We've had an au pair with us for some time now. She has been great with my 2 children and they've bonded with her well. There is just one thing though, one big thing that irritates me. She never cleans up after herself and when she leaves the room, I find myself having to run around tidying up after her. For example, she came in to the lounge with a filled baguette from the supermarket and ate it sat on the sofa. When she left, the wrapper was still on the coffee table. She gives the children their dinner once a week when my husband and I finish work late and we have to commute home on the train from the city. Yesterday, I came back to find that she'd stacked the empty yoghurt pots up and instead of putting them in the bin, left them on the worktop.
As I said, she is very good with the children. I get along fine with her. I was thinking that I could subtly say to her that if she's ever looking for the bin, she can find it in the kitchen but knowing my frustration, it will likely come off as passive aggressive.
She is only 23 and was very much molly-coddled by her parents. I've got two young children of my own, I don't want to and I won't pick up after another one! We have a cleaner come in on Fridays but there are other times during the week where my husband and I are occupied with business matters and we get seldom free time to ourselves. I don't know how I want to approach the issue in deep honesty.