Floodj

We are thinking about trying an Au Pair to help with the kids. Does anyone have any experience positive or negitive? Which agency/service was used?

--Joe

solomonschris

My brother had Au Pairs for the first 6 or 7 yrs. of his son's life. They each came for one year. All benefited from the arrangement and Evan, the child is bi-lingual and now 29 yrs old so I can help with the agency issue.Good luck....Chris

chsu74

https://rennlist.com/forums/off-topi...-au-pairs.html

JPS

Though they are certainly readily available here in NYC, we've never gone that route. We've always laid out exactly what we needed and figured out how to staff accordingly.

When he was an infant until about 3, we did a full time nanny. Had a green card, and well referenced from other parents and such. Did a background check too.

When he outgrew that we went to more part time, but still a nanny. Same process.

We now (son is 5 and in kindergarten) have a part time, college educated SWF who was looking for the part time status to work on her thesis and do some internships on off hours.

Before you go through the overhead and risks of having a live in and all that, you might ask around and look for any "mommy boards" that locals are active in to get a referral.

There are also agencies, usually local, who will place for whatever time you have, but they charge on top of it all.

One tip...if you are paying in a manner other than all cash, don't forget payroll taxes and all that. Not much $ unless they decide you are avoiding everything, then the fine is $.

TravisB

Dated one for about a year...but I'm not sure if my experiences would be useful to you.

Mark in Baltimore

Shoot a PM to Andreas' servant's assistant; she hires all of his au pairs.

HerrDoktor

We opted for the daily nanny/sitter b/c of the big upfront costs of hire of an Au Pair. Prior, we had a sitter not work out and had to can her after a month so we were a little gunshy. We found another sitter which worked out great for us. She still takes the kids out from time to time now that they are in school.

We found her through one of those nanny.com sites and interviewed ~5 before finding the right match. Was a kind of a PITA but worked out in the end.

inkatouring

Useful? Probably not. But that doesn't mean we don't want to hear the details....

jainbaby

Pm me, we have had 5 Au Pairs, have one now in fact and my wife is a regional coordinator for an Au Pair agency, between the two of us, I am sure we can answer any of your questions...