Other people's Au Pairs

[Lizcat]

Yet again we seem to be in the business of rescuing other people's Au Pairs.
On this occasion the family locked the au pair out of the house late at night. Tearful AP phones my AP who rightly says get your self round to our house and stay the night here. What kind of family leave an 20 year old girl locked out all night. This is the second family who have done this. Surely even if things are not good you don't lock a vulnerable person out at night.

Some people are just like that. I personally have taken in two teenagers whose parents threw them out. We all have different values I suppose.

OMG!

I wonder how the host parents would react if their own dc was in another country and host family did that?

Had they not tried to talk to AP before, seems rather drastic action.......didn't find out that AP was mass murderer by any chance?

sweet to think that your AP feels comfortable enough with you to invite the waifs and strays round

You musn't forget that there are ALWAYS two sides of the story. Nobody would lock another person in a room just like that. Maybe something happened that she hasn't told you about.

Was it deliberately locking out? I've been nearly locked out of the house before by my own parents as we put the deadbolt across and the alarms on and I had to wake them up to get back in.

Whilst I agree it was a terrible experience for the poor au pair there is a possibility this could be an accident and there's a reason that so many families either have a curfew or ask the au pair to let them know when they'll be back - it's because they lock the doors at night!

Yes I agree that there is always two sides to the story. However, I do that the AP texted what time she was going to be back and got a reply to say that was okay.
The next day the family laughed when she had said she was locked out never checked where she spent the night.
This particularly family have a bit of a history (various APs have been friends with their APs) of treating their APs badly.

I once contacted an au pair's ex-host family (from the previous summer) to get a reference and was told 'oh,she's great, when she got locked out she slept in the outhouse under a blanket and didn't wake us up'! So not at all surprised by your AP's friend's situation.
We have put up one AP who was turfed out of her host home with no notice - she was a pain in the though.
And have just heard that another of our AP's friends has been told to leave because she is flirting with the host Dad (our AP has told us that this was happening for months - we don't know the host family at all). Didn't offer to put her up

It never fails to amaze me how badly some families treat their AP. I had heard some horror stories from my APs friends but it wasn't until I came on MN that I discovered some of the attitudes host families have towards AP that, quite frankly, leaves a bad taste, from grudging basic necessities such as food and heat to on the spot sackings.