My aupair informed me this morning that she's changing language schools as she doesn't think that the one she's currently going to is working out, which is fair enough. However, the classes at the new school are 9.30 -12.30 3 times a week and this really doesn't suit me at all.
Her working hours are 8-11 Monday, wednesday and friday and 8-10 tuesday and thursday. In order to do the hours at school she'd need to leave home at 9am and wouldn't be back until 1pm. Her duties in the morning are to give the DC's breakfast, make their beds, clear up from breakfast and if I am working to do the school run plus some cleaning and ironing.
If she takes my DD to nursery she drops her at 9.30 but obviously needs a few minutes to get her coat off and settle her meaning that she wouldn't wouldn't get to her class before 9.45 and I am not happy for her to rush the drop off. Equally, one of the mornings she now wants to do to school is Friday which is when DD isn't at nursery so I a) like to leave her with the aupair for an hour whilst I do chores or go to DS school and b) I like to have a clean house for saturday. DS finishes school at 1pm on a friday and I use that day for playdates at our house and I really don't want her cleaning around the kids, she won't be able to do it.
So, I've said that 2 mornings is fine but 3 is too many, although she is of course welcome to do some afternoon classes too if she can. She's going to look at it and see what she can do. I feel a bit mean on her but ultimately, even though she's here to learn english, I arranged her hours to suit us before she arrived and to change them like she wants to is just a real inconvenience and defeats the purpose of having her here.
Before anyone starts shouting at me saying that she's part of the family and here to learn english and not a slave or a maid or any of that, I am fully aware of this, I like her a lot, she only works 21 hours a week and we are very good to her but the reason I have an aupair is to help me out and I agreed her hours with her before she came. The hours she wants to change to means that on occasion I'll have to find alternative drop offs and arrangements for the children which is not the idea at all.