Is this okay for an Au Pair?

[TheGirlWithAPrince]

Hey everyone im posting this on behalf of a friend as she doesnt know if this is acceptable payment for an Au Pair
So she is looking to get an au pair to help out with a 2 year old and a 3 year old - Timetable would be roughly this

Monday to wednesday
8 am - 9am Get both kids dressed after breakfast ( breakfast done by mum) - Take both toddlers to Nursery
Free til 3pm - Pick up toddlers from nursery
Play with toddlers / keep them entertained til 5pm ( clean up after them)

Thursday & Friday

10am - 2pm just look after both kids ( letting them play outside etc but no chores needing to be done other than cleaning up after the kids) maybe taking them somewhere ( park or play group or friends house etc)

Saturday and sunday Off

This would be in Newbury - how much would you pay someone per week for that? and do you think that sounds okay, there wont be any chores techniquelly just cleaning up after kids so any cups/dishes in the dishwasher, clothes put away and toys put away after use etc so general tidying

No, not really @MiniMum97

Mumsnet is not the place to ask about au pairs. What you describe sounds perfectly normal and fine for an au pair. NMW doesn't come into it. And people do has au pairs for babies/toddlers. You obviously need to screen well.

@heynori

No, not really *@MiniMum97*

I don’t understand your comment.

@heynori

as previous comments, she wouldnt be in sole charge as mother is home mostly 24/7 except maybe popping to appointment or shops, no where does it say that an Au pair shouldnt be in sole charge for a little while .. why wouldnt you leave an au pair in charge for say a few hours but you would hire a babysitter possibly the same age to look after them for a few hours?

Yes sole charge for older children no problem but not for under 3s.

My sister in America is on her third au pair. She gets them through an agency and they are contracted for a year, usually with the aim of improving their english and travelling (though the first girl, German, already spoke English). It must be different there because they are contracted to work 45 hours a week, and be sole carers of children. They usually get a car and a phone, live as part of the family (go on holidays with them etc). They are paid pretty well. They stay for a year, though the current one is staying on due to Covid travel restrictions.
Other au pairs I've known here were also solely in charge of children, and tended to, like your friend, be there for wrap around care. But the parents did not work from home so after school pick up the au pair had them on their own.
If she goes through an agency it will all be spelt out. Maybe she should check with one and see if her expectations line up.

I think the tasks sound reasonable for the au pair given the ages of the kids and because the mother will be loitering in the background. However £75-£85 is an extremely outdated pocket money. I pay my au pair £100/week in London for 20 hours/week + 1 evening of babysitting.

@roses2 but thats only £15 a week more than 85 and yet way more hours, an evening of babysitting and in a city thats way more expensive :D so is it that outdated?

@heynori so would that mean you also wouldnt hire a babysitter for under 3s either?

Plus yes she will be loitering in the background -

My friend is disabled and so she is at home most of the day she just needs help entertaining the kiddies and pickup/drop of to nursery which is 2 minutes round the corner.

Her husband does breakfasts/ makes the lunches and makes dinner
and mother does bedtime and bathtime and cleans up after dinner-

most of the day is just supervising them whilst they are in the garden or bringing out toys for them or going out with the mum to help her take them to the park etc

Hi, just to offer a different perspective - I worked as an Au-pair in London about 5 years ago looking after 3 kids (8,8 and 4).
Got paid £85/wk for 35hrs (incl. 2hrs cleaning daily) + babysitting every Saturday night. No phone, no English lessons, no travel card. So what your friend is offering sounds pretty generous to me! Many of my Au-pair friends were also paid in the £85-100 range for similar hours, even those with younger children (one had ages 2, 4 and 6 and would often be in sole charge). Your friend's Au-pair would have plenty of time to pick up another job if she wanted extra money, so I definitely think £85 is a completely acceptable pocket money, especially for doing only 14hrs!

@Yellowbeansontoast Thank you , i had been worried that i had given bad advice to her because i said it was generous as well, she said that she knows how hard Au pairing is as my friend used to be a childminder and she didnt want to over work them or make them feel it was all work and no play and pay low so felt the higher end of the average was probably best.

Sorry OP, babysitters are a completely different thing because the children are sleeping. They're only there in case of emergency/if the children wake up and the parents are called to return.

I wouldn't hire an unqualified teen to babysit for my small toddlers anyway. Maybe when they are older like 6 and 7 and they can communicate better.

@heynori
Many babysitters are hired during the day / afternoon.

Not many babysitters are qualified unless they are childminders/ nannys etc so i guess different people will do different things.

Personal opinion differs. I wouldnt mind if the babysitter was living with me and i was in the house most of the time.

We've had au pairs for the past 10 years and I would say pay a little bit more (£90-£100) and attract someone with at least a year's au pair or child care experience otherwise what you propose sounds about right. Your children are very young for an au pair (we didn't start with au pairs until children were all at school or ft nursery) but I know plenty of people who did it and had no problems. We had a great relationship with all bar one (total nightmare - still talked about 7 years on ) of our au pairs and you need to treat them well, include them in the family life but respect their time is their own, give them a good week of intensive hand-holding and guidance and it will pay dividends and expect to feel like you've just gained a teenager at times!

If you look on the government Web site Au pairs are allowed to work 25-30hours doing child care and reasonable cleaning up after the children and are not allowed to have sole charge of any child under the age of 2 years old. Role that is on offer is perfectly reasonable as it is a cultural exchange not a job look up on gov.uk

@mumwithapub

Thank you :D I do think so too so good to have the facts x