Anonymous wrote:If your AP doesn’t want to come with you on vacation as a freebie, and doesn’t want it to count against her 14 days (btw my understanding is that it’s 10 business days and four weekend days) then she can stay home while you are away but have her work: sort kids clothes, organize kids rooms, do kids laundry and sheets, tidy up and sort toys,
vacuum and organize cars, water plants and help with pet care. You should come home to a clean and organized house
I also would not give a lot for food for that week and she can use her own stipend toward it. If your AP isn’t going to be home that week and decides to travel somewhere else with her own friends, then I would ABSOLUTELY make her use her vacation time for that.

This is ABSOLUTELY against the rules of the program. And, as a eight year host mom, I’d instantly report your family if I heard this from one of my APs friends.

If you let her choose one or both weeks of her vacation, then that determines how much, if any ‘count’ as her vacation. One week or none. You should’ve disclosed this before you matched.

If you didn’t disclose how vacation time would be determined and you really weren’t going to have her work at all (and this would mean she’s not sharing a room with anyone because we all know if she was sharing then she would be unofficially on duty because it’s likely she’s sharing with the kids), then a fair compromise would be to count one week as her vacation.

I don’t see any situation where both weeks should count as vacation.

If your AP doesn’t want to come with you on vacation as a freebie, and doesn’t want it to count against her 14 days (btw my understanding is that it’s 10 business days and four weekend days) then she can stay home while you are away but have her work: sort kids clothes, organize kids rooms, do kids laundry and sheets, tidy up and sort toys,
vacuum and organize cars, water plants and help with pet care. You should come home to a clean and organized house
I also would not give a lot for food for that week and she can use her own stipend toward it. If your AP isn’t going to be home that week and decides to travel somewhere else with her own friends, then I would ABSOLUTELY make her use her vacation time for that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it 14 days of work time or two weeks including weekends? I am confused by this.

It's 45 hrs a week. If she works on weekends she should have off on weekends toi. It's not like you can give her off time Monday-Friday and let her work 10hrs Saturday and Sunday.

It’s supposed to be two weeks of calendar time without work.

Hello AP troll!

No, it is not. First of all, no host family has to give all vacation time together. Second, it's nice if the au pair has weekends off that the family not schedule the weekend before or after the vacation. Not an obligation. And third, depending on the agency and LCC, some really advocate a model of "earned" vacation so an au pair doesn't demand two weeks in the first month, then skip out on the family.

Nice try, I'm a nanny, not an AP. I never said it had to be consecutive or couldn't be accrued. Many Aps take two consecutive weeks during their 11th or 12th month, and that works; what doesn't work is if the family just shifts around hours instead of actually giving a vacation.

A friend was an AP, and I told her to go to the LCC about the following: She normally worked M-F (45 hours), requested Th-F off as vacation days. Family had her work the S/S instead that week (still 45 hours), but allowed the days off. Later in the summer, they told her she couldn't have the two vacation days, as she had used them, but they had just switched days, not given her paid vacation days. THAT is what I meant by 14 calendar days. Moving hours from the normal workweek into days that are normally off isn't vacation. Perhaps I should have phrased it as 14 calendar days off, including both day that are normally worked and days that are normally off?

Anonymous wrote:OP, your offer sounds like one of those scam timeshare pitches with all the fine print. Not much different than, "You won a free vacation. All you have to do is pay a $295 processing fee and attend a 2-hour sales presentation." A free vacation shouldn't come at a cost.

This x1000. Great analogy.

OP, your offer sounds like one of those scam timeshare pitches with all the fine print. Not much different than, "You won a free vacation. All you have to do is pay a $295 processing fee and attend a 2-hour sales presentation." A free vacation shouldn't come at a cost.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it 14 days of work time or two weeks including weekends? I am confused by this.

It's 45 hrs a week. If she works on weekends she should have off on weekends toi. It's not like you can give her off time Monday-Friday and let her work 10hrs Saturday and Sunday.

It’s supposed to be two weeks of calendar time without work.

Hello AP troll!

No, it is not. First of all, no host family has to give all vacation time together. Second, it's nice if the au pair has weekends off that the family not schedule the weekend before or after the vacation. Not an obligation. And third, depending on the agency and LCC, some really advocate a model of "earned" vacation so an au pair doesn't demand two weeks in the first month, then skip out on the family.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it 14 days of work time or two weeks including weekends? I am confused by this.

It's 45 hrs a week. If she works on weekends she should have off on weekends toi. It's not like you can give her off time Monday-Friday and let her work 10hrs Saturday and Sunday.

It’s supposed to be two weeks of calendar time without work.

Anonymous wrote:Is it 14 days of work time or two weeks including weekends? I am confused by this.

It's 45 hrs a week. If she works on weekends she should have off on weekends toi. It's not like you can give her off time Monday-Friday and let her work 10hrs Saturday and Sunday.

Is it 14 days of work time or two weeks including weekends? I am confused by this.

Sounds really really petty. If this was supposed to be her vacation week as you had discussed in match, what is the problem? My guess is that you wanted her to work over the holiday and now have sour grapes. I can see why she didn't want to come. She's also around you all the time. Give her space.

We have 4 weeks off a year and obviously she is not working when we are not working (xmas-NY, spring break, and 2 weeks in summer) We tell our AP that upfront at match. She then gets a week of her choosing. Once again, this is stated in our profile and discussed verbally

Anonymous wrote:we did worse- rematch girl left in a week- her doing

when you interview rematch- be very careful, very selective. don't feel pressured to accept someone in the 2 week timeframe. follow your gut. if even 1 little thing seems off- do not match.
remember, most APs are in rematch for a very good reason. Parents usually don't send an AP to rematch unless it is a big problem.

sorry wrong thread

we did worse- rematch girl left in a week- her doing

when you interview rematch- be very careful, very selective. don't feel pressured to accept someone in the 2 week timeframe. follow your gut. if even 1 little thing seems off- do not match.
remember, most APs are in rematch for a very good reason. Parents usually don't send an AP to rematch unless it is a big problem.

If AP agreed to the tropical vacation over the holidays, when would she take her vacation weeks? Have you already agreed on who chooses which vacation weeks?
count your blessings your AP is mature enough to realize that celebrating NYE with her friends will be much more fun for her than a tropical vacation with much older host parents and much younger host kids. Every AP or AP friend who "had" to travel with their HF over the holidays complained bitterly about their lack of social freedom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, this sounds a little petty. You were going to give her a “free” week of vacation if she went with you/your family on your trip (that she did *not* have to work on), but now that she wants to stay home, you want to charge it as a vacation week for her?

This is likely why she does not want to vacation with you. It’s an assumption - but you’re likely petty about other things as well. If you were not planning to charge this trip against her vacation, then she likely has other plans on how she was going to spend her vacation time.

Agree. Something isn't right here. I don't think you wanted her to come with you and not let her work as you said... I can see why she wants to spend time with her friends. You should be happy she is not going with you just because you pay for "tropical vacation".

New poster here.

He is how this situation would be for us. If I am taking two weeks off for a vacation and AP is NOT using those days as vacation, then I am going to be in a pickle when she takes her vacation because how will I take those days off? I don't think it's about being petty, giving less, or giving more... It's about making sure that vacation coincides so OP doesn't end up having to take any days without pay just to let AP take her vacation days. That would suck.

Always best to handle before matching (1 week of your vacation is when we are away, and the other is for you to choose), but I don't think it's too late to say that you would need her to take some of her official time off during that time, especially if you anticipate that it may be a hardship to arrange for childcare while she takes her two weeks.

I totally agree with you. But in this case OP invited her au pair to spend 2 weeks with them where she would NOT be working. The au pair would still have her two weeks of vacation if she went with them. So if au pairs goes with them to their destination and is off it's ok for OP, but if she stays home she wants her to take her vacation week. I think OP feels hurt because au pair declined...