How ditzy is your aupair?

[Quattrocento]

Mine is sweet but quite hopeless:

1. Language course. I found out all the options for language courses and sent them to her before she came, including setting her up with a telephone interview for a place at the local college. She declines everything on the basis that telephone interviews would be stressful.

1. She arrives and finds out that we are out at work and therefore needs an environment to make friends (I did tell her this repeatedly). So she finds a language course she wants to attend. It turns out to be a 20 week revision course (revising material from a primary course that she has not attended) for an exam she does not plan to take that qualifies people to do a phd in the UK. Its focus is academic english, writing the perfect bibliography etc. It costs £4k.

1. She cannot use any electrical implements including the washing machine.

1. She cannot remember her mobile phone number despite my giving her (twice) the details

1. She cannot work the buses out and takes taxis everywhere, despite my sitting down with a map and several bus timetables. Oh and I buy her a travelcard that entitles her to free travel on the buses.

1. She is surprised that the university does not allow her to walk into lectures on subjects she has no knowledge of.

1. She refuses to drive or to learn to drive

1. She has no credit or debit cards and despite a Trip to the Bank has made no progress

1. She watches films for small children all day long

10. She cannot get up before 11 am

There is more, so much more

Goodness and you employed her to look after your precious children - how ditzy are you?

"She cannot use any electrical implements"
WTF

What time is the next flight

Good God Quattro!!!!!
What help is she then? Doesn't get up before 11? Can't use the washing machine?
How long has she been with you?
I would have a serious chat about being an AP because it just doesn't sound like she's up to it.
As for being ditzy,...they've all been slightly ditzy about a couple of small things,...but not to this extent.

Quattro, I cannot believe this! She sounds really bad. Honestly, sort it out or get rid of her.

send her back home - she is out of her depth

time for a new one.

my 5 yr old can put the washing machine on the right cycle and she would know what bus to get into town fgs

it sounds like she lacking in confidence tbh.

i am a little like this with electrical stuff, having phone interviews (especially in a different language!), working out bus/train time tables, and memorising mobile numbers!

However i think the getting up at 11am needs sorting out!!

Get rid of her! Life is too short to add another child into it. Yes, I know she is an au pair, not a nanny and allowances have to be made but if she cannot use the washing machine or get a bus, of what use is she going to be with your children? Could you trust her to take them for a walk without getting lost?!

Is she blonde ?

sorry i shouldnt laugh ....... wtf !!

i know she is prob very young, and nervous about being in a new place etc

but she also sounds lazy and and childish / childlike too!

wht does she do exactly ?! lol

where is she from and how old? just being nosey.

Oh dear Quattro
Are you there at all during the day or is this someone who is expected to manage a good deal on her own??!! Stressful. Age? Did you meet her before she arrived or just telephone???

Oh thanks for responses

No we are out at work all day but children both at school and her piece is just about after school care 3 days a week until we get home.

She is 21 and Belgian and had been living on her own at university for 3 years so I thought she would have more of a clue to be honest.

She just isn't remotely practical about stuff.

So how on earth is she managing on her own with the dc's after school? Does she cook? Are the dc's basically looking after themselves with her kind of overseeing? What do the dc's think of her? Can she manage their washing? Remember what they need for school/ clubs etc?
Sorry Quattro...so many questions
You see this is the decider for me... are they practical, have they common sense, are they confident. It doesn't sound like she answers any of those but of course you could be looking for something different entirely.
I just think in this current economic climate everyone is working their arses off to keep their heads above water and this has to include the AP. I have no time at the moment for another child. especially a teenage one.

If she is clean, polite and does a good job of the after school care you need her for, then I would try to just remain amused at her ditzyness and attempt to train her to use whatever electrical appliances she might be required to operate.

We have had all sorts but not really ditzy ones - yet!

Our currrent new ap has however decided in her own time to train our ditzy springer to walk properly on the lead.

She's wonderful and even brought me a cup of tea in bed this morning. She's even busy at home baking a birthday cake for ds2. It's his birthday today but his dopey mother forgot to buy one from Tescos bake one.

IME Belgian university students go home to maman every weekend to get their washing/ironing done and go back to university laden with little silver foil cartons labelled lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi to reheat in their microwave (clue: does she know how to use a microwave?). The Belgian maman exceeds even the Parisian or New York Jewish mamma in her maternal attentions...