Reply to Au pair for young baby, experiences?

Forum Index » Au Pair Discussion

Reply to "Au pair for young baby, experiences?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm the PP who had the "infant qualified" AP who clearly had never cared for a baby.

Just to expand on it - She actually stayed with us for the full two years.  When I realized she did not have experience with infants, I was frustrated, but I also knew that she was willing to learn.  Our family was bonding to her and I didn't want to go through a rematch.  So I taught her how to care for a 4 month old.  It worked out.

As we got closer over the next two years, I learned more of her story.  Some of these au pairs really don't have options in their home countries, and they are desperate to get out.  Being able to say they are infant qualified helps them get in front of more candidates.  In our case, our AP had a close family friend with a young daughter, so AP represented that she had cared for the child since birth.  The real story is more like, she saw this kid for holidays and stuff.  The family friend vouched for the AP because again, the family friend wanted AP to get in the program and start a better life.

I share this story because I think it's terrible that the agency represents "infant qualified" when they do so little to verify it! Yes, my AP and her friend likely lied to the agency about her qualifications.  But I feel like the agency could have sniffed it out if they'd done more.  I made a mistake relying on the agency's representation that she was infant qualified.

If I could go back in time, during interviews, I'd ask more open ended questions - how have you supported a mom breastfeeding?  How have you handled getting a 4 month old on a schedule?  How have you handled diaper rash? To sniff out how much experience they really have.[/quote]

Our south african aupair bought her driver's license and had never been behind the wheel. Desperation drives people to do crazy things. She showed up in DC and then when we asked her to take the car out with us, was in tears admitting she had never driven.

The companies (cultural care, aupaircare, aupair in america) all contract out recruitment. The recruiters in these countries get paid for each aupair they place. The entire system is wrought with fraud. If you get paid to place an aupair candidate who is one of the lucky ones who shows up to your office with the $800 in fees to pay for the visa and ticket, you are setting them up with someone who will "verifiy" the hours and the license.

You have to do your own homework and vet candidates. You have to check references. You have to ask follow on questions like "when you watched the infant, was it is alone? For how many hours? Were you paid? Was the child related to you?"

Some recruiters run daycare centers and have the candidates come in to volunteer for their qualification hours. YOu get to count the hours per child. If you have a room full of 18 month olds in a volunteer drop-in center, those 20 toddlers could be your 160 hours in 3 days.

Ask the questions......[/quote]

Yes, exact same experience with AP getting "infant qualified" after volunteering in an infant room for a couple days[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics