Do you have old AP train new AP? Overlap thoughts?

[Anonymous]

What are your experiences/thoughts with having a new AP overlap with an old AP for training purposes? How long? Does old Ap move out of bedroom into guest bedroom? How does it work?

Both are from the same country. I didn't know if it would be helpful for new AP to be able to ask questions of old AP in portuguese etc? We have a good relationship with outgoing AP.

[Anonymous]

We have done this with our last two transitions and are planning to do it again this summer. It's worked really great for all of us. We do it for a week and try to time it to be the first week of school (biggest responsibilities for our au pair is getting kids ready for and to/from school). New au pairs have been really happy to have some help show them the ropes, around town, introduce them to other au pairs, etc. Current au pair gets a new friend and they've all stayed in touch. It also really helps to set expectations for what we ask of our au pairs (which to be honest is not a ton) and to watch previous au pair in action. It's worked well for us because we've had really great matches and basically are hoping the new au pair will replicate what our past have done. If your au pair has bad habits, does things in a way you don't like, etc. overlap may lead to more of the same.

[Anonymous]

I think this could work well if you have a great outgoing AP as well as the space to temporarily host 2 APs at once. If you have any qualms about how your outgoing AP does things or any tension/awkwardness in your relationship, having overlap seems like not a good idea.

[Anonymous]

We did this with all 7 APs.

We had a Colombian to Colombian transition that was a little bumpy as the existing AP (who was going home to finish school) was depressed about leaving when time came.

Other than that it worked out well.

One transition we went from female to male; our female matched locally and it did not work out. She came back to us for 2 months in rematch and we had a male and female AP that was actually pretty cool.

And no, they did not hook up. We had the space, and our former female was awesome and it was overall a good experience for those two months (but expensive).

[Anonymous]

I found this *really helpful* when we had a good departing AP.

However, one time we had a so-so au pair leaving and I feel like she griped to the new au pair and told her how to get around our rules (or maybe just indicated that our rules were unreasonable) so the start with the new AP was rocky.

As long as you think old AP will convey your values, it is so great for them to show new AP around, help them get driver's license, bank account, etc.

[Anonymous]

Overall I found this very helpful. I got tired of showing the new AP how to find my kids snacks in the grocery store, how to pack the bag for activities etc. The one downside is when a departing AP got lazy toward the end, they'd tell the new AP things like we weren't that strict about things like laundry and I'd have to reset with the new AP.

[Anonymous]

We just did it for the first time and it worked great. That being said our last AP was a rock star! In the past, having no overlap gave us the opportunity to adjust the rules.