How much does your Au Pair help with cleaning?

[Firstimemam]

Mine does not clean except empty the dishwasher occasionally and sometimes washes up a little and dries the parts. Do your au pairs do any cleaning? I usually do all the cleaning on a Sunday but thought maybe I could ask her to help with some bits?

I don't think it's reasonable to expect very much cleaning from an Au Pair. That's not their job. The minimum amount they should do should be the amount of additional housework that is generated by the fact that there are 3 adults living in the house rather than 2 (which wouldn't be much as I doubt that the main housework tasks need doing any more frequently than they would without an Au Pair present)

Ours looks after the children's bedrooms and playroom, sweeps trampoline once a week. Does a kitchen clean on a Monday and then cleans up after kids tea when she cooks it (which is probably 3 x a week).
It's unusual for an au pair not to do any housework, I think the PP is confusing an au pair with a nanny.
A good list of acceptable "light housework jobs" is on the Bapaa website
bapaa.org.uk/host-families/what-is-an-au-pair/

Given that we all spend a lot more time in the house than we usually do and make meals in the kitchen 3x a day, there is a lot more mess in general.

After I cooked and we had eaten dinner (Fajitas), I asked her because there is so many crumbs on the floor if it would be ok for her to hoover the kitchen whilst I clean up and she was completely happy to help. I'm not going to ask her to clean the entire house or do any deep cleaning (I'm too OCD and want it my way anyway) but just help out whilst we're all doing it or maybe when the washing is done to hang up the washing. Just normal things that I would do as well if I stayed at my parents house, and they are a member of the family and household and can therefore contribute a little I would say. I think I just never asked before but she has no problem helping out here and there.

We ask the au pair to unload the dishwasher and take the trash out as needed on the days she works (during her working hours). As pp stated there is a lot more mess generated by aunpair being home all day, in addition to kids etc. We also have a cleaner coming twice a week to do the other house cleaning. But we expect au pair to contribute to cleaning. And we also unload the dishwasher as well (it runs twice a day most days!!). A family of 5 plus the au pair being home all day makes for a full load of dishes needing to be washed twice a day. Hopefully when kids return to school we will only need to do one load.

What did you agree on when she started working for you?

If her hours are, for example, 2pm to 7pm and you ask her to start hoovering the kitchen at 7pm then that's not really on.