Reply to Senate Bill No. 804 – VIRGINIA - Minimum Wage for Au Pairs

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Actually, those are the families who will leave first. There are so many options for after school care and for hourly after school sitters that it doesn't make sense to pay room/board for someone in addition to everything else.[/b] I will let others who may know more about MA chime in, but from what I can tell from hearing from host parents in MA, it's the ones with infants where the program is still cost effective.  For 20 hours of childcare a week, it wouldn't be worth the overhead of paperwork and agency fees.

I won't pretend to be an expert on the policies or anything. I know we have school age kids and would just go back to camp and after school programs. I'm not cheap or trying to find cheap care since it actually costs more now to host an aupair than it did to have my children in an extended day program. I liked them being home after school. It's why we would leave when the aupair program becomes more than 3 times as expensive as our extended day option at school. Right now, we can justify it by the luxury of it all. At some point, it become ridiculous.

And yeah, our van has in-dash navigation so not sure the smart phone/dumb phone argument is exactly the same for us. I hardly use the phone navigation.  I think most of those perks would disappear for most families. [/quote]

I don't understand what you are saying. for those of us who use under 20hrs a week of childcare, why would be leave? There is no added expense...

If I needed aftercare, I would use that, but we need a driver, this is the reality of having older children. I don't need someone to watch them, I need a driver. I don't skip aftercare "because it is nice for the kids to come home after school" My oldest is in 8th grade, there is no aftercare for him anyway. Even in summer my kids do camp, but I don't want to be the one driving them-I have a career, as does DH that requires that we give 9hrs a day to our employer, shuttling kids to frineds houses in the summer and picking them up from a camp that ends at 1PM is not compatible with our careers.  Many of the camps they do are just  5 hours or so. [/quote]

Well, I’m one of those HM: use less than 20 hrs now, maybe more in summer. I have two kids that I can even leave home alone officially, and then the oldest can babysit the youngest if I want to... but I need a driver, and a flexible driver. Our family also became attached to our BPs, and I think those relationships and experience influenced all of us in a positive way.

I don’t know if I’ll leave, but it won’t be the same for me. I don’t count hours. I don’t feel like I have employer-employee relationship with our BPs, they are members of the family. Like when my son asks at 9 pm to play (parents are home) and he and BP go downstairs and play a video game for an hour, should I now count this hour as work? And if I have to pay extra for that hour, do I tell my son “No, Larlo can’t play with you now”... They certainly both enjoy the game ;)

What about when I come home from Costco on Saturday, BPs day off, and my BP without asking unloads the car and puts away groceries? Do I count that as work?

If I have to pay extra per week, I’ll probably not invite them on vacations. I certainly don’t need them. We all had fun, and they all have been thanking for the trips and experiences. Do I also count it as work for them to go to DisneyWorld with us?

Do I then charge them AirBnB rates for hosting their mother/brother? Oh, and not to forget to ask to be reimbursed for cereal that their guests ate for breakfast... or just say no to visitors when I have a spare guest bedroom?

If I start tracking time, treat them as employee it won’t be the same. I had nannies, they were employees. I do not invite our previous nannies to hang out with us. I invite my BPs. My previous BP visited when his term was over, just because he wanted to.

These are the reasons why I’ll consider other options. I don’t want the hustle of having undefined relationship...[/quote]

I think this is the issue that will stop us from hosting again. Yes, we have hosted an aupair for driving home from school and afterschool activities for 2 years. She works 20'ish hours a week. She doesn't do laundry, stay home with toddlers and rarely cooks. She shuffles preteens and a teenager around from school to home and sometimes to scout events. 
Is this work the paperwork and tax liabilities for an aupair who is paid hourly? I don't know. We may sit on the sidelines and wait to see how all of the logistics work out. 
We have hosted for 12 years. It's been wonderful and we are good friends with every past aupairs. No regrets. I also think it may be time for my husband and I to juggle our own schedules and be the ones who drive kids around or set up carpools, local sitters or something. 
I would be lying if I knew what that something is since we have hosted for so long and become reliant on the fact that a flexible, driving aupair is available to help us out. I think it's a good idea to come up with options now and see how everything shakes out. 
[/quote]

Good luck to you!

I did without an AUPair for a year and it was noting, but drama. Getting a reliable driver is so so difficult.  If your kids are not busy and your job is not busy and you don't travel for work or have partner who travels for work, have at it.

I have one kid in swim who needs to be AT SWIM by 5pm most evenings a good 20min away battling rush hour.  I had a kid who needed physical therapy for a sports injury for 2 months. In betwen all that we had Mathnasium, German tutoring, music lessons,  and one kid playing travel sports. It was IMPOSSIBLE to find someone who could be on call each day from 3:45-7PM to cart my kids around. If one of us were out of town, it was so so stressful, even with carpools. It took both of us each night to get our kids where they needed to be. Then heloing with homeworks and remaing even tempered with all that chaos? Nope.

We need no more than 20hrs a week and money is not so tight that if we run up against 25, it will be a hardship. I'd rather that than dinner at the drive through or carryout because I had to rush home from work at 4PM to get my son to swim at 5 each day.  Another poster was wringing their hands over vacations, groceries, airbnb and the cost of cereal for guests, that is the the least of my concerns. My primary purpose of having an AuPair in this season of our lives is so we can maintain careers without the added stress of figuring out how to get Larlo to Mathnasium and then to practice afterwards.  $4.40/hr or $10/hr, it is the same for me.[/quote]

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