extension / transition to new family question

[Anonymous]

We are interviewing year 2 candidates for the first time (our previous au pairs have all come straight to us from their home country). One candidate we like and who likes us back has a slightly early start date (like by 2 weeks) for us. I have put a question out to our agency but they are closed until tomorrow. If her current host family agrees to keep her for a couple of weeks longer, is there any reason this would not be permissible/would be against the rules? We'd be happy to pay the program fee to cover those two weeks. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

bumping this

[Anonymous]

We had the same situation last year. Ccap would not ask the HF to keep the AP, and when we asked, the HF was not open to it. We ended up paying the AP while she took vacation (went home to Germany for three weeks).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had the same situation last year. Ccap would not ask the HF to keep the AP, and when we asked, the HF was not open to it. We ended up paying the AP while she took vacation (went home to Germany for three weeks).

In the current situation, would you be comfortable with the AP staying in a hotel room? Could you move two of your kids into the same room so that old AP could have that room and new AP could have AP room? Could you ask outgoing AP to leave two weeks early for travel month, with pay for those two weeks?

I’d be much more comfortable with the new AP in the house for more time.

[Anonymous]

Current family decides; nothing you can do about it. If they say no agency has no options; they will not house ap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current family decides; nothing you can do about it. If they say no agency has no options; they will not house ap.

OP here. Thanks to the PPs, all very helpful. And yet, of course it's up to the current family, that's why I said "if" they agree. I was trying to determine whether there was a procedural or legal hurdle in the event they say yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current family decides; nothing you can do about it. If they say no agency has no options; they will not house ap.

OP here. Thanks to the PPs, all very helpful. And yet, of course it's up to the current family, that's why I said "if" they agree. I was trying to determine whether there was a procedural or legal hurdle in the event they say yes.

Hi OP, can i ask why you can't host the AP sooner? Maybe there are other ways around this? I am asking because you might be putting her current family in a difficult situation. If they say no, this might taint their relationship with the AP. I would assume that the AP you are interested in should be able to tell you if this is a doable option or not. She should know the family plans and situation and be able to guide you, also I think the request would be better coming from her. My AP is leaving in one month, she is a great AP and I have no AP coming after her but I wouldn't be happy to keep her two more weeks as I have already planning ahead and want to get started with the new routine sooner than later, I wouldn't also want to be in that position to say no (or yes begrudgingly) although we have a good relationship. Just giving you another perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current family decides; nothing you can do about it. If they say no agency has no options; they will not house ap.

OP here. Thanks to the PPs, all very helpful. And yet, of course it's up to the current family, that's why I said "if" they agree. I was trying to determine whether there was a procedural or legal hurdle in the event they say yes.

Hi OP, can i ask why you can't host the AP sooner? Maybe there are other ways around this? I am asking because you might be putting her current family in a difficult situation. If they say no, this might taint their relationship with the AP. I would assume that the AP you are interested in should be able to tell you if this is a doable option or not. She should know the family plans and situation and be able to guide you, also I think the request would be better coming from her. My AP is leaving in one month, she is a great AP and I have no AP coming after her but I wouldn't be happy to keep her two more weeks as I have already planning ahead and want to get started with the new routine sooner than later, I wouldn't also want to be in that position to say no (or yes begrudgingly) although we have a good relationship. Just giving you another perspective.

OP here. Because the original host family volunteered that this might work as their other plans fell into place, ie this suggestion came from them. If it does end up working for them it would be preferable for us as we prefer to give our outgoing au pair our full attention in her final weeks. If it doesn't work we'll just double up. (Also I would hope that asking a question like this and being told no--a reasonable question, a reasonable response--would be really be enough to taint a relationship, I guess we've been lucky with our first four au pairs that everyone's been pretty even keeled!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current family decides; nothing you can do about it. If they say no agency has no options; they will not house ap.

OP here. Thanks to the PPs, all very helpful. And yet, of course it's up to the current family, that's why I said "if" they agree. I was trying to determine whether there was a procedural or legal hurdle in the event they say yes.

Hi OP, can i ask why you can't host the AP sooner? Maybe there are other ways around this? I am asking because you might be putting her current family in a difficult situation. If they say no, this might taint their relationship with the AP. I would assume that the AP you are interested in should be able to tell you if this is a doable option or not. She should know the family plans and situation and be able to guide you, also I think the request would be better coming from her. My AP is leaving in one month, she is a great AP and I have no AP coming after her but I wouldn't be happy to keep her two more weeks as I have already planning ahead and want to get started with the new routine sooner than later, I wouldn't also want to be in that position to say no (or yes begrudgingly) although we have a good relationship. Just giving you another perspective.

OP here. Because the original host family volunteered that this might work as their other plans fell into place, ie this suggestion came from them. If it does end up working for them it would be preferable for us as we prefer to give our outgoing au pair our full attention in her final weeks. If it doesn't work we'll just double up. (Also I would hope that asking a question like this and being told no--a reasonable question, a reasonable response--would be really be enough to taint a relationship, I guess we've been lucky with our first four au pairs that everyone's been pretty even keeled!)

*would NOT really be enough to taint...

[Anonymous]

Ha! Pp here. I didn’t know that AP family asked for that, I don’t see where the problem will be, the agency might not want to deal with it but I am sure btw the 3 of you you can make it work. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha! Pp here. I didn’t know that AP family asked for that, I don’t see where the problem will be, the agency might not want to deal with it but I am sure btw the 3 of you you can make it work. Good luck!

thank you!! fingers crossed. I really appreciate your advice and feedback from you and others, you all are the best!

[Anonymous]

Our female AP extended with a local family and it did not work out. She came back to us (we now had a male AP) to stay during rematch. CCAP did not care at all. We had 2 FT APs (luckily we had the rooms/space for both) for over a month...CCAP loved us for making it work and gave us a discount on next match.

If families can work it out the agencies are off the hook and do not care; as long as the APs are safe and cared for we probably could have kept our former AP the whole year and not paid a dime to CCAP.