Former French AP here

You could pick a girl that has many siblings and experience with toddlers ... or a girl that passed an exam called "CAP Petite Enfance", which means she has done some trainings in daycares and early childhood classes.

Good luck !

I've had 3 Brazilians and 1 French, starting when my daughter was 1. All wonderful. No princesses. I actually use that word in the interviews. I use all 45 hours as I am a teacher and need my Au pair from 6:30 til 3:30. I do not make them do any chores like laundry so it becomes a more attractive gig to them. (In fact doing laundry is a great stress buster after teaching teenagers all day long and is lovely mom-daughter time. Kids love to help their mom.)

We’ve had Austrian au pair with 1-2 yo for 45 hours and she does a wonderful job

I had a 2 Germans and then 2 Mexicans. All with toddlers. The Mexicans were better.

Anonymous wrote:When you are looking at candidates, look at their work history with young children carefully. Agencies will tell candidates to get more childcare experience so their profiles looks better. The candidate will go volunteer at a daycare for 1 month and then be able to count those hours towards childcare. And by that I mean they count every child as hours. So if they volunteer for 1 week in a nursery with 5 children, they can label that as 1,600 hours of childcare. It doesn’t matter if they the candidate was the only one caring for the 5 children, or if there were 5 volunteers working there. It might not matter to you how the candidate gets their experience and hours, but it is something to consider and ask about. Personally, I prefer someone that has taken care of young children because they really wanted to and not just to beef up their profile.

+1 this is very helpful. Thanks.

When you are looking at candidates, look at their work history with young children carefully. Agencies will tell candidates to get more childcare experience so their profiles looks better. The candidate will go volunteer at a daycare for 1 month and then be able to count those hours towards childcare. And by that I mean they count every child as hours. So if they volunteer for 1 week in a nursery with 5 children, they can label that as 1,600 hours of childcare. It doesn’t matter if they the candidate was the only one caring for the 5 children, or if there were 5 volunteers working there. It might not matter to you how the candidate gets their experience and hours, but it is something to consider and ask about. Personally, I prefer someone that has taken care of young children because they really wanted to and not just to beef up their profile.

I remember our matching specialist mentioning South America au pairs as good with young children as well. She said it was because many have large families and care for their younger siblings and cousins. On the flip side I’ve heard Brazilian au pairs are spoiled. Ive also heard South American au pairs are some of the worse drivers because they can literally just buy a license without passing any test. This is just stuff I’ve heard, I have no experience with South America au pairs. I’m sure many of them are wonderful. Asian au pairs are also known to be good with young children, but I think you are going to have a hard time finding one now. Thai au pairs can’t get visas and I think they have pulled all of the au pairs from China. I’m sure you could find a lovely European au pair that is good with young children. Honestly if I was looking for another au pair I think I’d be going for European as well. We need a driver and they seem to be better drivers because the testing over there is stricter.

Stereotypes galore! We've been hosting French au pairs since our kids were 1, 3 & 5. They've all been great with the kids and our kids have loved them. They've been a mix of personalities and some have been better roommates or adult conversationalists than others, but they were all good au pairs. We are only interested in European au pairs and have had no issues, even now that our kids are all school aged (we've hosted 5).

We had a German AP when our youngest was 1-3 and she was wonderful with her.

Anonymous wrote:My BPs girlfriend is AP from Austria who watches 2.5 yo twins. That family is using all the 45 hrs. So, totally possible.

Thank you! is it going well?

My BPs girlfriend is AP from Austria who watches 2.5 yo twins. That family is using all the 45 hrs. So, totally possible.

I am planning to get my first AP after the summer. My youngest will be 2. I have been reading that I should get a South American AP because they are better with younger kids, that western European APs are more suited for school aged kids. We will be using our 45 hours and she will be picking up the older twos from school (one block away).
I was hoping for a french AP because my family speak some french, I would also like a good driver.

Am I dreaming or is it possible to find a good western European AP for non school aged kids? Please share you you experience.

TIA