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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have had good luck this year with a girl from Finland. She has great English and it's a refreshing change from German APs (we had 2 prior to her). She's friendly and my boys really enjoy time with her.

Have you looked at the Scandinavian countries? Finland, Sweden, Denmark? They have great girls.[/quote]

Thanks for the suggestion!  I'm not ruling out any countries, but I have pretty high experience standards, so it's ruling out a lot of candidates just based on that.  The German candidates seem to have the driving skill and the childcare experience I'm looking for.  Everywhere else seems to just have occasional babysitting.  I've found a few Brazilians now that fit what I'm looking for, but their English isn't great.  Feel discouraged.  We were hoping to match in January, so I guess I have time.[/quote]

I have high standards too. I need a strong driver and I found through interviewing that Brazilians are not as strong of drivers as Europeans. They don't have experience with ice and snow, and often share a car or have only one car per family. The driving there is not similar to here.

That's why I looked at Germans and northern Europeans. Finland is further north than Germany and has a lot of snow and ice.

BTW, my current Finnish AP has more experience than just babysitting. She had camp counselor experience (several years), kindergarten helper, had younger siblings and cousins, helped at a youth gym, and did sports with the kids. I actually have had the opposite experience than you. In fact, I have found other candidates from other European countries often have MUCH more experience than German au pairs. Often German au pairs have babysitting and two weeks as a kindergarten helper as their only experience.  During matching recently, I found that the Austrian, Swiss and Swedish girls who were my top candidates had the best selection of experience, driving and education...far better than any of the Germans I was looking at.

But, to each his own.
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