Au pair yes or no?

[Firstimemam]

Hi everyone, my little DS is coming up to 10 months old and I feel anxious about nursery, not only because of the setting itself but the financial strain, 3 full days where we are (London) would be £1100. I'm speaking to a German au pair who is a trained nursery nurse having extensive experience in childcare & she sounds a dream. She wants to come over to improve her English & she'd have 4 day weekends every week to do so (language of the house is English but I speak German with DS)

Anyway, are there any success stories regarding au pairs? The good and the bad please?

If she has sole charge of the child for long periods of time she wouldn’t be an au pair she would be a nanny, which may have an impact on how much you should pay her. Other than that she sounds perfect. When my children were older I had au pairs for many years with great success.

If it's three full days of sole charge care of a baby, you need to be looking at a part time nanny. Au pairs shouldn't have sole charge of babies for long periods of time. If you like the German au pair and she has good references etc you could employ her as a nanny instead.

You would be employing her for 30 hours a week as a live in nanny not an au pair, au pairs aren't meant to be left whole days

Au pairs aren’t allowed sole care of under 1’s.
As others have said, from what you’ve written, that’s a nanny role.

Thank you ladies - I didn't know that but just to clarify, DH works from home on a Wednesday, so would be at home and i work from home on a Thursday, so the only day she'd be alone in the house would be Friday.

DS will be turning 1 in January and she wouldn't start working before that, so no under 1s.

Do you still believe this a nanny position?

I would still say it was a nanny position. Au pairs are just supposed to help out with stuff like housework and school pick ups. No reason why you can't employ her if you feel she has the right experience but you need to pay her a nanny wage not an au pair wage.

She sounds like a nanny to me. Even if you’re in the house, she’d still have sole charge of your son for the whole day and you’ll be working in a different room? Au pairs tend to be an extra pair of hands to muck in, pick up older children from school etc

However, I think you could have her as a higher paid au pair if that’s what she wants to do. As an au pair, she’s meant to be part of the family and participate in family life. That’s different to being a nanny who’s an employee and keeps herself to herself.