Anyone use ProAupair?

[Anonymous]

Just wondering if anyone has used pro au pair recently? If so, any and all feedback would be much appreciated! I know they are expensive but other than that just looking for opinions/experience with the actual company. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

What do they charge, OP?

[Anonymous]

Total with all the fees is $2400/month. WAY more expensive than the other companies but I'm having a hard time finding someone for my special needs daughter through the other ones. I'm ok with spending the money but want to hear if anyone has had issues with them.

[Anonymous]

I haven't even heard of them. Maybe they're new? I thought the State Department put caps on what the agencies can charge you.

[Anonymous]

I used them a year ago. Very expensive and our special needs au pair had no clue about taking care of kids. I would be very careful...

[Anonymous]

We are using pro au pair now and are very happy (starting to look for a new one for next year soon through pro au pair again). We knew our baby would have a few surgeries her first year and wanted specialized care. It has been helpful having an au pair who worked as a pediatric nurse for 4 years plus has the level of maturity and responsibility you would expect from someone who has been working 12 hour shifts at a hospital. I'm glad to discuss more specifics offline. washingtonlesley @ hotmail

[Anonymous]

We're on our second ProAupair au pair. Previously we were with one of the large agencies. ProAupair is an agency that mostly has "extraordinaire" au pairs. Our kids are NT but high energy. We've had good experience with all our au pairs, but our ProAupair APs have been amazing. Just wonderful. Our first ProAupair AP extended for a second year, and our second is still in her first year. We would be thrilled if she extended. Both APs have been very mature, and they really take charge with the kids. They've been excellent drivers and great housemates.

The au pair model works well for us, and having an AP who is an experienced child care professional is perfect. Re: 20:33's post - you do need to screen, just as you would in any other situation. We are fine contacting and interviewing several candidates before settling on the AP who is best for us. We screen for experience, personality, attitude, and driving skills. We also send house rules, work guidelines, and sample schedules so they have a better idea of what being our AP entails. Aupairmom.com has great suggested screening questions. I've found that the overall caliber of the ProAupair AP candidates is higher than what I encountered at the big agency, although certainly not every ProAupair candidate would have been a great match for us.

It's true that it's expensive. When I start searching for an au pair, I like to know that I'm looking at a pool of highly qualified candidates, as that means a lot of the work has been done for me. I find the fees worth it for that reason.

[Anonymous]

NPhere -- 9:58 can you tell me what kind of questions you use in the interview process? We're using pro au paire, and are just about to start interviewing.

[Anonymous]

9:58 here. I'll start by suggesting this list from Aupairmom.com:

http://aupairmom.com/interviewing-au-pair-candidates-every-question-youve-ever-recommended-we-ask/2010/03/23/celiaharquail/

Read the comments too - there are some very wise host parents who post great suggestions.

My philosophy is that I need to find a mature and responsible young adult who takes good care of kids and who likes kids. Then the AP has to understand that I have some "bright line don't do's" - they would be cause either for involvement of the LCC or immediate rematch. There are very few of those, other than obvious safety concerns. Then the AP needs to be someone I would like living with. And last but not least, we need an excellent driver.

I like a lot of the questions from AP Mom because you can get a sense of why the AP is coming to the US, does she like kids, can she handle a long (but no more than 10 hour) day with kids by herself, how would she handle disagreements between the children, what is her philosophy on discipline, is she a self-starter, etc. Some of the questions are good for sussing out how adventurous she is and if she'd weather homesickness and culture shock well.

Ask open-ended questions about what she does in her spare time, what does she like to do with friends, what did she do last weekend. You want to get a sense for her real personality and how she like to spend time rather than the "idealized version" that a lot of people like to present in an interview (which is human nature).

You should decide what you absolutely will not tolerate. Some of this you won't know until after you've had an au pair. My list includes smoking, phoning or texting while caring for children or while driving, and posting photos of the children on social media. Be careful with the smoking issue, if it's important for you to have a non-smoker. I've not had a problem with ProAupair APs, but it's been a problem in the past. Social smoking is common, and someone may indicate "nonsmoker" yet that may be far from the truth. We are explicit about how smoking is a problem, and it's a cause for rematch. If someone comes in from a night on the town with a vague hint of cigarette odor on her clothes, I'm not going to have a big problem. If the AP smells like cigarettes often, or if our AP car starts to smell like cigarettes, that's a problem.

Regarding driving: we look for au pairs who have been driving several years. I ask about accidents and tickets. I ask if she has a car, does she drive city roads, country roads, highways, does she drive stick/manual, is she comfortable driving in city traffic, how many kilometers per week does she drive, does she feel comfortable driving in the nearest major city (like Munich or Berlin), does she commute by car to work or school, has she ever taken a road trip, what's the longest road trip she's ever driven, etc.

Beyond that, I would just have a conversation with her on skype and see if you click. Have multiple conversations, and if you have a DH / partner, involve him/her too. If you live with someone a year or more, you definitely want to click. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much. I noticed on the aupairmom website that they talked about references. Don't the agencies check the references for you? I didn't imagine I would have to call some random person in Europe that may or may not speaking English -- please tell me that this is not usually part of the process!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks so much. I noticed on the aupairmom website that they talked about references. Don't the agencies check the references for you? I didn't imagine I would have to call some random person in Europe that may or may not speaking English -- please tell me that this is not usually part of the process!

I don't think many host parents do this but they absolutely should. Do not trust a single thing in that application. This is someone that's going to be living with you for w year, being part of your family and watching your kids. Take the time to check everything out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks so much. I noticed on the aupairmom website that they talked about references. Don't the agencies check the references for you? I didn't imagine I would have to call some random person in Europe that may or may not speaking English -- please tell me that this is not usually part of the process!

9:58 again. I don't do this. I think most of the moms on AP mom who check references speak the language (Portuguese-speaking host moms getting Brazilian APs, etc). Most of the ProAupair APs are German, and I don't speak German. There are other ways to get a sense of who the AP is - ask open-ended questions, ask for more details about experience mentioned on the application, ask for examples of how she has handled things, have several conversations. Compare what she's told you with her application, and see how consistent she is across the conversations.

Don't be afraid to have multiple conversations. Don't hesitate to send clear house and work rules ahead of time. Don't sugar coat anything. We often relax rules when it's clear things are going well - it's best not to start out too relaxed. We like to be generous with our au pairs, and we take them on trips, but I try not to talk about any of that as part of the matching process. Don't rush to match! Trust your gut. Interview multiple candidates. Ask a lot of questions. If you get to the point where you think you'll match, bring the kids in on a skype conversation. See how she does with your kids.

[Anonymous]

We do check references in most cases. When I am leaning towards matching with someone, I ask for names and contact info of references. Since we only have German speaking APs, if the reference doesn't speak English well then our current AP can contact him or her as everyone speaks the same language. I find it very helpful to hear the kinds of things that references say about a candidate, and in one case, I actually changed my mind and did not match with a candidate based on the references.

Now that we host male APs, we are particularly careful about references since we have a daughter. While I have zero concerns about them with my own daughter, I do ask a lot of questions of their references about how they would do with, say, a tween friend of my daughter who had a crush on them, or how they behave when a bunch of boys are being particularly rowdy (how much do they join in and how much can they control a situation). I've talked to priests, ministers, headmasters, employers, and even fellow camp counselors. I actually became FB friends with two of the references of our current AP (his former priest and his former camp coordinator). To me, this is an essential step in interviewing.

I also do multiple - 5-6 - skype interviews before matching. It takes me at least three weeks from first contact to extending match offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used them a year ago. Very expensive and our special needs au pair had no clue about taking care of kids. I would be very careful...

Same here. My au pair, who was older for an au pair, who claimed all this childcare experience during the interview actually had no clue about caring for kids. She only had to watch one, so not even like she was juggling a few. She said she thought she was here to do therapies 45 hours a week. When i asked her why she wasn't even doing any therapies, she said it was because there was too much of a language barrier. Better to get an aupair who genuinely loves taking care os kids rather than a "pro".

[Anonymous]

We currently have an au Pair with Pro Aupair. They are super professional and responsive. They focus on recruiting au pairs who have an interest in helping to raise kids with special needs. That program specifically focused on appears from Germany. They also have a good network of her peers who come through the organization that are based in the Northern Virginia area. That will matter as a social network will be very important for any au pair. Make sure you're preparing for the interview and selection like you would with any care taker. Take advantage of the personnality assessment tonce you sing up for service hrough their website for matching purposes. T was helpful to us. Make sure you understand the cultural nuances of Germans and Americans.