All vacation at our choice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you paying a house/dogsitter?

I would give her one week off ( your choosing) and have the sitter come. Then all the other weeks she can be in charge of house and dog.
Then she gets a week off of her choosing still.

APs can’t work as dogsitters.

+1. Why do some people insist on continually breaking the rules? Stop it. This is a good program. Don't ruin it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you paying a house/dogsitter?

I would give her one week off ( your choosing) and have the sitter come. Then all the other weeks she can be in charge of house and dog.
Then she gets a week off of her choosing still.[/quote

Please read your contract! Au pair is not responsible for pets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you paying a house/dogsitter?

I would give her one week off ( your choosing) and have the sitter come. Then all the other weeks she can be in charge of house and dog.
Then she gets a week off of her choosing still.

APs can’t work as dogsitters.

I would give her the option. Some APs wouldn’t want to take care of the dog and they shouldn’t have to. However, some would t mind at all and would rather do it than have a stranger in their home/have vacation left to pull from

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you paying a house/dogsitter?

I would give her one week off ( your choosing) and have the sitter come. Then all the other weeks she can be in charge of house and dog.
Then she gets a week off of her choosing still.

APs can’t work as dogsitters.

I would give her the option. Some APs wouldn’t want to take care of the dog and they shouldn’t have to. However, some would t mind at all and would rather do it than have a stranger in their home/have vacation left to pull from

Right?
This!

[Anonymous]

Vacation at the time of your choosing is one thing, but this is too much, too soon. It is likely to be a problem because of the timing for the reasons previously mentioned. Better to bend the rules about dog sitting and let her choose vacation later, if you can swing it and she is agreeable. However, there is also the risk that you will come home and she will have left the country. Four weeks is a long time to abandon a relatively new AP. If she's done with vacation in August, she may be done with the program then too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a 7th time host family who have always allowed APs to choose their vacation weeks (within reason) but with our next AP (May arrival) we will be taking a 4 week family trip the last week of July and first 3 weeks in August. We have a house/dog sitter who will be staying in our guest room those weeks.

Can we ask that those 4 weeks be APs vacation weeks? She can take all 4 to travel or stay home some of the time and be a tourist at home. We could also offer her a handful of 3 day weekends if she wants to go other travel.

What do you all think? Good idea? Bad?

Out of curiosity, do you already have an AP or you are starting the matching process?
I am also looking for may arrival and wonder when to start looking ?

[Anonymous]

I would also be careful finding an AP who will be comfortable alone that quickly after arriving. I find many are homesick and a little lost until about the 3-month mark. Being in an unfamiliar city and unfamiliar home might be very difficult at the onset.
As someone else also mentioned, they won't already have a lot of money saved up so will be limited in what they can do.

That being said - if you are clear about it all on matching and go over these issues, it could be a great fit for someone who wants to take extra classes or travel.

[Anonymous]

I would delay AP arrival until after this vacation.

[Anonymous]

Looking for May arrival and we will start looking in December but know we probably won't match until February....