Au pair wants to see pictures of house. Weird? Normal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do these peopel actually parent their children? WHEN are you a parent? At the birth only, and then hand them over to someone else to raise?? Why did you even have kids??

You are an odious human being. Scary that you chose to procreate.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I found hosting an AP to be a lot more expensive than daycare. Unless families have a lot of children AND use a lot of hours, it's not cheaper than most daycare or before and after care. APs are more flexible, and can watch sick kids. But hosting is MUCH more expensive and requires a lot more work. I find it overall easier to use summer camps and before and after care. So this concept that APs are "cheap child care" is just not accurate. Now, spending $40k per year to drag AP and child away on business trips..... I just don't know about that. Doesn't seem like a perk for the AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do these peopel actually parent their children? WHEN are you a parent? At the birth only, and then hand them over to someone else to raise?? Why did you even have kids??

I think you may be misinformed. APs can only work 45 hours per week, which leaves plenty of hours to parent.

I’m a nanny who looks for positions requiring frequent overnights and/or 24 hour shifts. Most of those parents didn’t intend to need that level of care when they had their children. Things happen, things change, and as long as you can afford it, finding someone consistent to be the one raising your children is better than having a revolving door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I found hosting an AP to be a lot more expensive than daycare. Unless families have a lot of children AND use a lot of hours, it's not cheaper than most daycare or before and after care. APs are more flexible, and can watch sick kids. But hosting is MUCH more expensive and requires a lot more work. I find it overall easier to use summer camps and before and after care. So this concept that APs are "cheap child care" is just not accurate. Now, spending $40k per year to drag AP and child away on business trips..... I just don't know about that. Doesn't seem like a perk for the AP.

A perk is something that is not necessary to the job.

A cell phone without international calling is not a perk for an AP. With international calling, it becomes a perk.

A car for work hours is not a perk. Any use during her time is a perk ONLY if public transportation is a viable option. Insurance is a perk only if there is no driving required.

Tagging along for vacation is a perk, if there’s no work involved. If there’s a offer to trade off work and vacation with the family, it’s equivocal. If AP only gets to go because the family needs her to work, it’s NOT a perk.

Room and board are not perks, they are requirements per the visa program.

I swear, most HP have no clue about what constitutes actual perks. Just because an AP is happy to tag along on your vacation/work trip, work 5-9 hours per day, you don’t get the right to say that it’s a “perk.” It’s more difficult to find a way to keep a child on a schedule when on vacation. And constant work trips?! I’m a nanny, and while I would do it, it would be with copious research for every destination, probably done during naptime, so there would be zero extra household tasks.