Reply to Wow. No discussion about the death of the AP program here?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Matahari Women's Worker's Center. They lobbied for the bill ([b]which in a large sense was needed[/b]) and pushed for eliminating the proposed exclusion for au pairs. As a group, they lobby on behalf of nannies, who will benefit from the loss of a more affordable (albeit quite different) childcare option.

I don't think any APs were involved in the push for inclusion in this bill.

Also note that the lawsuit was from one of the AP agencies for clarity from the AG that it didn't apply to APs. Other states have included specific riders that it didn't where MA had those proposed multiple times and pulled (see above).[/quote]

I agree, but I think the baby was thrown out with the bathwater. [/quote]

MA HM here.  I agree completely.  i am a huge fan of a higher min wage, but this was never meant to apply to APs.  And PP is right that it was a home childcare worker advocacy group who pushed this --- it had nothing to do with helping APs and everything to do with killing the AP program to increase the wages and employment options of nannies.
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Although that's not so awful. The AP program is much like the H-1B1 visa issue. Employers want the cheap foreign labor in lieu of employing Americans. Now if families want  on demand childcare in MA then they have to pay a premium for it.[/quote]

Please get over yourself.  It's not "on demand" childcare.  It's *flexible* childcare.  We need early morning and late afternoon.  We tried everything we could last year to go without an AP, but even offering $40 an hour, I could not get anyone reliable to do the hour-each-way drive to my son's special ed school, so we had to go back to the AP program.  I would MUCH rather not have an AP -- we have been hosting 12 years and at this point pay way more for an AP than we need to since we don't need many hours -- but we cannot get anyone other than an AP to do the morning drive.  No American wants to do 6:45-8:45 that involves 84 miles round-trip. Not even for $40 an hour.  So please stop the drama with the "on demand" childcare claim. [/quote]

Live-in childcare, driving your vehicle.   Nanny, housekeeper, college kid...[/quote]

Riiiight. It’s actually not that easy to find, and a lot of people want AP for language immersion for kids.[/quote]

Not a lot, very few actually.

And yes, it is easy to find live in childcare, it is just not easy to find one as cheap as an AuPair.[/quote]

Most of the families I know who have APs (including us) want specific language immersion that is unavailable in the local nanny market. We did look and advertise for a nanny who speaks the target language for full-time care. No takers in DC. Now, maybe DC is different than other places, but I suspect that there are other cities where language skills are also important. [/quote]

Its actually pretty easy to see if you are on any of the matching FB groups that are country wide with thousands of members that very few are looking for a specific language.  Nearly all of them are looking for a target start date and a vast majority are looking for solid drivers.  Sure, some are (My kids speak German, and we hire German APs, but NONE of them have ever consistently spoke German with them, as ALL of them have wanted to improve their English).

Prior to having an AP, going to German school was the best immersion we could have paid for.  Way better than a AP with a strong south German accent, which we decidedly do NOT want our kids to develop.[/quote]

Well, you sound like a bit of a snob (south German accent, egads!). We screen heavily for APs who will only speak the target language - and have never had an issue: it wouldn't be good for the AP's English to speak with toddlers in their pidgin English, and it wouldn't be good for the toddlers' English to learn mistakes from the AP. All of our friends in AP program send their kids to immersion elementary schools, so again, this might be an urban/DC thing. Not sure. We could not find a nanny with the necessary language skills - and many nannies in DC refuse to drive. [/quote]

Your limited anecdotal experience is unusual. Even in DC, which is where I live, and with children in German school, on the rematch pages, very few are looking for a specific language. We had a live nanny for 6 years and had no problem finding a driver and a US citizen. However, she did not come at cheap AuPair rates, that is for sure.

Not sure why people are so offended that the AP program is cheap on demand childcare.  It is what it is, parents get cheap live in childcare, an AP gets to live in another country.  Massachusetts is changing that an parents in that state are dropping out because their once cheap childcare is no longer cheap. They can get a nanny for a similar price. There is very good reason that you cannot bring a childcare worker in on a normal work visa because these jobs are easily filled by Americans. This is why the nannies are in an uproar about the AP program. It drives their wages down and they have less opportunity.[/quote]

I think your personal bias is your answer. For people who care about certain languages, they cannot just find someone from a rematch page, they are instead looking at out of country matches - we have rematched once - and never considered looking at a rematch page - all of our available candidates were out of country. Not sure why you are so personally offended that others do not find the AP program to be cheap care. For everything for an AP year, we paid about 30k. This is less than a nanny, but a lot more than a nanny share or a daycare. Hosting an AP as if she were a true family member (lots of cultural exchange, perks, etc.) is actually quite expensive. It is certainly more flexible care than any other option, but of course APs also prefer to be in a household with a fixed schedule. Illegal labor is the biggest driver of suppressed wages for nannies - not the few thousand APs that come in every year. [/quote]

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