Need help finding a new au pair!

[Anonymous]

OMG. As a hm who only matches with make APs, I can't imagine ever getting an email like that!!

[Anonymous]

Just chiming in with what I read last week on an AP's application. The question was - what was the hardest part of your childcare experience? Answer: getting up early. I couldn't believe she wrote that without more context. Did she have to get up at 4am and travel an hour? Or was it 7:30 and be there by 8. This candidates personal reference both indicated that her 'con' was that she was very temperamental.

I'm currently interviewing what I hope will be AP 4 for a July arrival.

Good luck, all. It's worse than online dating bc the stakes are so much higher!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am open to all countries as long as their English is good and they have at least 1 year of driving experience. Most of the girls have been European and at least 19 to 20 years old that I have looked at. I don't understand how they can tell me they are lazy or do not want to get up early. Why would you be in this program? I feel like emailing the actual company with these responses

You should! I always give feedback. Are a lot of them French? I have found the French girls to be so weirdly rude and arrogant when interviewing them. I always want to like them! And then they ask me stuff like, "What do you like most about my application" or "I don't like to walk outside when it's cold, so can I drive the kids to school?" as their first questions. Boggles the mind.

Keep going. Read and reread that letter. I do think the mature girls are able to get their personality to come through on the letter and video.

Wow. Way to stereotype. I have nothing but great luck with my 6 french APs, and none of the nonsense you described. There are shallow candidates in every country! I am surprise you can't spot them by their letter and video, as you suggest.

I'm stereotyping based on real experience! I really would love a French AP - I speak the language and spent many months living in Paris. Maybe I just attract all the nut job french girls.

This is an actual email I got recently:
"I saw your profile and honnestly I wouldn't like to take care of children from 5-7 years because they ask so much attention and explain to them so much things. I prefer older children because they do not ask so much and there is less care needed."

While I get that she wants older kids, but saying 5-7 year olds are too much work is really insane to me.

OMG clearly she has never actually dealt with older children. My 13, 11, and 8 year olds would soon disabuse her of the notion that they "do not ask so much" or there is "less care needed." Sure, they don't need help taking baths or getting dressed but managing the disputes and the activities and the pre-teen drama.....oy. My APs are getting a crash course in mediation and dispute resolution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am open to all countries as long as their English is good and they have at least 1 year of driving experience. Most of the girls have been European and at least 19 to 20 years old that I have looked at. I don't understand how they can tell me they are lazy or do not want to get up early. Why would you be in this program? I feel like emailing the actual company with these responses

You should! I always give feedback. Are a lot of them French? I have found the French girls to be so weirdly rude and arrogant when interviewing them. I always want to like them! And then they ask me stuff like, "What do you like most about my application" or "I don't like to walk outside when it's cold, so can I drive the kids to school?" as their first questions. Boggles the mind.

Keep going. Read and reread that letter. I do think the mature girls are able to get their personality to come through on the letter and video.

Wow. Way to stereotype. I have nothing but great luck with my 6 french APs, and none of the nonsense you described. There are shallow candidates in every country! I am surprise you can't spot them by their letter and video, as you suggest.

I'm stereotyping based on real experience! I really would love a French AP - I speak the language and spent many months living in Paris. Maybe I just attract all the nut job french girls.

This is an actual email I got recently:
"I saw your profile and honnestly I wouldn't like to take care of children from 5-7 years because they ask so much attention and explain to them so much things. I prefer older children because they do not ask so much and there is less care needed."

While I get that she wants older kids, but saying 5-7 year olds are too much work is really insane to me.

Of course it's worth stereotyping every French candidate based on that email alone.