We are looking for a new Au Pair
It has happened again: Our new Au Pair pulled out
We found an Au Pair for the new school year early, skyped a few times with her and everything seemed to be perfect:
She wanted to spend a gap year in London after finishing her Bachelor degree. She has lived abroad for quite a long time before. She taught children Spanish and German so I guessed she must really like children. She had a boyfriend who was about to move to London as well. So after 2 Skype calls we offered her the job and skyped a third time to finalise all details and set up and sign an Au Pair contract.
We stayed in contact over the weeks through WhatsApp and Skype afterwards.
The last Skype call left a tiny concern on my side: Her boyfriend was – despite the initial plans – not going to work in London but at the coast 2 hours away.
And she seemed a bit surprised that the girls won’t have school for the first two days of the term for the older one and the whole first week for the younger one who starts reception class in September. Even though I was a bit concerned, I didn’t ask her about my concerns afterwards. Big mistake!!
And then I received this email! Saying that I never told her that she will have to take care of the kids for whole days. I am pretty sure that I mentioned that we will also be in London some half term holidays and that it is more hours for her then. Or when the kids are ill. Obviously she didn’t make the connection what that meant and I have learned another lesson to make it quite clear that the Au Pair is the one who is taking care of the children on these days. I am speechless as I just don’t understand how someone can apply and sign an Au Pair contract who is then pulling out after she found out she will have to take care of the kids during the holidays or when the kids are ill. What?!?
Wha do we as a really nice Host Family who always treats the Au Pairs with respect and kindness are so unlucky recently…
This means I have 4 weeks left to find a replacement…
Previously, we were always looking for German speaking Au Pairs. My husband and I are both German and the kid’s first language is German. Of course their English is nearly as good as from native speaking children.
But to be honest: After the last 12 months where we mainly looked on AuPairWorld and a few Au Pairs who either pulled out of the Au Pair arrangement or it simply didn’t work out, I am not 100% committed of hiring German Au Pairs only. Or let’s say it differently: When someone else reliable and nice comes across we are very open to hire an Au Pair with another nationality.
How does our Au Pair position look like?
We are looking for a new Au Pair from beginning of September 2017.
He or she should be reliable as we both work, need to love children and speak a decent English. We need someone for 4 days only with very few exceptions.
Both kids are at school from 8:45 to 3:20. They have some after school activities.
Duties include regular Au Pair duties:
- Helping getting the kids ready in the morning (work begin at 7:45)
- Morning school run
- Tidying up the breakfast table
- Kids laundry (no ironing necessary as long as the folding is done precisely)
- School pick up and afternoon activities
- Preparing tea for the kids and tidy up kitchen afterwards
- Tidying up kids bedrooms with the kids
- Taking care until around 7:00pm (Some days I have a social event at work and won’t be home to bring the kids to bed)
- 1-2 times babysitting per week when the kids are sleeping and I want to go to the gym for 1-2 hours
- Occasional babysitting on the weekends, which will be long pre-announced and at everyone’s convenience.
- No cleaning as we have a cleaner coming once a week who is also doing the Au Pairs room and separate bathroom
- Very rarely I may ask the Au Pair to vacuum the ground floor in case the cleaner is ill
Some facts about us:
We live in London Wimbledon in Zone 3 in a rather quiet neighbourhood. We are very well connected with public transport: Different Overground lines (Thameslink train stop 3 minutes away) and two Tube lines close by as well as many bus lines.
Several language schools are in easy to commute distance and many Au Pairs live in the neighbourhood and have their host children in our kid’s school.
My husband and I are rather busy even though I only work 4 days. On the weekends we have many social activities and don’t do many trips (unfortunatley!). We are welcoming our Au Pairs to become part of the family and most of the time we invite the Au Pair to join us. Only on the weekends we have some things like when we get invited to friends where we can not always bring the Au Pair. Therefore we prefer Au Pairs who are open and make friends easily to organise their own weekend program in case we are busy with our own weekend plans.
We help the Au Pair with all admin things like Doctor registration, bank account opening or gym membership. The working hours will be between 20 – 25 hours in regular weeks. We will pay GBP 100 per week pocket money. We will increase the pocket money for extra hours like during holidays.
Please comment below if you have questions or send me your questions and your application to uleyke@gmail.com.
Thanks and kind regards,
Uta