Would it be mad to have an au pair for a month over the summer?

[legalalien]

Just something I'm currently pondering. It would be for a month from mid July to mid August, and really just someone to act as a "spare pair of hands" so that I can get the odd hour or two to myself for a haircut, perhaps a run (would be a complete shock to the system, that) and a couple of nights babysitting. DH works a lot so the holidays (I work term time only) tend to result in a lot of isolated evenings! Given that I wouldn't be totally reliant on the au pair for childcare, in terms of me needing to go to work, I figure I could get someone relatively young / "studenty" looking for a traditional sort of cultural exchange. I wouldn't mind brushing up on my "haven't used it for 20 years and it wasn't that good originally" French. would this be completely mad / do I need to be talked out of it? Also, would a one month period be too short for anyone looking for an au pair job? We're in London if it makes any difference.

any tips?

There are a lot of students looking for 2-3 months on au pair world. And experience shows they all want to be in London (I am not!). Don't know if there are folk that would want to do just a month, but put a profile up and see, what have you got to lose?

I've had a Spanish girl of 21 recommended to me by someone I trust (and this girl has AP'd before in Ireland) I think she is at uni and only wanting to come for the summer holiday. Do you want tme to see if she is interested in one month (she may be wanting 2 months' work)?

I think it is a great idea but why not consider an English girl too?

Great idea, I did this for a family abroad for 6 weeks, we all got a lot out of it. I shouldn´t think you´ll have too much trouble finding someone..

There are loads of au pairs looking for a 1 month placement (especially in London) - I just had over 130 applicants for a position starting in July and the vast majority only wanted to stay for the summer hols, some 1 months and about 80% wanted 2 months.
Whether they would be helpful or not depends on your household - are your children a reasonable age (school age) and good at accepting new people (my ds takes at least 6 weeks adjusting to a change of au pair so we always look for ones who want to stay at least 5 months!).
Are you looking for the AP to be company in the evening or would it be AP babysitting so you can go out with friends? Am asking because my APs prefer to be in their room surfing the net or watching their tv programmes rather than downstairs keeping me company (but then I am very boring )
Best place to recruit from is aupair-world.net (you pay about £30 and then can contact any potential au pair who seems sensible. Or put a free ad on gumtree.com.
Normal pay for a minimal role in London is probably about 65-75 per week plus food, and any extras you might throw in (eg. PAYG mobile phone, pc so they can surf/skype, tv in room)

hi legal - don;t htink its that mad - why don;t you offer 6 weeks with only 4 weeks working - ie they get bed and board but a chance to see London for a week before they start work and a week after.

Students in UK training as primary school teachers outside of London may also be interested?

Thanks guys - that's helpful. The reason for the one month is that we're only holiday for the first week of July (until the 11th or something), and my in laws arrive on the 15th. Kew - I had thought that I might offer the option of staying on a "non-working" basis for a couple of weeks at the end of the stay - i.e. if they liked it and wanted to see more of London they could stay an extra couple of weeks but would have to put up with a single bedroom. By then we should have worked out whether they can stand us or not!

Squiffy - if you could ask re the Spanish person that would be great - as per above, would be starting on 12th July-ish for a month working and another couple of weeks optional bed and board. Generally I think it should be a relatively easy gig, given there's only one DS (although he does demand a lot of entertainment - a working knowledge of Star Wars would help) and I'll be around for large chunks of time.

millarkie - am really looking for babysitting rather than company - being one of the main "benefits" to me, as I see it - but I'm happy to have someone who wants to "hang out" some evenings if they see that as a way of improving language skills, iyswim

Where are you in London? My lovely nanny has spare time in the summer to help (as I am also teacher). We are in east finchley and she lives in bounds green.

i also have a friend who might be interested. she aupaired in london in the past four years and has only a month to spare this year. i'll point her in your direction.

Hello there, I am a student in London and I would love to be able to help you out! However, I am English and my skills in French are non-existent but I may be able to help you brush up on your Spanish?! I have babysat regularly (I have like 8 cousins I have babysat since they've all been babies, which although makes me feel old means I have had my fair share of nappy changing and endless 'hide-and-seeks'. I don't know whether you'd be looking for a live-in minder or just for the days/evenings but I would be able to do either, I live in Greater London so coming over last-minute when you would want to go out wouldn't be a problem.
Email me on [email protected] if you would like to talk a bit more! Thank you
Rose Graves

A bit of an update - I took everyone's advice to post a profile on aupairworld and had 280 applications (and I limited the search to five countries)! I am exhausted from reading them! It seems that there are quite a lot of people who'd like a flexible job in central London for a month, with just one four year old to mind. Now that I write this, it doesn't sound so surprising, I guess.

Anyway, after some shortlisting and to'ing and fro'ing I've just emailed a job offer, so everyone keep their fingers crossed for me....

Ooh I hope the lucky recipient accepts your offer
Are you going to search mumsnet now for house rules and au pair contract ideas?

but of course! (although my first priority was to do a sneaky facebook search. didn't find anything though!)

the suspense is killing me - the person is a student and judging by previous emails doesn't log on until about 9 or 10 pm.

I think I might have to start a thread about summer English language classes though. She doesn't expect us to pay for them but is quite keen to find some.