Is my aupair being cheeky? Says it is hard for her to walk 25 min each way for school run.

[blueshoes]

My first aupair (French) is starting in Aug. But I am already having doubts.

An important part of the aupair's duties is to do my dd's school run. The school is a 25 min walk away, with dd age 4 in a buggy. Now the aupair emails to says that a 25x4 walk every day is hard for her to do.

She was asking about taking a bus and having a bus pass.

I emailed her to explain that a bus would take longer (35 min+), she would still have to walk 20 mins each way (because the school is not near the bus stop), and the roads are congested in the mornings. Plus it will cost us £20 a week in bus fare. She does not seem to have taken that in (language problem?).

Is she angling for us to provide her with a bus pass or contribute to her travel costs? Or does she have a point about such a long walk? I personally have done it (old-ish and weak as I am, lol) and don't see why a young strapping 20 year old cannot.

We are paying her £65 a week allowance - which I feel is slightly above market for what is IMO quite an easy job(London).

Do any of you who are aupair employers pay/subsidise transport costs on top of allowance? Should I ditch her before she starts, as being lame?

everywhere, that is.

I'm trying to work out where I'd put 'her'!
The only spare room I have is the playhouse at the bottom of the garden!

um

my understanding of au pair work is a little sketchy but they do reasonable housholdy/childcare work for you in exchange for board, pocket money and english lessons, yes?

This seems quite reasonable. If she wasn't doing this, she'd be doing something else.

i don't think 2 hours of walking, included, i assume, in the total hours she is expected to work, is unreasonable. actually i think is pretty easy work.

Has anyone read Sons and Lovers? The main character walked miles- had me gasping. It was about 3 hours each way to work, then about 90 minutes to visit his gf. Did make me realise how much times have changed...... No wonder we're all lardy now (include myself).

Personally, I'd rather be walking than almost anything else that an au pair might reasonably be asked to do - cleaning, washing, ironing, even entertaining kids inside. I think it is easy money too.

And don't forget, it is £65 on top of free rent and food - I expect that tops waitressing rates.

That's 10 hours of walking.

Almost half of all her hours.

On top of all the other stuff she'll be expected to do . . .

doing the same journey in london 4 times a day would really get to me.

Buy her some crocs

I made TONS of money waitressing.

It depends on the restaurant, the maitre d', the food and how good a waitress you are.

or heelies

I suppose if it got me out of washing up, cleaning, ironing, making beds etc, actually yeah I'd walk it, I might make it take 45 mins each way actually and eat the biscuits I'd stolen from the cupboard on the way.

I made crap money waitressing, but we had to share tips, and it was in Yorkshire

My god, some of you are lazy oilks!

My dd was walking to and from nursery at the age of 3 (just). 20 mins each way.

There are children in her school now who walk 2 miles each way to and from school - some of these children are only in reception.

If your au pair is not going to be happy, maybe you need to find someone else. But I personally don't think it is an unreasonable amount of walking.

But what else is she actually expected to do?

I agreee that being paid to get your exercise sounds fairly reasonable to me.

no but IS she expected to do other stuff?

am assuming she does 10 hours walking, 10 hours something else

plus she gets room and board and english lessons and pocket money. when i've worked abroad i haven't had that.

I don't think its a bad deal so long as you have a reasonable employer

and waitressing is SHITE. the WORST place i ever waitressed was a mongolian restaurant at the foot of leith walk, btw.

If we didn't have ds1 I would walk ds2 to school (20 mins each way). It wouldn't occur to me to use the car- too much hassle.

(in edinburgh)

god it was vile

it was an all-you-can-eat place but a bit upmarket, so businessmen which is 400x worse

the worst bit was cleaning up the sick.

I was paid a lot less for farm work in NZ by the way. Long full days, hard work (building fences etc), freezing, snow. Walking in London would be a doddle.

Exactly TC - I mean, would you seriously rather be doing housework? or waitressing
I am really at this.

I did the two school runs on foot in the torrential rain on Monday. I put DD in her raincoat and wellies and cropped jeans (so they wouldn't trail in the puddles. The jeans were still wet that evening. And I had to dry her hair with the hairdryer. She is 3 so had to do the 4 trips. I was quite amazed that she didn't complain, so was extra nice and made her hot milk and a biscuit and gave her a cuddle when we got back.

I liked waitressing. I waitressed at Chuy's in Barten Springs Road, Austin.

First I started in the bar, which was cool because the restaurant usually had a 2 hour wait for a table at weekends and people were willing to sit in the bar.

Then I went to the central area and by the time I worked up to Thurs., Fri. and Sat. night shift, I only had to work those three days to make enough money to pay my car payment, insurance, gas, and extras (was at uni and other costs were covered by my parents).

The staff were fab and we all had a great time after the place closed for the night.

Doesn't say much for the food if you cleaning up sick Fillyjonk

I think you should only ever ask others to do what you, yourself would be prepared to do.

So, if you normally walk to and from the school, then yes, I think it's reasonable to expect the aupair to do that.

but if she wants to waitress then surely she can do that? She is presumably an EU citizen and thusly can come to the UK and work in a cafe here.

for whatever reason, she has chosen to au pair. I do think there are real up sides to au pairing, not least that you live with a family and get english lessons.

I just can't see walking 2 miles a day, as PART of total duties, as a big deal. Its nothing.