French/under 21-making friends

[Anonymous]

We are looking at under 21 yo and nationalities (French)that are rare in the area we live. We’ve always 21+ aged Brazilian au pairs and there’s a large Brazilian network here in Richmond. I really want them to have success making friends and believe it helps t tremendously with experience/happiness and success. What have been your experiences with under 21 yr olds and au pairs from nationalities that are less represented in your area?

[Anonymous]

Have you asked your LLC this question? I wouldn’t think they would send you a French person is there aren’t any other French au pairs for them to connect with. Ours have always been connected with a friend initially in their program. That friend introduces them to others…..

[Anonymous]

Why would you consider someone under 21? You're really going to notice a big drop in maturity.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't want to the au pair to drink?

[Anonymous]

We aren’t actively seeking out under 21 more looking for driving experience. Shockingly many older au pairs have limited driving experience. Regardless girl we are talking about wants more of a “big sister “ experience and I suppose she doesn’t think we provide that. I will say we do like our au pairs to have friends/boyfriends bc I know when I was 20 hanging out with 40 something’s was lame.

[Anonymous]

I'm a former French AP and got along really great with Brazilian APs when I was in the US, we're very similar culture wise

[Anonymous]

We had a 19 year old Latvian and a 20 year old Croatian (with zero other au pairs in the area of their nationality) and both made a LOT of friends, mostly from Germany but also from other random countries. We "required" them to go to the cluster meetings (as part of their hours) and paid for any of the cluster experiences that cost money and they made friends pretty fast through those connections.