Car privileges

[Anonymous]

Our au pair will take the driving test sometime in the next month and in the meantime she’s relying on somewhat flaky other au pairs to give her rides to social events. I’m not sure if I’m comfortable just hanging her the car without her VA license despite having an international license but I’m not sure if that’s normal.

Did you generally wait until they had their license in hand to hand over the keys for personal use?

[Anonymous]

Make sure u are conformtable with her driving first.

[Anonymous]

We’ve always let them take the car if we’ve driven with them and they’re good drivers.

On the other hand, I wish we hadn’t done that for our most recent au pair, who never managed to get her local license. I’m quite sure not being able to take the car would have provided sufficient motivation.

[Anonymous]

If she is covered on your insurance for now then let her drive the car as long as you have driven with her and feel comfortable.

[Anonymous]

Is she driving your kids? If she is using the car to drive your kids without having a VA license, then it doesn't make sense to not let her use it for personal use. We need a driver for the kids and screen as much as possible for actual driving experience (which, so far, means we've only matched with Europeans not from large cities). We've taken the au pair driving on the first full day they are with us and have generally let them have the car for personal use starting that night. If I wasn't comfortable with them using the car for personal use, I wouldn't be comfortable with them driving my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is she driving your kids? If she is using the car to drive your kids without having a VA license, then it doesn't make sense to not let her use it for personal use. We need a driver for the kids and screen as much as possible for actual driving experience (which, so far, means we've only matched with Europeans not from large cities). We've taken the au pair driving on the first full day they are with us and have generally let them have the car for personal use starting that night. If I wasn't comfortable with them using the car for personal use, I wouldn't be comfortable with them driving my kids.

This!

[Anonymous]

What does the insurance require ?

Because if it's only about your lack of trust, my bet is that she's probably a better driver than you since it's harder to get your license abroad than in the US and that if you go for a ride with her you'll see how confident you feel about her driving.

[Anonymous]

We've always let our au pairs drive after a few road tests with us. Check your state laws and your insurance, but its legal where I live for a few months on their international license and our insurance covers her since it is our car.

[Anonymous]

We require the state license and use social driving as motivation to get it done within 60 days.

It's still hit or miss. Our current one kind of wanted the car, but not really, so we still had to push her to get her license. We also do not officially add AP to our car insurance until they get their license (ours requires the license info, not all do).

[Anonymous]

We had our APs take driving lessons and once the instructor cleared them, we allowed them to drive. But we have rules about where the car can go, at least in the beginning of their year.

[Anonymous]

No kid driving right now, probably not until baby is quite a bit older as she hateeees the car. Instructor has cleared her, have not yet checked with insurance, I am just a bit nervous. We’ve only been out very briefly on a drive so need to do that some more, but she seemed fine. We don’t have rules on the car we plan to give to her and she is planning on taking test soon. I think since she is planning on it, we will continue to wait but after we’ve driven with her more can let her use the car for short distances before she gets her license assuming we can add her to insurance

[Anonymous]

PP poster here but one thing -- it's your car, your insurance, your liability. If you're not comfortable with her driving, do not let her drive. Two of our APs got into (minor) accidents -- thankfully no one was injured. But each time the damage was above the $500 limit we could have charged them (and in the end we didn't charge them at all.) You can certainly wait until she passes the driving test. But in the future, make sure they know all of this in advance. Driving/lack of car access can cause big issues.

[Anonymous]

How good is the public transport?
You are not allowed to hinder her right to mobility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How good is the public transport?
You are not allowed to hinder her right to mobility.

Actually, if an au pair is not capable of driving, you are not allowed to hinder the right of fellow motorists to be safe in their own cars. The AP can decide if the existing public transportation is good enough for her, and if not, rematch. Much like many host parents had to get along without a car in college or during their first job. Au pairs need to be resourceful and share rides with friends, if they are not capable of driving. We have a toddler and we screen heavily for good drivers, if someone couldn't drive, we would rematch if driving lessons didn't do the trick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How good is the public transport?
You are not allowed to hinder her right to mobility.

Actually, if an au pair is not capable of driving, you are not allowed to hinder the right of fellow motorists to be safe in their own cars. The AP can decide if the existing public transportation is good enough for her, and if not, rematch. Much like many host parents had to get along without a car in college or during their first job. Au pairs need to be resourceful and share rides with friends, if they are not capable of driving. We have a toddler and we screen heavily for good drivers, if someone couldn't drive, we would rematch if driving lessons didn't do the trick.

+1.