Taking the linens

[Anonymous]

Our departing au pair left with the au pair suite sheets and towels. Anyone else ever experience this?

[Anonymous]

Just replace them. Maybe she thought you bought them for her.

[Anonymous]

A bit odd but not the end of the world. Dont make a big deal here or you will look stingy to the incoming AP.

[Anonymous]

Former AP here. I would have never taken the linens when I left, that sounds very odd. But like a pp said, maybe she thought you bought them for her.
Maybe in her country you don't share linen, even when it's clean. So she took it?
Or they were so comfy she felt like taking them home as a souvenir? In any case she should have asked

[Anonymous]

I'm shocked she could fit them in her luggage!

[Anonymous]

^ +1 this! Our APs have had to shed soooo much stuff I'd be surprised if they made sheets a space and weight priority in their luggage.

[Anonymous]

Our first ap did this.

I think they assume it is part of their moving process.

[Anonymous]

If you included them in a "welcome" gift when they first started, it's reasonable that they would think the linens were theirs to take.

[Anonymous]

That's really odd, but not a big deal, of course.

I am always surprised when people talk about new sheets for new AP, as though it's a welcome gift thing. We wash sheets and towels and replace with new as needed. They are part of our household, not a personal item.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's really odd, but not a big deal, of course.

I am always surprised when people talk about new sheets for new AP, as though it's a welcome gift thing. We wash sheets and towels and replace with new as needed. They are part of our household, not a personal item.

This. Our ap room is not like a dorm room to be repainted with no sheets/towels provided every year. It's actually our youngest's bedroom, except she's still a baby and will transition to sharing a room with her sister first.

Our ap is welcome to grab a beach towel from a stack in the closet for going to the pool with the kids. Washing/reusing towels for the next ap is no different. Do you buy new towels and sheets when your family or any guest comes to visit? And if your ap has managed to destroy the items from a single year (or two at most), what did they even do? Smear permanent hair dye on the linens?

[Anonymous]

In some countries, you don't sleep in other people's linens.
Except in hotels of course

So maybe that she took the linens thinking it was hers to keep and no one else would sleep in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In some countries, you don't sleep in other people's linens.
Except in hotels of course

So maybe that she took the linens thinking it was hers to keep and no one else would sleep in them.

Really?? What countries l? I have not heard that before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's really odd, but not a big deal, of course.

I am always surprised when people talk about new sheets for new AP, as though it's a welcome gift thing. We wash sheets and towels and replace with new as needed. They are part of our household, not a personal item.

This. Our ap room is not like a dorm room to be repainted with no sheets/towels provided every year. It's actually our youngest's bedroom, except she's still a baby and will transition to sharing a room with her sister first.

Our ap is welcome to grab a beach towel from a stack in the closet for going to the pool with the kids. Washing/reusing towels for the next ap is no different. Do you buy new towels and sheets when your family or any guest comes to visit? And if your ap has managed to destroy the items from a single year (or two at most), what did they even do? Smear permanent hair dye on the linens?

In this situation, yes, I'd buy one set of new sheets and 2 towels new. This is not a visitor but someone living in your home. Dorms are not repainted every year. The comparison makes no sense. No, its not your child's bedroom. Its your AP's bedroom that you will use later on for your youngest child when she's older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In some countries, you don't sleep in other people's linens.
Except in hotels of course

So maybe that she took the linens thinking it was hers to keep and no one else would sleep in them.

Really?? What countries l? I have not heard that before.

No countries. This is an urban legend.