Well, not a staff, so much. More like an unpaid au pair.
Dan and I looked into a few different childcare options earlier this year before deciding on the family day care set-up we love so much.
During that process, we registered with an au pair agency which has recently come back to us and asked if we'd like to be considered for their part-time program.
Basically, in return for room and board, the au pair undertakes 10-15 hours of child minding and light housework a week.
At this point, we're interested. We have a bedroom and bathroom downstairs that lend themselves rather nicely to guest quarters and we like the details of the potential candidates they've sent us.
We've had plenty of people live with us over the years, both short and long-term, so that's not such an issue for us.
We don't need home help, or childminding help. But it might bring a little something extra to our life for the three months an au pair would be with us and it definitely fits in with my 'village to raise a child' philosophy.
What do you think? Would you like an au pair to live with you for three months?
Yeah. We had my French speaking cousin stay with us for a few months when I had me first baby (she was a student and we didn't need an au pair as I wasn't working) and it was such a nice experience for our little family. I'd definitely look into it. xx
ReplyDeleteI just saw your comment on Life on a Small Island and came to visit. About Au-Pair… My daughter has 3 sons, my 3 grandsons are 5, 3 and 9 months old. Both she and her husbands are doctors near Nashville, Tennessee, so to help with the children they have had au-pair staff. They had to pay the agency a big fee. Their au-pair gets a salary and does only so many hours of childcare a day and has to be sent to school (which my daughter pays.) The first au-pair was French and got too homesick for France and left. The second au-pair was French Algerian. He was nice but could not cook and was not approved for infant care. The third au-pair and current one is from Colombia and can barely speak English. She was supposed to know how to drive but has had 3 accidents in 5 weeks so far. I hope your au-pair will work out better! But, the children are learning Spanish….I’d rather they speak French as it is difficult to teach them since we live 5 hours away, in Atlanta.
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