does the "dare to match" approach work anymore for cc?

[Anonymous]

That's the strategy we tried before and had success with. However, barely getting any "connections" on Cultural Care. Is it that APs are too turned off with mentions of having to (gasp!) clean up after kids instead of all fun and games?

[Anonymous]

I guess its hard to match since lawsuit time.

[Anonymous]

nothing to do with a lawsuit...but dare to match as in "we have a curfew", "you do not have access to a car", or "you will work 2-3 weekends a month" definitely do not work on CC anymore.

[Anonymous]

We have a tough on paper job - 3 young kids (elementary and preschool aged), use most of the 45 hours, some weekends etc. however, we are very generous in other ways and once I can get a candidate to speak with our current au pair they are much more interested.

[Anonymous]

Apparently not. Loud families need not apply.
In all seriousness, I think it's better if it takes longer to find a more committed candidate.

[Anonymous]

Curfew, no car, 3 kids? What do you have to offer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curfew, no car, 3 kids? What do you have to offer?

We live in NYC (where you don’t want a car), request that they get adequate sleep before work (so a relaxed curfew but still have some requirement), and 3 young kids. We also offer a lot of fun family trips, a country house, welcome their friends and family to stay with us (her parents are arriving today for 2 weeks!), accommodations to any plans whenever possible (we hire extra sitters), most days they only work afternoon and evenings, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curfew, no car, 3 kids? What do you have to offer?

We live in NYC (where you don’t want a car), request that they get adequate sleep before work (so a relaxed curfew but still have some requirement), and 3 young kids. We also offer a lot of fun family trips, a country house, welcome their friends and family to stay with us (her parents are arriving today for 2 weeks!), accommodations to any plans whenever possible (we hire extra sitters), most days they only work afternoon and evenings, etc.

You obviously have a ton of money to throw around to entice Au pairs, so this question doesn’t pertain to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curfew, no car, 3 kids? What do you have to offer?

A year in America, $500 educational credit, etc.

I doubt the majority of families have no problem with no curfew, offer a free au pair car/gas, and do not have some sort of challenging childcare schedule (3 kids, split shift, etc.) for the parents. Otherwise, we'd all be enjoying daycare, domestic nannies, before/after care, reliable high school sitters, etc. that do not involve the hassle of a young foreign person living in our home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curfew, no car, 3 kids? What do you have to offer?

We live in NYC (where you don’t want a car), request that they get adequate sleep before work (so a relaxed curfew but still have some requirement), and 3 young kids. We also offer a lot of fun family trips, a country house, welcome their friends and family to stay with us (her parents are arriving today for 2 weeks!), accommodations to any plans whenever possible (we hire extra sitters), most days they only work afternoon and evenings, etc.

You obviously have a ton of money to throw around to entice Au pairs, so this question doesn’t pertain to you.

I don’t “throw money around” for anything, nor do I use it entice or bribe au pairs. We uphold the spirit of the program and try to treat our au pairs like family. Still, we don’t give them an “easy” job, I try to be realistic and let them know they will be spending a lot of time with young children. We’ve had tons of aps reject us based on 3 kids alone, or who don’t understand that living in a city they won’t want a car, or that they have to work some weekends, but once they start moving past that they see the benefits of our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curfew, no car, 3 kids? What do you have to offer?

A year in America, $500 educational credit, etc.

I doubt the majority of families have no problem with no curfew, offer a free au pair car/gas, and do not have some sort of challenging childcare schedule (3 kids, split shift, etc.) for the parents. Otherwise, we'd all be enjoying daycare, domestic nannies, before/after care, reliable high school sitters, etc. that do not involve the hassle of a young foreign person living in our home.

You are nothing special.

[Anonymous]

You are nothing special.

And it definitely sounds like you are!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curfew, no car, 3 kids? What do you have to offer?

A year in America, $500 educational credit, etc.

I doubt the majority of families have no problem with no curfew, offer a free au pair car/gas, and do not have some sort of challenging childcare schedule (3 kids, split shift, etc.) for the parents. Otherwise, we'd all be enjoying daycare, domestic nannies, before/after care, reliable high school sitters, etc. that do not involve the hassle of a young foreign person living in our home.

You are nothing special.

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

We don't put the good things about our situation up front and center because I want an au pair that sees the hard work, too. But no, CC is not working for us this year. Connection requests ignored or declined.

[Anonymous]

What will be interesting to me will be to see if more APs are matched or fewer APs are matched in 2018 vs. 2017. Put another way, will this "pickiness" and ignoring or declining of HF contacts will work for them (and they will get great matches) or will it backfire and more potential APs will be left with no match at all?