Which agency is better Cultural Care or Au Pair in America
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Anonymous
Are you sure it wasn’t because you were just wasting her time? |
Anonymous
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Hey OP. Be aware that with two children under 2, you need someone well versed with infants and toddlers. IQ just means that they have documented time with kids, but frequently that means that they worked in a daycare with infants and toddlers. If they were in a 1 year old room, they might never have handled an infant, let alone have a single idea on how to balance infant needs vs toddler needs.
Ask probing questions. Exaggerate issues they might face and ask them to tell you how they’d handle it. Above all else, go with your gut! |
Anonymous
| We have been with CCAP for the past 4 years and are happy with them. They supported us through one rematch. We interview closely and have not had quality problems; in fact all of our au pairs (even the rematch) have taken as good or better care of our children than our previous professional nannies. We started with youngest at age 3. |
Anonymous
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We are with APIA because we really like our local LCC. She is amazing.
We originally signed up with both CC and APIA to look through both of their AP pools. You should do that. In order to get signed up with them, the LCC comes over to meet you and you can gauge what you think of the LCC at that point in the process. For us, the LCC with CC was flaky, rescheduled our meeting multiple times, and slow to respond. We went with APIA whose LCC was easy to talk to, responsive, and very experienced. |
Anonymous
Maybe---it was after she sent a bunch of dud candidates over for us to interview so I decided to change directions. |
Anonymous
Ah, understood. |
Anonymous
| We have experience with both Au Pair in America and Cultural Care. It really is about the individual you choose and the local coordinator than any one agency. I urge you to consider both. But, one thing that might tip in favor of APIA is that they have the au pair extraordinare program which has candidates with substantial experience with children. We chose this program because we have young children. It costs slightly more to have a au pair extraordinare but the costs are well worth it. I also had year 2 extension candidates so that I could see the reference from the first family. I was very nervous about having an au pair and went with a year 2 extension au pair that was an extraordinare. Everything went smoothly with her. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| The people who run Cultural Care are the most stupid people you will ever meet in your life. (Samantha Moore and Kristen Tanner specifically). The only people that you might meet that are more stupid then them are the au pairs that they send you. The customer service is the lowest level anything. I have had better service at McDonald’s then with them. They can’t follow through, will lie to you about fees, and frankly don’t really even know what is going on at all (all somewhat critical if you work in customer service...) The agency’s focus is the au pairs and they do not care about the family hosting at all. If any issues come up, they always support the au pair and you end up screwed and paying a 10k no refundable fee and searching the au pair pool of idiots they recruit. They keep the ratio of au pairs to host families low so you are desperate with very few options when you are looking. They have to do this because the au pairs they get are such low level no one would actually want them if they had options. I recently had a Swedish au pair quit because she “didn’t have enough friends and was lonely”. She left the day of the support meeting quit on the spot. The LLC did not even encourage her to stay on two weeks or try even though she was quitting for personal reasons. These girls they recruit are legit from the ghetto and have no experience especially the Swedish ones. My Swedish au pairs friends in other cities were the same- legit ghetto. I am certain they hardly background check these girls. Anyway, I have since tried go au pair and love them! If you want a real agency go with them or au pair in America. Cultural care is a bunch of uneducated unpolished ex nannies running an agency that recruits people who are the most unpolished unrefined and least educated humans I have ever met. Like I said, have met better people working at McDonald’s Donald’s I’m pretgty sure the two au pairs I had could not even get a job there they were so ridiculous Go au pair is the way to go their screening is so much better or rather the agency ACTUALLY screens them |
Anonymous
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Yikes, PP, that was a bit over the top. Lots of decent hardworking people at McDonalds, so don’t knock those with more challenging economic circumstances.
That said: I would warn anyone and everyone away from Cultural Care. Their LCCs are paid by recruiting new families, not for helping current host families (and it really shows in terms of responsiveness and helpfulness). We switched to Au Pair Care and I can’t believe how much more professional they are, with what seems like a much better pool of candidates. Good luck (and stay away from CCAP)! |
Anonymous
We’ve been with CC for 5 years and after having 8 different lccs over the first 1.5 years we’ve had the same lovely older woman for the past 3.5. She’s perfectly fine and helpful enough but we’ve never had to go to her for anything outside the usual initial checkins. I’m looking to switch to APC possibly and reached out to the lcc 5 days ago and haven’t heard anything back. Which makes me not feel great about at least our lcc here. |
Anonymous
| We have been with 2 agencies in the past - CC and APC. In my experience, bottom line is agencies are agencies - ultimately they all care most about one thing, which is money. There are smaller differences such as CC has a huge applicant pool, but I have also found matching to be more stressful with them. I didn’t love our AD for APC, while our LCC for CC was fine. But, just remember that the most important thing is finding the best AP and you can’t predict where you are going to find the best match. I would recommend signing up for both agencies, interview some APs and then just go with the AP who you connect with the best. |
Anonymous
| I would avoid CC because they seem to think it is okay to be a Big Brother figure in the lives of host parents. They sent emails to host parents who were in Facebook groups asking why they used Facebook groups instead of their website to look for rematch candidates. And then threatened the APs who were participating. That is a gross invasion of privacy in my book. If I use an AP from a certain agency, I am not consenting to having my online behavior monitored by that agency. Based on that I would never use them. |
Anonymous
| We set up profiles on CC and APC when we started looking for our first AP. APC had better search filters for us, and with CC we had to click on each AP’s profile to see the detailed info we wanted. That was a pain! Needless to say, we went with APC and they have been great. |
Anonymous
| There is no comparison. Culture Care is a poorly managed mill that wastes families time and constantly shuffles disgruntled au pairs from place to place. It is the worst. Au Pair in America is a well run organization with vastly higher-quality candidates and vastly better management. It is like Mercedes vs Yugo. Run away from Culture Care. |
Anonymous
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Disappointed by Lack of Transparency and Inclusion via Cultural Care
My experience with Cultural Care Au Pair has been deeply disappointing due to their lack of transparency and disregard for inclusion in the caregiver selection process. As a devoted mother, I have always prioritized my son’s well-being above everything else. I’ve requested to hire help many times, only to be shut out when an au pair was finally selected. Despite having a court agreement that requires mutual consent for caregiving decisions, I was excluded from interviews, denied access to essential background information, and left out of the decision-making process entirely. This lack of communication and failure to follow legal agreements has caused unnecessary stress for my family. It’s not just about my role as a parent—it’s about ensuring that my child is placed in a stable, supportive environment where both parents have a voice. Transparency and respect for family dynamics are crucial for successful placements. I hope Cultural Care Au Pair reconsiders their approach and improves their process to respect and support both parents in separated households. Trust and open communication are non-negotiable when it comes to a child’s care. |