Had a great idea, but now where would I find this ery specific kind of au-pair, if thats what it would be...

[mustrunmore]

In essence, friend of a friend needed a place, so we had great idea but she had got sorted by time we asked her.

We have very small spare room to offer. In exchange, I'd want maybe £20 a week for bills, plus the person concerned to be an evening babysitter every other week Monday to Friday and one sat and sun morninig per month. on that weekend, they would have the Thurs and Fri free instead. These are based round dh's shifts pattern, and I do classes every night so it'd be so much easier than begging favours from friends all the time. It means of course that their days are free for work or study or whatever.

Would anyone wanna do this? Where should I try? I obviuolsy want someone lovely and honest and reliable etc etc as they'd be living with us and be responsible for my boys.

Would you want someone to babysit every night Mon-Fri, every other week?

How many hours a week would it be, average over a month?

Sounds like a good idea MRM, but I have no idea where you would look for this sort of person? ideally they'd be crb checked so you know they're not a looney, would a trainee nurse/teacher suit you? could post at local uni/college? I'd love cover here so I could go out to do classes at night, but we don't have a spare room otherwise I'd nick your idea

Yes paperchase. Let me see, prob 22 hours a month, as its about 2hrs a night every other week.

Friz, you stalking me?

You cant get a room for £20 a week!!! Even when I was a student in north wales which was a million years ago, it was still £28 each a week for a double room in a real dive. Then we rented a garage to live in, £50 a week.

Are you going to pay them a salary?

I'm not sure who it would appeal to - I can't imagine that many students wanting to be committed to the working hours.

However that doesn't mean it is not worth a try advertising the position, as it may appeal to someone. However, I would suggest making it very clear in the advert with regard to the exact hours they would be working - for example by setting out a typical Month's rota.
If the rota is the same each month, the person could plan around that.

If the babysitting hours are in place of paying for accommodation, I would estimate that 22 hours it is worth £200-£250, so once added to the £20 per week you want them to pay, their room is costing them £300 or so a month. Their other cost is their time/freedom... they are committing to doing certain hours, which may not fit with their social life.
It may suit someone... but I don't know who.

God, do you get £10 an hour + for babysitting?! Thats only £2 less than what dh gets for being a multi skilled senior technician.

I'd put our room at £200 a month rent in any case.

Sounds like a non starter thouhg

I'd do it but I have got two kids of my own!

You may need to re-think asking £20 a week.

Au pairs cost £60+ for a 20 hour week in London, so you could say the equivalent in your case would be £15+ for 5 hours a week, and that's without factoring in the weekends. And some au pairs are (wrongly, imo) put off by small rooms, though having every other week off is likely to be attractive

Also, what about food? For an au pair, you will be obliged to provide food, but not necessarily so for a lodger. Then factor in use of tv/rest of house/phone/internet etc and you may need a bigger re-think.

How about asking around local colleges for people on child care courses, or at nearby playgroups and nursery schools?

A London rate of £10/hour for babysitting is commonplace, but you could get someone young and unqualified for much less, especially if it's a case of watching your tv whilst the children are sleeping. That's a job for a local teenager, I think.

Oh, I meant to say that £15/week for an au pair for those hours isn't very likely to produce many candidates. You certainly couldn't charge rent/bills on top of those hours.

What time would 'evening babysitting' commence? You would need someone who could get home in time for you to go out (as well as prepared to give up all evening activities Mon-Fri and get up 'early' every other weekend).
For comparison - I'm in negotiations with a potential AP who is a student at a nearby University (and can't afford to rent a room in the city) - we are asking for her to cover 4pm-6.30pm each weekday (so she can still go out in the evening) plus a small amount of cleaning up.. and offering her a double room ensuite/food/car and £85 per week. (plus side for us is that she is committed to being in this area for a year and she can do extra hours during school holidays)

Your plan is worth a try (ad on gumtree is a good idea). One of the ideas I had was to rent our spare room to a professional person (lodger) and then use the rent to pay for live-out childcare etc.

I think you are actually wanting what is called a demi-pair from your description - this is like an au pair who does 10-15 hours a week for a reduced allowance. Can you think of some more jobs for them to do and possibly advertise it on this basis?

Otherwise I would just advertise the room for free to a local student - possibly a postgrad - and forget about a contribution to the bills because that makes it actually quite unattractive IMO.

I think you are talking about gettin an au pair. And I agree that you will need to pay her the going rate for an au pair who works that number of hours. Not sure how much that is... probably £80 per week plus room and board... and maybe an English class if she negotiates that upfront. For this price, you could probably also get her to do a bit of housework and run some errands.

How old are the boys?

I don't think you can charge someone for a room and then expect them to baby sit for that many hours. Surely you would have to pay them something and the cost of the room could come out of that.

Oh good grief, what has MN done to me? Am I over quoting prices???

Millarkie can I work for you? I do the same now, e.g. student in a city where I can't afford to live. However, I work 25 hours a week, don't have an en suite and get paid £60!!

AN it's 22 hours a month due to needing a babysitter only every other week, for 2ish hours per evening, Mon-Fri.

Ok, the reason I said the £20 in the first place was because the person who sparked all this off (but got a place so isnt here!) would have apparently been offended/felt bad at getting a room just for doing babysitting as specified, so the £20 was to make her feel better!

Andf when we were in our last place and rented room out it was £200 a month to friends who got it cheap . Even paying £7 an hour for a babysitter, that still works out around £150 a month equivalent to have our room here. All I thought was that if there's someone like sa student who needs a place has little money and needs to be in studying anyway, it would be a great set up. Times vary slightly on day of week, but earliest I'd go out would be 5.30ish latest I'd be back would be 8.15pm but mainly 7.30ish.