Au pair?

[Anonymous]

Can someone please explain how the Au pair system works?

We have a live in nanny, but our kids are growing up and we will want something different in a year or two. We would like a girl from either Italy, Brazil or Portugal (for language reasons). Can we choose the girl? How much (hours) do they work? Is the contract for 1 year? How much do they get paid? What are some of the best agencies?

Thanks a lot!

[Anonymous]

Yes, you choose the girl after they select their regional request.

1 year contract.

Average is $200-$250/wk depending on locality plus room, board and transportation (with family).

https://www.aupairinamerica.com/

[Anonymous]

Look in DCUM Nanny Forums - Au Pair forum.

[Anonymous]

Awful

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you. I looked at the website. What about health insurance for her?

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you. I looked at the website. What about health insurance for her?

Thank you

The program comes with some iffy quality insurance.

Italians aren’t as into being au pairs so that’s a harder match to make.

You *sorta* get to pick the girl but we struggle to match, possibly because we are a mixed race family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you. I looked at the website. What about health insurance for her?

Thank you

The program comes with some iffy quality insurance.

Italians aren’t as into being au pairs so that’s a harder match to make.

You *sorta* get to pick the girl but we struggle to match, possibly because we are a mixed race family.

I don’t think there are a lot of Italians or Portuguese participating in the program so that’s a hard match. Brazilians yes.

More than anything I think the best au pairs are those who are more on the older side. You do not want to end up parenting another teen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you. I looked at the website. What about health insurance for her?

Thank you

The program comes with some iffy quality insurance.

Italians aren’t as into being au pairs so that’s a harder match to make.

You *sorta* get to pick the girl but we struggle to match, possibly because we are a mixed race family.

I don’t think there are a lot of Italians or Portuguese participating in the program so that’s a hard match. Brazilians yes.

More than anything I think the best au pairs are those who are more on the older side. You do not want to end up parenting another teen.

I personally only even consider girls over 21 both for maturity and not wanting to police alcohol reasons.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks a lot, Brazilian will be good. I looked at some of the agencies and I don’t understand if the $8000/10,000 for the agency is yearly or you just pay it once. What if the girl wants to stay longer than 1 year?

Thanks again, this is very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks a lot, Brazilian will be good. I looked at some of the agencies and I don’t understand if the $8000/10,000 for the agency is yearly or you just pay it once. What if the girl wants to stay longer than 1 year?

Thanks again, this is very helpful.

You pay it all at once or on a payment plan with fees. You pay it twice if she stays a second year, with a small discount. All in I tell people to expect to pay $35k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks a lot, Brazilian will be good. I looked at some of the agencies and I don’t understand if the $8000/10,000 for the agency is yearly or you just pay it once. What if the girl wants to stay longer than 1 year?

Thanks again, this is very helpful.

You pay it all at once or on a payment plan with fees. You pay it twice if she stays a second year, with a small discount. All in I tell people to expect to pay $35k.

Thank you. I saw estimates of $20,000. Why $35,000?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks a lot, Brazilian will be good. I looked at some of the agencies and I don’t understand if the $8000/10,000 for the agency is yearly or you just pay it once. What if the girl wants to stay longer than 1 year?

Thanks again, this is very helpful.

You pay it all at once or on a payment plan with fees. You pay it twice if she stays a second year, with a small discount. All in I tell people to expect to pay $35k.

Thank you. I saw estimates of $20,000. Why $35,000?

$20,000 is the mininum and aupairs now expect considerably more. The minimum stipend is $200/week. When you add in gym membership, cellphone, car insurance (hello, 19-26 years old rates!) and food/board/tuition - it is much closer to 30k a year than 20k.

There is zero risk for the aupair. They can quit at any time with two weeks notice. A family pays the company for the yearly fee regardless of whether the aupair stays. If they do quit, you have to find another aupair in country that has also quit and pay the different in weeks on the contracts or bring another aupair over from outside of the country and pay for the additional weeks that they would be here. It is a LOSE LOSE scenario for a family. The quality and screening of aupairs has gone down considerably during the pandemic and you have a wave of people who cannot find work in their home countries and want to come here as aupairs but have fabricated the majority of their experience. The recruiters in each of the home countries are paid by placement as contractors. These recruiters are paid to push the candidates through screening.
Have you ever noticed how aggressive the Local Coordinators are on message boards to try and get people to host? It's set up as an MLM. It's a pyramid scheme to recruit families. You get paid more for each family you recruit. You have zero interest in sending bad aupairs home. You keep shuffling them around making deals with your other LCC salesmen to keep the host families as happy as you can while pushing the duds around so that they don't stay at any one house long.

They are using an MLM to SELL CHILDCARE. Buy beware. I was caught up in that business for years and I am shocked that host families think that the profiles are true or that their "nurse" from Brazil was actually a practicing RN.

It costs much more than $385/week or whatever nonsense they are advertising now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks a lot, Brazilian will be good. I looked at some of the agencies and I don’t understand if the $8000/10,000 for the agency is yearly or you just pay it once. What if the girl wants to stay longer than 1 year?

Thanks again, this is very helpful.

You pay it all at once or on a payment plan with fees. You pay it twice if she stays a second year, with a small discount. All in I tell people to expect to pay $35k.

Thank you. I saw estimates of $20,000. Why $35,000?

$20,000 is the mininum and aupairs now expect considerably more. The minimum stipend is $200/week. When you add in gym membership, cellphone, car insurance (hello, 19-26 years old rates!) and food/board/tuition - it is much closer to 30k a year than 20k.

There is zero risk for the aupair. They can quit at any time with two weeks notice. A family pays the company for the yearly fee regardless of whether the aupair stays. If they do quit, you have to find another aupair in country that has also quit and pay the different in weeks on the contracts or bring another aupair over from outside of the country and pay for the additional weeks that they would be here. It is a LOSE LOSE scenario for a family. The quality and screening of aupairs has gone down considerably during the pandemic and you have a wave of people who cannot find work in their home countries and want to come here as aupairs but have fabricated the majority of their experience. The recruiters in each of the home countries are paid by placement as contractors. These recruiters are paid to push the candidates through screening.
Have you ever noticed how aggressive the Local Coordinators are on message boards to try and get people to host? It's set up as an MLM. It's a pyramid scheme to recruit families. You get paid more for each family you recruit. You have zero interest in sending bad aupairs home. You keep shuffling them around making deals with your other LCC salesmen to keep the host families as happy as you can while pushing the duds around so that they don't stay at any one house long.

They are using an MLM to SELL CHILDCARE. Buy beware. I was caught up in that business for years and I am shocked that host families think that the profiles are true or that their "nurse" from Brazil was actually a practicing RN.

It costs much more than $385/week or whatever nonsense they are advertising now.

Thank you. You are making me rethink this arrangement as my live in nanny does not cost much more than that and I can trust that she won’t live with a 2 week notice. That would be a nightmare for us.

My parents had Au Pairs when I was growing up and we always had good experiences (we only had 2). It was not nearly as expensive though and therewasn’t the option of changing families I think… it was really fun for us as kids getting to know a girl from Ireland and a girl from Denmark. I really enjoyed their company and I have very good memories

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks a lot, Brazilian will be good. I looked at some of the agencies and I don’t understand if the $8000/10,000 for the agency is yearly or you just pay it once. What if the girl wants to stay longer than 1 year?

Thanks again, this is very helpful.

You pay it all at once or on a payment plan with fees. You pay it twice if she stays a second year, with a small discount. All in I tell people to expect to pay $35k.

Thank you. I saw estimates of $20,000. Why $35,000?

$20,000 is the mininum and aupairs now expect considerably more. The minimum stipend is $200/week. When you add in gym membership, cellphone, car insurance (hello, 19-26 years old rates!) and food/board/tuition - it is much closer to 30k a year than 20k.

There is zero risk for the aupair. They can quit at any time with two weeks notice. A family pays the company for the yearly fee regardless of whether the aupair stays. If they do quit, you have to find another aupair in country that has also quit and pay the different in weeks on the contracts or bring another aupair over from outside of the country and pay for the additional weeks that they would be here. It is a LOSE LOSE scenario for a family. The quality and screening of aupairs has gone down considerably during the pandemic and you have a wave of people who cannot find work in their home countries and want to come here as aupairs but have fabricated the majority of their experience. The recruiters in each of the home countries are paid by placement as contractors. These recruiters are paid to push the candidates through screening.
Have you ever noticed how aggressive the Local Coordinators are on message boards to try and get people to host? It's set up as an MLM. It's a pyramid scheme to recruit families. You get paid more for each family you recruit. You have zero interest in sending bad aupairs home. You keep shuffling them around making deals with your other LCC salesmen to keep the host families as happy as you can while pushing the duds around so that they don't stay at any one house long.

They are using an MLM to SELL CHILDCARE. Buy beware. I was caught up in that business for years and I am shocked that host families think that the profiles are true or that their "nurse" from Brazil was actually a practicing RN.

It costs much more than $385/week or whatever nonsense they are advertising now.

Thank you. You are making me rethink this arrangement as my live in nanny does not cost much more than that and I can trust that she won’t live with a 2 week notice. That would be a nightmare for us.

My parents had Au Pairs when I was growing up and we always had good experiences (we only had 2). It was not nearly as expensive though and therewasn’t the option of changing families I think… it was really fun for us as kids getting to know a girl from Ireland and a girl from Denmark. I really enjoyed their company and I have very good memories

*leave*

[Anonymous]

What do you mean by tuition?