We are going to host an educare aupair next year because we need 25 hours max.
Our current standard aupair says she is bored but honest I think she was trying to get me to say “yes” to her getting a second job while my kids were at school.
When I said, “no”, it’s a visa violation and my husband works for the federal government — the boredness stopped.

I found local sitters with a long rotating list to work well.

Anonymous wrote:None of our APs has worked more then 20 hours a week, and only 15 of those hours are actual child care. They find plenty to do -- even if that includes every episode Netflix has to offer.

This!

She spends hours FaceTiming her friends and family back home, watching tv and sleeping!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP teacher. My AP loves snow days as I am home and she gets an extra day off

This is clearly a very unusual situation that only applies to teachers. Most of us use the max hours available on snow days and during school breaks (unless kids are on vacation with us).

? DH and I are both in biglaw and we give APs snow days off. I’m sure it’s true for a lot of people.

I am the PP and a in biglaw as well. I work most "snow days", because schools are closed for absolutely ridiculous reasons in this area. If it is a real snow day, sure, my AP is off, but those are rare here.

Huh. Maybe it’s because my kids are in private schools but I’ve never been expected to be in the office on a day when there wasn’t school. Of course working from home is more annoying with kids but we’ve always made it work.

For me and my DH, what 10 years ago was “snow day closure — you have a free day at home” and we were able to give our nanny time off, now is “snow day is a work from home day”... One of the benefits of AP is that I have someone to occupy/watch kids while both parents are working from home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP teacher. My AP loves snow days as I am home and she gets an extra day off

This is clearly a very unusual situation that only applies to teachers. Most of us use the max hours available on snow days and during school breaks (unless kids are on vacation with us).

? DH and I are both in biglaw and we give APs snow days off. I’m sure it’s true for a lot of people.

I am the PP and a in biglaw as well. I work most "snow days", because schools are closed for absolutely ridiculous reasons in this area. If it is a real snow day, sure, my AP is off, but those are rare here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP teacher. My AP loves snow days as I am home and she gets an extra day off

This is clearly a very unusual situation that only applies to teachers. Most of us use the max hours available on snow days and during school breaks (unless kids are on vacation with us).

? DH and I are both in biglaw and we give APs snow days off. I’m sure it’s true for a lot of people.

We have always had only before/aftercare with APs. Honestly we struggle to match but the boredom issue has never come up.

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP teacher. My AP loves snow days as I am home and she gets an extra day off

This is clearly a very unusual situation that only applies to teachers. Most of us use the max hours available on snow days and during school breaks (unless kids are on vacation with us).

I'm the PP teacher. My AP loves snow days as I am home and she gets an extra day off

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking of getting an Au Pair, but have no intention of using anything over 20 hours a week. Is this common, for folks to use lower than the standard 40 hours? I’m wondering if the AP would be bored- sitting at home all day waiting for after school pick up.

We didn't get an AP until our kids were school aged. We really just needed an extra driver. During the school year, our AP is "on" 3 mornings a week from 6:30-8am and then each afternoon from 2:45-5:45, usually dropping a kid off at a practice and leaving, then we arrive there on our way home from work.

Even in summer we are not clocking 40hrs. Today the kids are both in camp from 9am-3pm, so this week is 7:30am-9am and then 3PM-5:30.

We do use some weekends and evenings, but quite honestly the weekends are family time and we enjoy spending time with the kids.

This is 21:26 and 12:30: I do not recommend searching for ways to fill your AP's hours. Be clear about what you need and when, and AP will be much more comfortable going from 20 to 40 back if she knows she is being used when you need her and allowed to enjoy herself a little extra when you don't. APs can smell when HFs are trying to squeeze every last hour out of them (by assigning dry cleaning and grocery shopping runs), and this is exactly what can make them resentful. Just be clear that your schedule will change - and sometimes suddenly (as in, when it's a snow day, you will need her an extra 10 hours or whatever), and you will be fine.