Au Pair Mealtimes

[Looby4]

Does your au pair eat with kids (same food - mix of healthy stuff like Shepherds Pie, but also Fish Fingers/ Pizza on busy evenings), cook for themselves and eat alone, or eat with the adult(s)?
I've had two au pairs who have eaten with me around 7-7.30pm when kids in bed, we've shared the cooking and washing up. However I have a new au pair starting at the end of Aug and am not really keen to eat with them - our routine is different now, and I may need to help our eldest with homework, and eat much later.

I've seen people on Gum Tree offering a food allowance to the au pair but don't want them not eating in order to save the money. I was thinking of asking them to give me a shopping list and I will order it in with our Tesco delivery, but not sure whether a 20 year old would be that organised.

What does everyone else do?

Hi when she arrived we asked our au pair what she likes to eat. I make her a meal and leave it in the fridge, she then re heats it and eats it for lunch or in the evening. I also brought her some micro meals to have if I forgot or was unable to cook anything. This arrangement works well for us and for the au pair as they can decide when they want to eat. I don't recommend giving them money, most of them don't want to cook and would spend the money on crap food and then just raid your fridge if they're still hungry.

Our aupair would eat with us at 8 pm after ds had gone to bed, but with dd who is older and still up. We cook for her, because we like to cook. There were Fri and Sat nights where she had other programmes on and told us she did not require dinner. Then I would either not cook her portion or pack it up for lunch for her.

Or she might make her own dinner of a sandwich, pot noodle.

I asked her (also 20 years' old) to put on our shopping list any items that run out. She never once did that. I had to specifically ask her just before the shop what she wanted to put on the list.

I think teenagers and young people, left to their own devices, tend to have quite appalling diets.

We prefer our au pair to eat with us in the evening after the children are in bed. It gives us the opportunity to chat with her in a relaxed environment.

However, the last 2 that we've had have said that we eat too late for them and have prepared their own meals around the same time that the children eat.

Not sure if it is coincidence but our last two never really settled with us and felt like part of the family. Also they ate complete rubbish. Any chocolate left in the kitchen would disappear as would ice cream, pot noodles, biscuits etc. I always said to them to let me know what they wanted to eat and I would get it for them or to come with me when I went shopping to choose food for themselves but they rarely did.

Our next au pair starts with us in about 3 weeks time and we're definitely going to encourage her to eat with us in the evening.