I'm the OP. Thanks 8:24. I agree - I see tons of candidates with just a handful of hours babysitting a cousin and their letter goes on and in about how much they like to travel and they love the USA. Doesn't sound like some of them get what being an AP is. Anyway, just an update, the next three we emailed wrote back right away and we're emailing back and forth now. So it seems I just picked a bad first crop

I don't see your letter but don't let anyone get to you about the hours, afterall that is why you are getting an AP. Put everything you need out there and the right candidate will have no issues. There is no point in trying to sell yourself just to attract an AP and get the wrong person. I just recently had this epiphany (noted by another poster): APing is not for everybody. We can't make it more than it is but it is not a bad deal.

Anonymous wrote:8 am to 5 pm daily is a definite put-off.

Oh, huh. I thought it would be kind of normal. It's all 45 hours, yes, but it's all during the day, so no weekends or evenings ever. Most of the au pairs our au pair is friends with frequently work on the weekends or evenings. Well that's not something that can change, so if that's the turn-off, then we'll just have to meet the right candidate.

8 am to 5 pm daily is a definite put-off.

Anonymous wrote:In your advert do you sound too demanding - like list a whole lots of chores & housekeeping. That will turn them off. Also if sound like you have their whole schedule worked out that will put them off.

I would say your advert is worded wrong and you are putting them off. Post your advert wording here - and we can tell you what to change.

The letter is pretty long, maybe that's part of it. But we specially say 8am to 5pm daily (not evenings or weekends) and only child-related chores (feeding the kids a snack, cleaning up after snack). We have two kids and live right in DC. We do only have one shared car, but we live across the street from a Metro and the car is available all day bc we metro to work. Maybe it's the lack of car? But I know plenty of host families that don't give car access or share a car (almost all actually).

In your advert do you sound too demanding - like list a whole lots of chores & housekeeping. That will turn them off. Also if sound like you have their whole schedule worked out that will put them off.

I would say your advert is worded wrong and you are putting them off. Post your advert wording here - and we can tell you what to change.

Is there any chance that your email server is having issues or maybe you accidentally had a typo when you included your email address in your application?