Avoid Cultural Care for Au Pairs
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Anonymous
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Don’t know if other companies are any better but they either don’t do background checks...or worse, they do and they cover up any lies on their au pair’s applications. And if you’re getting a rematches au pair already in the country, demand to speak to the family letting them go.
I got two au pairs through them and both were completely untrained, unprepared and inexperienced with children. I have one 7 year old boy and required only 4 hours of work a day. The first one from Germany claimed to have worked at a day care for 4 years. It turned out that she worked at a gym that HAD a day care. I didn’t know this until she admitted it during her 2nd week in our home. Cultural Care tried to tell me this was basically the same thing, even though she only worked the front desk and had no child care duties. She threw daily tantrums, demanded I buy her a car and snuck men into the house after hours. I found a strange dude in his underwear going through my office. She also stole my clothes, including lingerie. I found several missing items wadded up behind the dryer covered in...stuff. I submitted for a rematch and Cultural Care wouldn’t let me talk to the family they sent her to because it would cost them too much money to send her back to Germany. The next one also lied about having child care experience and locked herself in her room every day, refusing to come out and FaceTiming with her boyfriend back home. She asked if he could come live with us for the rest of her year with us. This was only her first week. After 6 months of this wild experience, Cultural Care refused to apologize or issue any kind of refund. It was a very expensive mistake. |
Anonymous
| The reason why I didn’t get an au pair is because I didn’t want to take care of a teenager. |
Anonymous
Yep, that’s pretty much how it felt even though they were both over the age of 24. It was an exhausting experience. If the company hadn’t been so shady and dishonest, this could have been done properly. I really needed the help. And it was just extra stress in my day, every single day. |
Anonymous
| It really comes down to luck. We had a great Au pair from Cultural Care, but an absolutely terrible experience with InterExchange. We were treated terribly by them and after we went into rematch with our depressed barely functioning au pair they sent her to another family. Terrible for the new family and for the young woman, who needed help (and had declined my offer to pay for therapy and additional medical costs). |
Anonymous
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OP, you are all over the place. How much child care experience do you need to watch a 7-year old for 4 hours a day?
You should've called cops when you found that guy in your office and rematched before she "snuck men into the house". The other one locked herself into her room at her own time. |
Anonymous
| Good au pairs are GREAT to have. Bad au pairs are horrible. |
Anonymous
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There is an AP section in the nanny section. There are also numerous Facebook groups for HP. Whether or not the agency “allows” you to speak to the family that a rematch AP is coming from or going to, there are several ways to try to get in touch with them. If you choose not to, that’s your choice. But why you would EVER take a rematch without discussing with the family... I truly don’t understand that.
And anyone considering getting an AP (or making any equivalent big decisions) should be doing plenty of research. That includes the requirements for young people to join the J-1 program, who the local representatives are (LCC for CCAP, called other things for the other agencies), how well the company checks their APs/BPs, how rematches are handled, how refunds/credits are handled, etc. Frankly, I agree with PP. Most APs/BPs are either stellar or awful. A lot depends on what you discuss in your conversations. The vast majority of families spend a LOT of time getting to know an AP before making an offer. |
Anonymous
| Sounds like you need to learn to interview better. You didn’t ask relevant questions during the matching process? Did you pick someone based on looks? |
Anonymous
| Similar experience with Cultural Care. They were awful. |
Anonymous
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We used APIA. They were fine. I think the issue is not necessarily the agencies interaction with the parents, it’s that many of the APs come under false pretenses and are generally young and naive.
Our AP was a sweet heart and totally sheltered - she signed up to be an AP thinking she would be living in a Hollywood Hills mansion doing 5 hours a week of babysitting while becoming a famous movie star. She also checked the box that she could drive because her friends said she would never get picked if it wasn’t checked (spoiler alert: she lied) Instead she lived in a townhouse in the suburbs of DC. Failed driving test 5 times. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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All of the au pair agencies only do a cursory screen. You have to interview and call references. Then you have to train them when they arrive. They are young and untrained, but hopefully well intentioned and eager to learn.
We've had two solid au pairs with CC. Neither is perfect, but no one is. |
Anonymous
| We had three great ones from CC. You have to get ones who are already in country looking to switch families or an older one. We never got one under the age of 22. |
Anonymous
| We have a good au pair who thinks she is amazing. I am trying to just be grateful that she is good and ignore the attitude that comes with it. The entitlement. We’ve had her for almost two years, and up until the quarantine she has worked the lower side of the hours range (maybe 15 hours a week). We were planning on ending our involvement with the agencies once her term is up (mid summer) and we probably will do just that. The kids had already been in after care and were doing fine. Hoping we can figure something out. |
Anonymous
| We have done CC and APIA. Mostly good experiences, and the two mismatches over many years were rushed decisions where we sort of knew we were taking a risk |