Au pair & major house cleaning

[Anonymous]

An au pair is the opposite of what you want. I had two in 1 year, and the experience they claim to have is exaggerated. Then you are stuck with explaining everything to them(literally had to write out a hand book) and they get emotional when you tell them what they are doing wrong. I found myself putting their feeling above my child’s well being.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not just get a house cleaner for 1-2x a week and pay the nanny for light tasks? This is what I did as a nanny 15 years ago. I unloaded/loaded dishwasher, a few loads of laundry a week, swept the downstairs space 1x a day, sanitized kitchen surface areas, took out trash and recycling as needed, etc. The cleaners came every week and did the dusting, mopping, bathrooms, and other heavier stuff. I was paid well.akd no issues.

Get off your lazy derriere and clean your own house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you're describing is similar to the role of a "domestic helpers" in Hong Kong or Singapore but it doesn't exist here (and arguably shouldn't exist there). It's total drudgery and no one wants to do it. If you're very lucky, some nannies are happy to pitch in with cleaning up after meals and maybe kids laundry but they're not cleaning the full house, nor should they if they're trying to do a good job caring for small children.

Do you really need daily cleaning? Have someone come 2-3 times a week and then hire a separate nanny who is focused on caring for your kids.

Why shouldn’t these roles exist? They are awesome.

How much are you willing to pay? For a guaranteed $1000.00/day, I would do it but only one day a week for 8 hours only and you would like not be allowed to interact/interfere in any way.

Getting paid $125/hour? Ahahah ok. OP get a cleaner for $100 and a nanny for the 3 hours or so you need childcare for. It will cost $175 per day. And honestly you don’t need a cleaner every day. We have someone once a week and it’s enough. Twice would be perfect, but it’s not in our budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not just get a house cleaner for 1-2x a week and pay the nanny for light tasks? This is what I did as a nanny 15 years ago. I unloaded/loaded dishwasher, a few loads of laundry a week, swept the downstairs space 1x a day, sanitized kitchen surface areas, took out trash and recycling as needed, etc. The cleaners came every week and did the dusting, mopping, bathrooms, and other heavier stuff. I was paid well.akd no issues.

Get off your lazy derriere and clean your own house.

OP asked about paying significantly extra for house cleaning, what the eff do you care how she spends her money? Are you some type of communist whose kids use the public health clinics and whose's offended that others may have more?

[Anonymous]

We have a house manager who does do some childcare (mainly driving kids to activities) - our kids are 10/12/14 and in school all day. In addition to that, we have cleaners every other week. Our house manager does laundry, meal prep, daily clean up, but no deep cleaning.

She works 11-7 or 12-8, so this wouldn't work for someone with little kids. The reality is, you need to hire for the roles you need and not try to combine things. When kids were little, we had a nanny for childcare and weekly house cleaners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a house manager who does do some childcare (mainly driving kids to activities) - our kids are 10/12/14 and in school all day. In addition to that, we have cleaners every other week. Our house manager does laundry, meal prep, daily clean up, but no deep cleaning.

She works 11-7 or 12-8, so this wouldn't work for someone with little kids. The reality is, you need to hire for the roles you need and not try to combine things. When kids were little, we had a nanny for childcare and weekly house cleaners.

How much do you pay the house manager?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our full-time nanny/house cleaner is disappointing so far. In less than 2 months, she
already left early twice - it seems because she didn't like being corrected. I also feel that I have to manage her ego/feelings.

We are considering getting an au pair instead - here's the question - can we pay an au pair extra (significantly extra) to also do daily cleaning of a full house?

Au pairs are not indentured servants. Stop being so cheap and hire professional cleaners. Of course, you could clean up your own filth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) It's against State Dept rules to ask au pairs to do any chores not related to children.

2) Helping an au pair adjust to living in an unfamiliar country while learning your family dynamics is one the most challenging aspect of the program. They're young adults without a lot of life experience who're promised the moon by the agency. The reality is once they land and meet other au pairs, they'll soon compare notes and will want to be out if working conditions in your home is not as nice as their friends'.

3) I started using a house cleaning service AFTER being in the au pair program because the majority of the au pairs are not that tidy or know how to clean. In general they create more mess. But we've been lucky in that all of them have been very good with our kids.

All of this. +1 OP you should separate child care from cleaning/house management.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An au pair is the opposite of what you want. I had two in 1 year, and the experience they claim to have is exaggerated. Then you are stuck with explaining everything to them(literally had to write out a hand book) and they get emotional when you tell them what they are doing wrong. I found myself putting their feeling above my child’s well being.

This sums up our au pair experience as well.

OP, why does you house get so dirty? Pick up after yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A nanny/housecleaner doesn’t exist. I wouldn’t have our cleaners watch my kids and I wouldn’t have our nanny make our beds.

Are you expecting her to clean while your kids are home? Or are your kids in school and you want a housekeeper with the perks of watching your kids for a couple hours in the afternoon?

You’re trying to milk what should be 2 employees out of 1 person which is why this arrangement is not working. Going through the au pair program isn’t going to work either — you’re trying to cheap out that isn’t allowed under the au pair arrangement. You’ll be providing them food and shelter and transportation as well, which I don’t think you’d like if you can’t afford to pay for 2 separate services.

This. Really well said

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our full-time nanny/house cleaner is disappointing so far. In less than 2 months, she
already left early twice - it seems because she didn't like being corrected. I also feel that I have to manage her ego/feelings.

We are considering getting an au pair instead - here's the question - can we pay an au pair extra (significantly extra) to also do daily cleaning of a full house?

Nannies are not housecleaners. She should have quit on the spot when you asked or demanded that she was expected to clean your house just from the above post you do not have what is needed for an au pair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not just get a house cleaner for 1-2x a week and pay the nanny for light tasks? This is what I did as a nanny 15 years ago. I unloaded/loaded dishwasher, a few loads of laundry a week, swept the downstairs space 1x a day, sanitized kitchen surface areas, took out trash and recycling as needed, etc. The cleaners came every week and did the dusting, mopping, bathrooms, and other heavier stuff. I was paid well.akd no issues.

Get off your lazy derriere and clean your own house.

OP asked about paying significantly extra for house cleaning, what the eff do you care how she spends her money? Are you some type of communist whose kids use the public health clinics and whose's offended that others may have more?

She is violating the au pair scope of responsibility as well as the law governing au pairs.

[Anonymous]

OP are you from another country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are definitely going to have to manage an au pair's "feelings".

LOL this. It’s cheaper than a nanny because you also have to parent a teenager and deal with their drama and boy problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not just get a house cleaner for 1-2x a week and pay the nanny for light tasks? This is what I did as a nanny 15 years ago. I unloaded/loaded dishwasher, a few loads of laundry a week, swept the downstairs space 1x a day, sanitized kitchen surface areas, took out trash and recycling as needed, etc. The cleaners came every week and did the dusting, mopping, bathrooms, and other heavier stuff. I was paid well.akd no issues.

Get off your lazy derriere and clean your own house.

OP asked about paying significantly extra for house cleaning, what the eff do you care how she spends her money? Are you some type of communist whose kids use the public health clinics and whose's offended that others may have more?

She is violating the au pair scope of responsibility as well as the law governing au pairs.

This. The au pair programs operate on a special visa that is not a traditional work visa. There are rules about what type of work they can perform, how many hours a week they can work, etc.