Reply to AP wants to babysit in free time

Forum Index » Au Pair Discussion

Reply to "AP wants to babysit in free time"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]We asked our AP not to take outside babysitting jobs. The main reason for this was that we had been really clear during interviews that we have variable work and social schedules and wanted an AP who would be available on short notice when needed for evenings and weekends. We balanced this inconvenience by never using all of our hours, never keeping her from her allowed time off, and having pretty liberal grocery/food spending and car policies (until she crashed the car in a hit & run, but that's another story for another day).

I also didn't want to get into a situation where someone else offered her a regular babysitting job and she resented being asked to stay home, or had to cancel last minute because we had something come up.

Not to mention that another family is basically profiting off the money the host family paid to facilitate the AP's time in the US. We didn't pay thousands of dollars so other families could pay her $5-$10 less per hour than they would pay an American. [/quote]

This has come up where neighbors/acquaintances have asked if they could hire our AP to help in mornings or otherwise (when she's free - or even splitting cost with us and have her take care of both sets of kids).  We politely declined.  A huge aspect of the AP program is having the person available at our convenience.  For this, we pay a large agency fee, room & board, train someone who is not a professional nanny, at times serve as ersatz parents . . . I do not want the waters muddied as to who is in charge (we are, not the other family).  I think there is tremendous potential for conflict - working some extra hours for us within the 45 hour limit results in no additional cash for her, but if she's working for another family, it does.  Very incentivized to limit her time working for us and maximize her time working for others.  Just a bad idea all around.  I will not tolerate this with my AP.

Also, I think 45 hours per week is plenty of time for a nonprofessional nanny to work.  She should use her free time to do other things -up to her.  This means we get a refreshed/recharged AP for our 45 hours.[/quote]

Agree with above.  It is a bad idea, and it can quickly sour relations between HF and AP, as well as the neighbors who are eager for easy childcare back-up. My neighbors said there was no way in hell they would ever host an AP, crazy to live with a young stranger, etc, but they were very quick to ask my AP for her availability as emergency back-up.[/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