au pairs

[tia]

Hi, I was wondering if anybody has employed a fille au pair? We are looking into it and would like to have a little advice, any positive or negative experiences.
Thanks

[Steve&Julie]

Never employed one but my daugher is currently au pairing in Italy and loving it! She says its much better if you include them as part of your family rather than being in an 'upstairs downstairs' situation. She gets board and lodgings and 60 euros a week. For that she takes the children to school, collects them at 12:30 then entertains them taking them to their activities, swimming, cafe, to friends, park etc until their tea at 4:30pm then after tea their evening nanny takes over. She then converses at dinner with all the family and their other employees in English/Italian as they all want to learn English and this is very social and relaxed (brilliant for her language skills too). She gets one day off a week. She does not make any food for them or clean (housekeeper does that) but she has to prepare fun English lesson sessions for the children based on activities and real life situations. She will be required to go to the family beach holiday villa and there she will supervise the children all day including at the beach and swimming pool and entertain them until 4.30pm. So far so good!

[Santiago]

Sounds like your daughter has found the ideal situation. I'm not sure all the au pair deals are quite as cushy as that!

We've had 3 different au pairs. English, French and Irish. The most important thing is to make sure the tasks you require them to do and all the terms and conditions are well defined at the outset.

If you are going to have them living with you, it's also important that they are going to fit in easily with your family.

Regarding payment, that will depend on you. I think about 10€ a day on top of board and lodgings is about right.

Discipline is perhaps the most important issue. If the au pair cannot command respect from the children, you will have problems.