Some questions regarding Au Pair free time

[EvaLongoria]

Hi

I recently seperated from my husband and we have a 2 year old DD. I started uni and have no family that I can depend on helping me whilst I study. My course is 2 days a week from 1pm until 8pm.

Her dad has every Tuesday off in the week and alternate sundays and we are therefore trying to find a balance of how often she would spend at his.

For now he collects her at a childminder at 7pm on Mondays and bring her back Tuesday eve. Then on his Sunday off he will pick her up Sat eve and bring her back Sunday eve.

At the moment I am at home on the other 3 days but am looking for a job as its compulsory to pass the year. I am now looking for an Au Pair to help me around the house and with DD.

I would therefore need her on Mondays to drop DD off before 1pm and collect at 6pm and dad then picks her up an hour later. Tuesdays she will have time for herself.
Wednesdays & Fridays for now she would need to help with childcare whilst I grab few hours to study but once I work I would temporary need her to look after DD until she starts with a childminder or nursery.

All of the above would mean that she would only work 4 days a week can I ask her to work the Saturday to help me with DD or must I give her 2 days off in a row. Obviously if she has plans and she needs to or want to go away for a few days I am happy to let her go on a Friday eve and come back on a Monday.

Do you think anyone would do this.

Thanks

You can ask and see if you find an au pair who doesn't mind working on Saturday but I would guess that they are few and far between. My au pair tends to meet up with others on saturday for group trips to the shops etc. It's harder for them to go out with friends during the week because they all have slightly different working hours. But you can put it in your requirements and see who applies.

I've never had a huge problem in finding someone who is able to work occasional weekends.. As a nurse my off duty varies from week to week and month to month so an au pair has been invaluable to our family since we live a long way from both sets of parents and my husband can also be unreliable working away some weekends.!

It's true that many au pairs will naturally be looking for weekend days off, but as long as you clearly specify this up front when you are looking then I'm sure you'll find quite a lot of candidates who are ok with this. In many central & eastern European countries Saturday is a day when most teenagers will do chores around the house so they may be used to it.

You may have to pay a small premium of £5 or £10 just to differentiate yourself from other au pair positions in the local area that have more traditional days/hours but this may not be necessary and probably better to hold back on initially so you can pay it as a enhancement to the pocket money after the first couple of months as a incentive/reward if your au pair is working out well.

working saturdays will suit someone who enjoys doing stuff on her own as well as with friends as they will have time off when most of the other aps are working. i personally like a weekday off as some places are more accesible during the week /due to opening times or public transport/. perhaps you can try to ask questions during interview process to find out what kind of person s/he is in this respect.

Put up an ad on au pair world and find out. As long as your are open and honest about what your requirements are, you will very quickly find out if there is interest. I would test this thoroughly at interview to check they had thought through what this time commitment meant, like Mill mine uses Saturdays to meet up with other APs but also meets up with them mid week when the kids are at school.