South African Au Pairs

[Anonymous]

Has anyone had experience hosting a South African au pair? Were there particular challenges? How was their driving ability?

[Anonymous]

I hosted one who quickly ended up in rematch. Driver's licenses can be purchased there- pretty sure that's what my bad au pair did. And then she was angry and resentful at not having car access, after the driving instructor I hired to evaluate her told me, "Don't let her drive your car, and definitely don't let her drive your kids." Also lied about cooking, childcare experience, and basically everything. There is a culture of dishonesty there.

[Anonymous]

South African profiles are the only ones who ever say they are not comfortable living with people of a different race (standard question on the ccap application). Even though we are Caucasian, I am not willing to bring that kind of racism in to my home. (We also won't take anyone not willing to live with same-sex couples for similar reasons)

[Anonymous]

We have had 2 South African AP and they were awesome!
Abut 5 years ago when we entered the program South African's were the "hot" country and families were battling to get them. Now, not so much.

You have to realize there are many cultures in South Africa but primarily there are 3 most common looking to be APs.

Afrikaners are normally the white english (and afrikans) speaking; but of Dutch decent and have a thicker accent. They are normally a bit more hard core/intense than the white English South Africans. Work pretty hard, play very hard. The English APs is more like an Australian type culture. Not as up tight as, say, someone from the UK typically may be. Once you get to know a lot of both types of girls you see there is a difference.

There are a lot of tribes in SA but most common is Zulu. They also are native English speakers but with a harder accent to understand. We have not had one of these APs but from what we have learned is that in their culture it is more common to be physical with kids (spanking, etc) and can be very strict. Both our SA APs worked in child care facilities and both said that it was common and accepted in the most of the non-white cultures as acceptable.

One thing to know about SA, especially for whites females, is they are naturally guarded. South Africa is the rape capital of the world and obviously whites are a minority so while our APs were by no means racist; it is a very raced based society with blacks taking back what was taken from them hundreds of years ago during colonization (done legally as a land claim, not like just killing farmers and taking their house). It is a disaster of country, but then again most of Africa is pretty messed up economically.

We would totally have another if we found the right candidate; only down side is you lose learning another language at home. Both of ours had graduated university and were older, and excellent drivers.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I had one and will not seek one again from there.

She was of British white heritage. Non-Afrikaans.

She was quite entitled and a bit racist.
She was not able to communicate to me and chose to use me to rematch up...and left me in a lurch.

[Anonymous]

Also, their methods of discipline are different and are often raised in more strict households. Be sure to explore that in interviews. I ran into conflict because we had different methods of discipline...and have seen other SA's in rematch because of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:South African profiles are the only ones who ever say they are not comfortable living with people of a different race (standard question on the ccap application). Even though we are Caucasian, I am not willing to bring that kind of racism in to my home. (We also won't take anyone not willing to live with same-sex couples for similar reasons)

Especially if the AuPair is from Joburg i can understand why they wouldnt want to live with a black family. Thr violence there and fear for personal safety due to the heinous crimes done by the primary black population is awful. I was there for 3 months for work and couldn't get out of there fast enough. Nothing like having "rape gates" that you lock at the top of your stairs at night. I have no idea how anyone can stand living in that country beautiful place, but the violence...nope. there is a huge segment of thr black population that openly loathes whites. White people did it to themselves, but it's a backwards devolved country

[Anonymous]

Our only SA AP was absolutely crazy and very racist. She was also so entitled it was hard to even function as a family. She went to rematch after 2 months. I would never subject my family to that again.

[Anonymous]

I knew one au pair from SA who was here for a year , she was black and was placed with a black family, not sure if that was planned but never heard her say or do anything racist. She was absolutely lovely. Drove well and was great with both kids.
Her MB was awful though and micromanaged her every move, I am amazed the au pair put up with everything she did.

[Anonymous]

I have had 2 SA APs and they were fantastic. Mature, grounded and knew what the AP program was all about and what was expected of them.

Driving was good/very good. I personally like matching with fluent English speaking APs because it helps with bonding I think. This is not to say I only pick English as first language countries. My first AP was from Brazil but fluent in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have had 2 SA APs and they were fantastic. Mature, grounded and knew what the AP program was all about and what was expected of them.

Driving was good/very good. I personally like matching with fluent English speaking APs because it helps with bonding I think. This is not to say I only pick English as first language countries. My first AP was from Brazil but fluent in English.

To the above poster, were your APs of British or Afrikaans heritage, and how were their styles of discipline? What were their ages and driving experience? Did they socialize with other APs, or did they prefer to hang out with HF? It seems that HFs either have a fantastic experience with AP from SA, or a terrible one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had 2 South African AP and they were awesome!
Abut 5 years ago when we entered the program South African's were the "hot" country and families were battling to get them. Now, not so much.

You have to realize there are many cultures in South Africa but primarily there are 3 most common looking to be APs.

Afrikaners are normally the white english (and afrikans) speaking; but of Dutch decent and have a thicker accent. They are normally a bit more hard core/intense than the white English South Africans. Work pretty hard, play very hard. The English APs is more like an Australian type culture. Not as up tight as, say, someone from the UK typically may be. Once you get to know a lot of both types of girls you see there is a difference.

There are a lot of tribes in SA but most common is Zulu. They also are native English speakers but with a harder accent to understand. We have not had one of these APs but from what we have learned is that in their culture it is more common to be physical with kids (spanking, etc) and can be very strict. Both our SA APs worked in child care facilities and both said that it was common and accepted in the most of the non-white cultures as acceptable.

One thing to know about SA, especially for whites females, is they are naturally guarded. South Africa is the rape capital of the world and obviously whites are a minority so while our APs were by no means racist; it is a very raced based society with blacks taking back what was taken from them hundreds of years ago during colonization (done legally as a land claim, not like just killing farmers and taking their house). It is a disaster of country, but then again most of Africa is pretty messed up economically.

We would totally have another if we found the right candidate; only down side is you lose learning another language at home. Both of ours had graduated university and were older, and excellent drivers.

Very helpful post- thank you. Which culture(s) were your SA APs from, and if you were to look for another candidate, would you choose from a particular culture again? How were their styles of discipline with your own children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:South African profiles are the only ones who ever say they are not comfortable living with people of a different race (standard question on the ccap application). Even though we are Caucasian, I am not willing to bring that kind of racism in to my home. (We also won't take anyone not willing to live with same-sex couples for similar reasons)

Especially if the AuPair is from Joburg i can understand why they wouldnt want to live with a black family. Thr violence there and fear for personal safety due to the heinous crimes done by the primary black population is awful. I was there for 3 months for work and couldn't get out of there fast enough. Nothing like having "rape gates" that you lock at the top of your stairs at night. I have no idea how anyone can stand living in that country beautiful place, but the violence...nope. there is a huge segment of thr black population that openly loathes whites. White people did it to themselves, but it's a backwards devolved country

Nothing like apartheid to make people love white people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:South African profiles are the only ones who ever say they are not comfortable living with people of a different race (standard question on the ccap application). Even though we are Caucasian, I am not willing to bring that kind of racism in to my home. (We also won't take anyone not willing to live with same-sex couples for similar reasons)

Especially if the AuPair is from Joburg i can understand why they wouldnt want to live with a black family. Thr violence there and fear for personal safety due to the heinous crimes done by the primary black population is awful. I was there for 3 months for work and couldn't get out of there fast enough. Nothing like having "rape gates" that you lock at the top of your stairs at night. I have no idea how anyone can stand living in that country beautiful place, but the violence...nope. there is a huge segment of thr black population that openly loathes whites. White people did it to themselves, but it's a backwards devolved country

Are you making excuses for racism? In 2017?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had 2 South African AP and they were awesome!
Abut 5 years ago when we entered the program South African's were the "hot" country and families were battling to get them. Now, not so much.

You have to realize there are many cultures in South Africa but primarily there are 3 most common looking to be APs.

Afrikaners are normally the white english (and afrikans) speaking; but of Dutch decent and have a thicker accent. They are normally a bit more hard core/intense than the white English South Africans. Work pretty hard, play very hard. The English APs is more like an Australian type culture. Not as up tight as, say, someone from the UK typically may be. Once you get to know a lot of both types of girls you see there is a difference.

There are a lot of tribes in SA but most common is Zulu. They also are native English speakers but with a harder accent to understand. We have not had one of these APs but from what we have learned is that in their culture it is more common to be physical with kids (spanking, etc) and can be very strict. Both our SA APs worked in child care facilities and both said that it was common and accepted in the most of the non-white cultures as acceptable.

One thing to know about SA, especially for whites females, is they are naturally guarded. South Africa is the rape capital of the world and obviously whites are a minority so while our APs were by no means racist; it is a very raced based society with blacks taking back what was taken from them hundreds of years ago during colonization (done legally as a land claim, not like just killing farmers and taking their house). It is a disaster of country, but then again most of Africa is pretty messed up economically.

We would totally have another if we found the right candidate; only down side is you lose learning another language at home. Both of ours had graduated university and were older, and excellent drivers.

Very helpful post- thank you. Which culture(s) were your SA APs from, and if you were to look for another candidate, would you choose from a particular culture again? How were their styles of discipline with your own children?

We have had both English and Afrikaans; but both had many friends of each culture. Some knew each other prior to arrival, some met here. It really comes down to the individual between the two and I would not say one is easier or better AP than the other. I will say that neither one had any black SA AP friends here. For the most part white SA are trying to leave the country; and the younger generations have no interest in trying to stay, and most agree that colonization was a bad and they need to get out of the country permanently.