a lot of time saying "excuse me".

We had one who said he eats everything but on arrival said he didn't like vegetables and was allergic to egg. I made toad-in-the-hole and kept some sausages separate for him, but he ate the toad because he liked it, so NOT allergic to egg then, just didn't like it unless disguised. The DC adored him though because he was just a little kid himself (at 25) and played with them all the time, they used to try to get him to eat some veg saying "How do you know you don't like it if you haven't tried it?"