"Slave" poster - who are you??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you the same person who told me to go through the message board to look for suggestions and called me "immature?" Talk about not being busy enough...

I'm the poster who called you immature on the other thread, not the person you're going back and forth with, but man are you proving my point. No one is trolling here but you, digging up ancient threads to pick fights over, because your original troll post wasn't enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see about six or seven international au pairs several times a week where I take my kids for lessons. The way these kids treat their au pairs, is nothing short of shameful. You want to see "slave" treatment? You got it. Except it's not out of Hollywood.

The nasty kids are following in their parents footsteps. How lovely.

[Anonymous]

The proof is in the pudding.

Year after year, thousands of au pairs return to their home countries, and undoubtedly talk about the good and bad parts of their experiences. This includes the APs who bail because of homesickness, or are mistreated, or whatever. It also includes the many au pairs who go back and tell their friends what a GREAT TIME they had.

Year after year, there are TENS OF THOUSANDS of girls who WANT to be au pairs. It's the internet age everyone. The notion that the AP program is a slave labor program in disguise that is hoisted upon unsuspecting girls just doesn't make sense.

[Anonymous]

It's disturbing that we have zero statistics as to the success/failure rate of our government au pair program.
Why is that?

[Anonymous]

Some host families do not understand the rules and are not bothered by them. An au pair arrives under the expectation that she will be treated well and be a part of the family and get to take part in the outings.
Just be hones with the new girl before matching

Some families should never host.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Au pair program in USA should be reviewed and changed.

[Anonymous]

And you should get a life, job, hobby instead of trolling and re-posting old threads.

[Anonymous]

Who is pulling up all these 4 year old threads??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not the slave poster but it is obvious that many of you USE your AP's and you do not treat them with courtesy and respect. From many, many posts, it is obvious that you consider them "The Cheap Help," and you can get away with a lot of crap because. US Federal and state labor laws are not applicable. The no of hours should be changed to a max of 40 hrs (preferably 30-35 hrs/wk) and they should. Have two full weekends off per month. They should only have to work Mon. - Fri and a max of 8 hrs per day and the extra 5 hrs should be paid at OT. The AP program needs to be changed to the 21st century.

I'm sorry, WHAT? You do realize that many people with ft jobs work far more than 35-40 hours/week now, despite union regulations going into effect approximately a century ago. So bringing the AP program "into the 21st century" doesn't mean APs should automatically work fewer hours. That wouldn't work for the vast majority of people who choose au pairs. They are not "cheap help" - it is an entirely different program and I don't know many people who use it that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the slave poster but it is obvious that many of you USE your AP's and you do not treat them with courtesy and respect. From many, many posts, it is obvious that you consider them "The Cheap Help," and you can get away with a lot of crap because. US Federal and state labor laws are not applicable. The no of hours should be changed to a max of 40 hrs (preferably 30-35 hrs/wk) and they should. Have two full weekends off per month. They should only have to work Mon. - Fri and a max of 8 hrs per day and the extra 5 hrs should be paid at OT. The AP program needs to be changed to the 21st century.

I'm sorry, WHAT? You do realize that many people with ft jobs work far more than 35-40 hours/week now, despite union regulations going into effect approximately a century ago. So bringing the AP program "into the 21st century" doesn't mean APs should automatically work fewer hours. That wouldn't work for the vast majority of people who choose au pairs. They are not "cheap help" - it is an entirely different program and I don't know many people who use it that way.

NP. They're less than half the cost of an American nanny. So yes, they are cheap help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the slave poster but it is obvious that many of you USE your AP's and you do not treat them with courtesy and respect. From many, many posts, it is obvious that you consider them "The Cheap Help," and you can get away with a lot of crap because. US Federal and state labor laws are not applicable. The no of hours should be changed to a max of 40 hrs (preferably 30-35 hrs/wk) and they should. Have two full weekends off per month. They should only have to work Mon. - Fri and a max of 8 hrs per day and the extra 5 hrs should be paid at OT. The AP program needs to be changed to the 21st century.

I'm sorry, WHAT? You do realize that many people with ft jobs work far more than 35-40 hours/week now, despite union regulations going into effect approximately a century ago. So bringing the AP program "into the 21st century" doesn't mean APs should automatically work fewer hours. That wouldn't work for the vast majority of people who choose au pairs. They are not "cheap help" - it is an entirely different program and I don't know many people who use it that way.

NP. They're less than half the cost of an American nanny. So yes, they are cheap help.

Only if you don't factor in room & board and you live in a place where you'd pay a nanny 70k/year which is pretty unusual.

[Anonymous]

Convenient for split shift help which is hard to find but definitely not cheaper when you factor everything in which the "slave labor" posters never seem to acknowledge and stay hung up on the stipend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the slave poster but it is obvious that many of you USE your AP's and you do not treat them with courtesy and respect. From many, many posts, it is obvious that you consider them "The Cheap Help," and you can get away with a lot of crap because. US Federal and state labor laws are not applicable. The no of hours should be changed to a max of 40 hrs (preferably 30-35 hrs/wk) and they should. Have two full weekends off per month. They should only have to work Mon. - Fri and a max of 8 hrs per day and the extra 5 hrs should be paid at OT. The AP program needs to be changed to the 21st century.

I'm sorry, WHAT? You do realize that many people with ft jobs work far more than 35-40 hours/week now, despite union regulations going into effect approximately a century ago. So bringing the AP program "into the 21st century" doesn't mean APs should automatically work fewer hours. That wouldn't work for the vast majority of people who choose au pairs. They are not "cheap help" - it is an entirely different program and I don't know many people who use it that way.

NP. They're less than half the cost of an American nanny. So yes, they are cheap help.

Only if you don't factor in room & board and you live in a place where you'd pay a nanny 70k/year which is pretty unusual.

Then why bother?

[Anonymous]

I am a former AP.

My first host family was living in Central US. They had a very nice house, great jobs. They were older (42-58), had a very unhappy 7 yo little boy. They made me work the full 45 hours and would NEVER dismiss me even 5 minutes earlier, even if they were home. Which didn't happen a lot anyway because they always had something going on after work, either the gym or date night. I was finishing work at 9.30pm when I had to put the kid to bed.
Then ready to work at 7am to get him up and ready for school.
They would spend about 30 minutes per day with him and it wasn't quality time since I was there ... working.
They would use me half days on Saturdays, which would ruin my plans if I was invited out by other AP. I always had to say no and they stopped inviting me.
Then when the kid was off from school they asked if I wanted to make extra cash. They divided the weekly stipend by 45 hours which back then was $140/45, which made about $3 per extra hour ... I agreed to do that and so did the former AP but when you think about it I can't believe I accepted such a low wage.

The kid being very unhappy, yelling, hitting me etc, and since I wasn't having a good time on my time off (didn't even have a tv in my bedroom and no access to the car on weekends, living far from anything walking distance) I decided to leave and rematch.

Second host family, the father was a crazy person who would go through my stuff, steal my mail and yell at me if I had forgotten to clean up bread crumbs ...

I stayed because I wanted to experience America. But this was not the experience I had been dreaming about for years.
And most of my friends had problems, one was overworked and so tired she didn't even enjoy Manhattan on her days off on weekends, another one wasn't paid on her 2 weeks off (the father told her "Yes, we paid you, remember?!" but he hadn't ... she didn't say anything. They would also send her to the repair shop and wait for the car to be repaired for hours, among other things ...)

If I had to do it over, I'd probably chose another programme to spend one year abroad. Sadly I couldn't afford to study so I had to pick something that'd make me earn some money. That's why I chose the AP programme.
And it was in my field (early education), I love kids of course, it sounded like such a great experience but I can't believe all the crap I went through. And I was not a terrible AP. I was an excellent driver, love to help out, am a good roomate, never take advantage of anything, just a good person to be around. I didn't deserve that.

I also believe the rules need to be changed and I'm hoping for the best for future APs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a former AP.

My first host family was living in Central US. They had a very nice house, great jobs. They were older (42-58), had a very unhappy 7 yo little boy. They made me work the full 45 hours and would NEVER dismiss me even 5 minutes earlier, even if they were home. Which didn't happen a lot anyway because they always had something going on after work, either the gym or date night. I was finishing work at 9.30pm when I had to put the kid to bed.
Then ready to work at 7am to get him up and ready for school.
They would spend about 30 minutes per day with him and it wasn't quality time since I was there ... working.
They would use me half days on Saturdays, which would ruin my plans if I was invited out by other AP. I always had to say no and they stopped inviting me.
Then when the kid was off from school they asked if I wanted to make extra cash. They divided the weekly stipend by 45 hours which back then was $140/45, which made about $3 per extra hour ... I agreed to do that and so did the former AP but when you think about it I can't believe I accepted such a low wage.

The kid being very unhappy, yelling, hitting me etc, and since I wasn't having a good time on my time off (didn't even have a tv in my bedroom and no access to the car on weekends, living far from anything walking distance) I decided to leave and rematch.

Second host family, the father was a crazy person who would go through my stuff, steal my mail and yell at me if I had forgotten to clean up bread crumbs ...

I stayed because I wanted to experience America. But this was not the experience I had been dreaming about for years.
And most of my friends had problems, one was overworked and so tired she didn't even enjoy Manhattan on her days off on weekends, another one wasn't paid on her 2 weeks off (the father told her "Yes, we paid you, remember?!" but he hadn't ... she didn't say anything. They would also send her to the repair shop and wait for the car to be repaired for hours, among other things ...)

If I had to do it over, I'd probably chose another programme to spend one year abroad. Sadly I couldn't afford to study so I had to pick something that'd make me earn some money. That's why I chose the AP programme.
And it was in my field (early education), I love kids of course, it sounded like such a great experience but I can't believe all the crap I went through. And I was not a terrible AP. I was an excellent driver, love to help out, am a good roomate, never take advantage of anything, just a good person to be around. I didn't deserve that.

I also believe the rules need to be changed and I'm hoping for the best for future APs.

Thank you for sharing what happened to you. It's appalling that our State Department isn't doing exit interviews to gather evidence about what's really going on behind the glossy sales brochures. I know that many young foreigners are leaving the United States after enduring abuse.

The State Department should have a 24 hour hotline for au pairs to report abuse, and to get help. The au pairs should NOT be forced to forfeit their investment for reporting abuse. They're getting sent back to their countries before they have had an opportunity to complete their commitment. This is outrageous and must be corrected.