Anonymous
02/19/2013 11:46
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
No wonder people hate Americans.
Anonymous
02/15/2013 17:50
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
Do it yourself.
Anonymous
02/10/2013 09:53
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
Anonymous wrote:Most things on her list are natural daily tasks. Lunch bags, clean up from meals, make beds, etc.
She can do the major tidying up or laundry which ever days work for her.
However, there is only one specific things she has to do. Every other wednesday (weeks the cleaners don't come), she has to change the kids' bedsheets.
I don't like being micromanaged. I don't micromanaging others. If something hasn't been done that I think needs to be done, I'll mention it.
What if you had to mention everything repeatedly? What if things weren't done completely or adequately? How do you not micromanage someone who isn't able to manage themselves?
Anonymous
02/08/2013 13:36
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
Most things on her list are natural daily tasks. Lunch bags, clean up from meals, make beds, etc.
She can do the major tidying up or laundry which ever days work for her.
However, there is only one specific things she has to do. Every other wednesday (weeks the cleaners don't come), she has to change the kids' bedsheets.
I don't like being micromanaged. I don't micromanaging others. If something hasn't been done that I think needs to be done, I'll mention it.
She can do the major tidying up or laundry which ever days work for her.
However, there is only one specific things she has to do. Every other wednesday (weeks the cleaners don't come), she has to change the kids' bedsheets.
I don't like being micromanaged. I don't micromanaging others. If something hasn't been done that I think needs to be done, I'll mention it.
Anonymous
02/08/2013 08:48
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We have specific days that the laundry needs to be done, but everything else should be done on an on-going basis with no exact timeframe.
Why do you do this?
She is a control freak. Really, who cares laundry is donecon Monday or Friday? Do the laundry as it piles up.
We have a specific two nights during the week that we do our laundry, and the kids' laundry needs to be done during the day on a specific day due to sports activities - we have found that scheduling it helps get it done on a regular basis which helps the kids plan and keeps it from "piling up" due to the AP forgetting. We don't care when she does her own laundry as long as its not conflicting with ours.
Anonymous
02/07/2013 23:54
Subject: Re:How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
Anonymous wrote:As long as it all gets done, why micro-manage this?
Maybe I've been lucky. We are on AP2, and chores always get completed. Our list of chores is not huge: clean-up after breakfast, load dishwasher, make kids' lunches, all kid laundry, supervise tidying of kids' rooms, supervise/ensure that areas are tidied up after play. We don't "schedule" these activities (other than making sure their rooms are tidied up for the day of the weekly cleaner visit). Neither AP1 nor AP2 seems to have any trouble getting these things done. During school year, she is scheduled to be on "active" kid duty about 35 hours per week. During summer, on active kid duty 45+ some weeks. All of this stuff has always gotten done.
Not supposed to be more than 45 hours per week and it doesn't matter that she doesn't always work the 45 hours per seek. Averaging isn't allowed.
Anonymous
02/07/2013 23:50
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We have specific days that the laundry needs to be done, but everything else should be done on an on-going basis with no exact timeframe.
Why do you do this?
She is a control freak. Really, who cares laundry is donecon Monday or Friday? Do the laundry as it piles up.
Anonymous
02/05/2013 17:29
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
Yeah please don't, OP. Tell your Au-Pair that you need the laundry done before such and such date. Don't limit phone or Skype use, that's ridiculous. You can manage that when she is caring for your children but when they're in school, etc, just tell the nanny that her childcare duties need to be done before such and such timeframe. If it becomes a problem then have a sit-down. And if it's still a problem then maybe speak to her about limiting her other activities.
Anonymous
02/05/2013 16:11
Subject: Re:How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
As long as it all gets done, why micro-manage this?
Maybe I've been lucky. We are on AP2, and chores always get completed. Our list of chores is not huge: clean-up after breakfast, load dishwasher, make kids' lunches, all kid laundry, supervise tidying of kids' rooms, supervise/ensure that areas are tidied up after play. We don't "schedule" these activities (other than making sure their rooms are tidied up for the day of the weekly cleaner visit). Neither AP1 nor AP2 seems to have any trouble getting these things done. During school year, she is scheduled to be on "active" kid duty about 35 hours per week. During summer, on active kid duty 45+ some weeks. All of this stuff has always gotten done.
Maybe I've been lucky. We are on AP2, and chores always get completed. Our list of chores is not huge: clean-up after breakfast, load dishwasher, make kids' lunches, all kid laundry, supervise tidying of kids' rooms, supervise/ensure that areas are tidied up after play. We don't "schedule" these activities (other than making sure their rooms are tidied up for the day of the weekly cleaner visit). Neither AP1 nor AP2 seems to have any trouble getting these things done. During school year, she is scheduled to be on "active" kid duty about 35 hours per week. During summer, on active kid duty 45+ some weeks. All of this stuff has always gotten done.
Anonymous
02/05/2013 15:41
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
Anonymous wrote:We have specific days that the laundry needs to be done, but everything else should be done on an on-going basis with no exact timeframe.
Why do you do this?
Anonymous
02/05/2013 15:32
Subject: Re:How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
PP here. Before we had scheduled chore time, we also had an issues with au pairs rushing through chores so that she could do be "free", putting off tasks until so close to the kids' return from school that she didn't have time to complete everything, or 'multitasking' (skype, text, watch tv, ect) so much that she wasn't able to complete everything she was supposed to do.
Anonymous
02/05/2013 15:26
Subject: Re:How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
We schedule our au pair's day. For example, we tell her that her hours are 7-8am and 1-6pm. This way, we are both clear about how many hours she is actually working and whether she is able to complete her assigned tasks in the amount of time allotted. Previously, we had issues with au pairs managing their time. They were not getting everything done or they were claiming they were needing to work too many hours to get the chores done. So, we felt we needed to define the hours and the tasks. This way, we know exactly how much time she is working and assign specific tasks that need to be done in that time. I wish we didn't need to do this, but unfortunately, it did not work out when we were more flexible.
Anonymous
02/05/2013 14:41
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
We have specific days that the laundry needs to be done, but everything else should be done on an on-going basis with no exact timeframe.
Anonymous
02/05/2013 13:59
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
If the children aren't home, why do you care if she talks on the phone while folding laundry, putting away toys, or otherwise so long as it gets done well and in a timely manner?
Anonymous
02/05/2013 13:37
Subject: How do you manage when your au pair does child care chores?
Things like: laundry, breakfast dishes, tidying, organizing toys, etc...the things au pairs should do when the kids aren't home. Do you give them a list of chores and let them figure out when they want to do them or do you assign duty hours, even when the kids aren't home? Also, do you limit phone/text/skype or TV use by au pairs when they are doing these chores and when children are not home?