OP here. My au pair has 4 weeks left in her year. She just told us she wants to start with her new family 2 weeks early, leaving us in a child care bind. Apparently it has to do with us having her wear a mask and getting tested after since she got Covid. We’re going to meet with the coordinator. Not sure what to do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why didn’t she text you a picture of the result? I’m confused.

I’m not sure. We didn’t think to ask in the moment because we were scrambling to figure where to quarantine her.

did she quarantine? As in, stay in her room? That doens't seem like a vacation but if she's one that would count that as extra time chilling out, I would ask a few questions. Next time, and there probably will be a next time since we had an au pair like this who testing positive twice in six months despite being "careful", I would take her for a PCR to prove the rapid.

Just ride it out - I would not give any extra perks at this point.

Anonymous wrote:Why didn’t she text you a picture of the result? I’m confused.

I’m not sure. We didn’t think to ask in the moment because we were scrambling to figure where to quarantine her.

Why didn’t she text you a picture of the result? I’m confused.

You have no way to know if she made it up or not, so do not harp on that. It’s not like she was able to go out partying when she was in quarantine.

Just have her finish out her time and move on.

Are you asking her to mask + rapid test? if this is the attitude you get, I would have rematched a long time ago

No telling whether she made it up or not. My MIL tested positive and my FIL tested negative even though they shared a bed / all their time together. So who knows.

I’d just let it go and start counting down the days until March!

I think the 20:53 poster mis-read the post...

And to those suggesting rematch - they seem to view this as a solution - "hah, screw you AP, I am sending you to rematch" when probably that would be awesome for the AP bc she could just go to her new family earlier and it would put the current family in a childcare bind...

You have accepted that your AP is one who goes out, "parties" or whatever, so I think at this stage you should just ride it out. Omicron has me rethink a previously held view that to catch Covid, you had to be acting somehow irresponsibly/riskily. This variant seems to be turning that assumption on its head as I know many vaxed and boosted people who wear their masks who have caught it. So, consider some mitigation things like asking her to wear a mask when with your child indoors after she has gone out to potentially exposing situations.

I would just ignore her complaints, sounds to me like she felt guilty and was trying to make herself feel better.

She has not even started with her new Host family and is complaining and talking about their backs already. Huge red flag.

Anonymous wrote:At least part of it should be counted as sick leave if she got it on personal time vs. your family. If she got it from your family, she should not have to take sick leave.

I would tell her if she's not happy she can rematch.

She got it during personal time, since none of us are positive. AP get 2 weeks vacation + any extra holidays family provides voluntarily. No such thing as sick leave. A rematch wouldn’t make much sense for either of us with 2 months left our year together. Both of us have matched with our future au pair/family.

Anonymous wrote:At least part of it should be counted as sick leave if she got it on personal time vs. your family. If she got it from your family, she should not have to take sick leave.

I would tell her if she's not happy she can rematch.

au pairs don’t get SL. They get a weekly stipend every week regardless of hours worked that week. OP I would just move on into next week. She’s only with you until March correct? I wouldn’t make a bid deal of this one.

At least part of it should be counted as sick leave if she got it on personal time vs. your family. If she got it from your family, she should not have to take sick leave.

I would tell her if she's not happy she can rematch.

My Au Pair went out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Christmas weekend. We asked her to take a rapid Covid test when she is out over the weekend. She gave us attitude and complained we didn’t trust her, how she’s very careful, and worried of getting Covid. Eventually she agreed to take a test and was negative on Monday morning. On Tuesday, she told us she’s scared because so many people are positive and she’ll take however many tests we want her to take. She watched my toddler Monday through Thursday that week. Friday morning she she sent us a WhatsApp message stating she was sorry and tested positive using one of the rapid texts we had given her. After another rapid test in her room which she said was positive we immediately put her in quarantine at a family members house. (Much bigger house) During the quarantine she complained about not having enough extra holidays off and extra spending money the day after she matched with a family for her second year, which starts early March. After multiple tests over the course of the week my entire family is negative including our son who was in very close contact with her. I’m wondering if she made up the positive Covid result to have a week off. We had to take a week off work to take care of our son because we had no other child care options. Thoughts on how to handle the situation? She is going to resume taking care of him later this week.