Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP raises good point. But can't really look at it that way. Many families leave the program have a couple unsuccessful attempts. The families with only 1 in 8 rematch stayed in program and clearly have great screening skills.

5 APs, no rematches here. Our LCC said in general it's the same families going into rematch multiple times. It's not her call, but she feels many of there habitual offenders (families ) should be asked to leave the program.

which agency are you with?

I am the host mom with 6 rematches and 6 successes (but I also always had a challenging job, 45 hours always, and first little kids and then lots of little kids - I now have 4! Half of my rematches could have been passable au pairs if they had easier gigs). Most of my rematches came from one agency (Interexchange), in fact with Interexchange my record was 1 success and 4 rematches, two of whom should never have been au pairs; needless to say I am not going back to them, because I feel the quality of their pool was lacking at the times I was matching, and I feel they didn't send home the au pairs who really needed to go home and not be passed on to another family. But that was years ago (I last was with them in early 2011) so things may have changed.

CCAP.

I think families like yours (habitual rematchers) are what carries the bulk of the load when it comes to rematches. We didn't even start on APS until our youngest was in pre-k 5 days a week. I thought having a consistent and mature professional caregiver during their early years critical. Even THE BEST AP is with you at most 2yrs. APs are understandably not interested in families like yours so you are not getting the cream of the crop, hence the lower quality candidates and a high (50%!) Turn over rate.

First lets not name call. I am not a habitual rematcher. Most happened early in my hosting history when i was not exlerienced and used an agency with a pool poorly suited to my needs.

Second the cream of the crop, i.e. those who truly love kids, and love large warm families, are very interested in a family like mine. Since I had my fourth child i had no rematches. And i have no problem finding enough candidates who want to talk to me out of the ones i am interested in, and i am picky. Two of my au pairs were preschool teachers with two or more years of full time work experience.

On the other hand one could argue that an easy gig like yours can attract greedy opportunists who have no interest in kids and want to minimize interaction with them.

And lets not judge each other's mothering choices. Consistent caregiver when young may be best for you, but it doesn't mean others are bad moms. The best consistency is a stay at home mom but it looks like you also chose to work when your kids were young.

New poster, but a 50% rematch rate seems pretty habitual to me. Not name calling, just an adjective.

Exactly.

I've seen successful and unsuccessful matches with all agencies. The more important factors are realistic expectations, communication and commitment from both the APs and the HFs. While Area directors may be able to mediate or facilitate a re-match, they are not ultimately responsible for a successful or a failed match. I've had four APs, no re-matches, but every year has a different set of challenges which we address.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP raises good point. But can't really look at it that way. Many families leave the program have a couple unsuccessful attempts. The families with only 1 in 8 rematch stayed in program and clearly have great screening skills.

5 APs, no rematches here. Our LCC said in general it's the same families going into rematch multiple times. It's not her call, but she feels many of there habitual offenders (families ) should be asked to leave the program.

which agency are you with?

I am the host mom with 6 rematches and 6 successes (but I also always had a challenging job, 45 hours always, and first little kids and then lots of little kids - I now have 4! Half of my rematches could have been passable au pairs if they had easier gigs). Most of my rematches came from one agency (Interexchange), in fact with Interexchange my record was 1 success and 4 rematches, two of whom should never have been au pairs; needless to say I am not going back to them, because I feel the quality of their pool was lacking at the times I was matching, and I feel they didn't send home the au pairs who really needed to go home and not be passed on to another family. But that was years ago (I last was with them in early 2011) so things may have changed.

CCAP.

I think families like yours (habitual rematchers) are what carries the bulk of the load when it comes to rematches. We didn't even start on APS until our youngest was in pre-k 5 days a week. I thought having a consistent and mature professional caregiver during their early years critical. Even THE BEST AP is with you at most 2yrs. APs are understandably not interested in families like yours so you are not getting the cream of the crop, hence the lower quality candidates and a high (50%!) Turn over rate.

First lets not name call. I am not a habitual rematcher. Most happened early in my hosting history when i was not exlerienced and used an agency with a pool poorly suited to my needs.

Second the cream of the crop, i.e. those who truly love kids, and love large warm families, are very interested in a family like mine. Since I had my fourth child i had no rematches. And i have no problem finding enough candidates who want to talk to me out of the ones i am interested in, and i am picky. Two of my au pairs were preschool teachers with two or more years of full time work experience.

On the other hand one could argue that an easy gig like yours can attract greedy opportunists who have no interest in kids and want to minimize interaction with them.

And lets not judge each other's mothering choices. Consistent caregiver when young may be best for you, but it doesn't mean others are bad moms. The best consistency is a stay at home mom but it looks like you also chose to work when your kids were young.

New poster, but a 50% rematch rate seems pretty habitual to me. Not name calling, just an adjective.

Anonymous wrote:30 to 40% seems right to me, based on my many years of being a HM and hearing about all the rematches from my AP.

That seems astronomical to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP raises good point. But can't really look at it that way. Many families leave the program have a couple unsuccessful attempts. The families with only 1 in 8 rematch stayed in program and clearly have great screening skills.

5 APs, no rematches here. Our LCC said in general it's the same families going into rematch multiple times. It's not her call, but she feels many of there habitual offenders (families ) should be asked to leave the program.

which agency are you with?

I am the host mom with 6 rematches and 6 successes (but I also always had a challenging job, 45 hours always, and first little kids and then lots of little kids - I now have 4! Half of my rematches could have been passable au pairs if they had easier gigs). Most of my rematches came from one agency (Interexchange), in fact with Interexchange my record was 1 success and 4 rematches, two of whom should never have been au pairs; needless to say I am not going back to them, because I feel the quality of their pool was lacking at the times I was matching, and I feel they didn't send home the au pairs who really needed to go home and not be passed on to another family. But that was years ago (I last was with them in early 2011) so things may have changed.

CCAP.

I think families like yours (habitual rematchers) are what carries the bulk of the load when it comes to rematches. We didn't even start on APS until our youngest was in pre-k 5 days a week. I thought having a consistent and mature professional caregiver during their early years critical. Even THE BEST AP is with you at most 2yrs. APs are understandably not interested in families like yours so you are not getting the cream of the crop, hence the lower quality candidates and a high (50%!) Turn over rate.

First lets not name call. I am not a habitual rematcher. Most happened early in my hosting history when i was not exlerienced and used an agency with a pool poorly suited to my needs.

Second the cream of the crop, i.e. those who truly love kids, and love large warm families, are very interested in a family like mine. Since I had my fourth child i had no rematches. And i have no problem finding enough candidates who want to talk to me out of the ones i am interested in, and i am picky. Two of my au pairs were preschool teachers with two or more years of full time work experience.

On the other hand one could argue that an easy gig like yours can attract greedy opportunists who have no interest in kids and want to minimize interaction with them.

And lets not judge each other's mothering choices. Consistent caregiver when young may be best for you, but it doesn't mean others are bad moms. The best consistency is a stay at home mom but it looks like you also chose to work when your kids were young.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP raises good point. But can't really look at it that way. Many families leave the program have a couple unsuccessful attempts. The families with only 1 in 8 rematch stayed in program and clearly have great screening skills.

5 APs, no rematches here. Our LCC said in general it's the same families going into rematch multiple times. It's not her call, but she feels many of there habitual offenders (families ) should be asked to leave the program.

which agency are you with?

I am the host mom with 6 rematches and 6 successes (but I also always had a challenging job, 45 hours always, and first little kids and then lots of little kids - I now have 4! Half of my rematches could have been passable au pairs if they had easier gigs). Most of my rematches came from one agency (Interexchange), in fact with Interexchange my record was 1 success and 4 rematches, two of whom should never have been au pairs; needless to say I am not going back to them, because I feel the quality of their pool was lacking at the times I was matching, and I feel they didn't send home the au pairs who really needed to go home and not be passed on to another family. But that was years ago (I last was with them in early 2011) so things may have changed.

CCAP.

I think families like yours (habitual rematchers) are what carries the bulk of the load when it comes to rematches. We didn't even start on APS until our youngest was in pre-k 5 days a week. I thought having a consistent and mature professional caregiver during their early years critical. Even THE BEST AP is with you at most 2yrs. APs are understandably not interested in families like yours so you are not getting the cream of the crop, hence the lower quality candidates and a high (50%!) Turn over rate.

Agencies can make up all the excuses they want to, but nothing can explain why they're hiding their rematch rates.

Potential clients, the parents MUST demand these numbers in order to be INFORMED consumers of child care services.

Children are at risk here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience with three agencies over 10 years, the LCCs are pretty open about these numbers with HFs and APs. They will absolutely give you rough numbers from their experience and will also tell you which nationalities have the higher rates of AP-initiated rematch and HF-initiated rematch and also which nationalities tend to have the highest rates of driving-related rematches.

If you are a legitimate HP, you should just ask your LCC or AD.

Yup.

I'm in Ashburn and our LCC said that every single Asian AP she has had has gone into rematch foe driving.

She has 35 families and said that she deals with approx 3 rematch a year.

Yup, when you "just ask" they can just tell you anything they want.

When these au pair businesses are legally required to disclose their stats (national and local) on their website, they can't "just tell" you anything they want.

There's a good reason these numbers are kept secret......

I don't think you understand statistics, PP. So what if every agency published their statistics for the percentages of au pairs that go into rematch or return home in a year. What do you think that tells you about the agency? Not a lot, really. Why? Because there are several possible reasons au pairs go into rematch that have little or absolutely nothing to do with the agency. So, these percentages can't really tell you how successful an agency is. In fact, it's about as useful as a percentage of overall matches.

If you want to know how successful an agency is, you need a lot more information than this, and contrary to your earlier post, "everybody" does not have the "right' to this information.

Rematch stats have *everything* to do with your agency, as the agency PICKS both the au pairs AND the employers. No one is looking for zero rematches, but the more you have, the worse it looks. That is clear.

They may pick the au pairs and HFs, but they do not MATCH them. So, unless you know *why* every rematch occurred, you can't extrapolate on the "success" or quality of an agency simply from the number of rematches. So, no, what you think is clear isn't, if you know the first thing about statistical analysis.

Those with lower rematches would be preferable to those with higher rematch rates.

So simple.

I don't think this is the case. I'm thinking about our AP's friend who wasn't happy with her family. It just wasn't a great fit. If our LCC had told her to stick with teh family, that she was unlikely to otherwise find a family and therefore would have been sent home, and that she was over-reacting because nothing is perfect ever, it's very likely she would have stayed with the family, because we live in a great town, she had access to good transportation (not a car but good trains), and she had a lot of friends. But, because our LCC told her she was an excellent candidate, that with six months left she would likely find another family, and that the LCC would herself support the AP and try to find her a new family, she ended up in rematch. Let's say that the LCC brings the same thoughtful, caring approach to working with, I don't know, say 5 of her other APs this year. So out of her 40 APs, 6 go to rematch when maybe they could have stayed if she had pressured them to, and 4 go to rematch because that is the only option (family insists, etc). So now LCC has a 1/4 rematch rate. She could have had a 1/10 rematch rate, but the 6 APs who would have stuck it out would not have had as great a year. Is this really a preferable thing? I think you're trying to reduce a complicated situation to a basic formula, and that is really simplistic and reductive and won't get you the info you really want.

Anonymous wrote:

They may pick the au pairs and HFs, but they do not MATCH them. So, unless you know *why* every rematch occurred, you can't extrapolate on the "success" or quality of an agency simply from the number of rematches. So, no, what you think is clear isn't, if you know the first thing about statistical analysis.

I don't know, I kind of see your point, but on the other hand, if an agency did have a really low rematch rate compared to others, it's likely they were doing SOMETHING right - whether it be having higher quality APs that were less likely to bomb, preparing APs & HFs better and helping them match using effective methods, filtering out terrible HPs, better LCCs that work closely with the girls to ensure they make friends and get the most out of their year or successfully stay on top of AP/HF relationships to mediate effectively when things go wrong....

There are 3 primary reasons re-matches occur : Unqualified APs, Unwelcoming/Kind HFs, Incorrect expectations (on either side). If an agency can successfully minimize those big 3, then their rematch rate would presumably be lower, and they would therefore be 'better'. Same like EHarmony can make claims as to why they are more successful than other dating sites (no clue if this is actually true) using their 17 points of compatibility or whatever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience with three agencies over 10 years, the LCCs are pretty open about these numbers with HFs and APs. They will absolutely give you rough numbers from their experience and will also tell you which nationalities have the higher rates of AP-initiated rematch and HF-initiated rematch and also which nationalities tend to have the highest rates of driving-related rematches.

If you are a legitimate HP, you should just ask your LCC or AD.

Yup.

I'm in Ashburn and our LCC said that every single Asian AP she has had has gone into rematch foe driving.

She has 35 families and said that she deals with approx 3 rematch a year.

Yup, when you "just ask" they can just tell you anything they want.

When these au pair businesses are legally required to disclose their stats (national and local) on their website, they can't "just tell" you anything they want.

There's a good reason these numbers are kept secret......

I don't think you understand statistics, PP. So what if every agency published their statistics for the percentages of au pairs that go into rematch or return home in a year. What do you think that tells you about the agency? Not a lot, really. Why? Because there are several possible reasons au pairs go into rematch that have little or absolutely nothing to do with the agency. So, these percentages can't really tell you how successful an agency is. In fact, it's about as useful as a percentage of overall matches.

If you want to know how successful an agency is, you need a lot more information than this, and contrary to your earlier post, "everybody" does not have the "right' to this information.

Rematch stats have *everything* to do with your agency, as the agency PICKS both the au pairs AND the employers. No one is looking for zero rematches, but the more you have, the worse it looks. That is clear.

They may pick the au pairs and HFs, but they do not MATCH them. So, unless you know *why* every rematch occurred, you can't extrapolate on the "success" or quality of an agency simply from the number of rematches. So, no, what you think is clear isn't, if you know the first thing about statistical analysis.

Those with lower rematches would be preferable to those with higher rematch rates.

So simple.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience with three agencies over 10 years, the LCCs are pretty open about these numbers with HFs and APs. They will absolutely give you rough numbers from their experience and will also tell you which nationalities have the higher rates of AP-initiated rematch and HF-initiated rematch and also which nationalities tend to have the highest rates of driving-related rematches.

If you are a legitimate HP, you should just ask your LCC or AD.

Yup.

I'm in Ashburn and our LCC said that every single Asian AP she has had has gone into rematch foe driving.

She has 35 families and said that she deals with approx 3 rematch a year.

Yup, when you "just ask" they can just tell you anything they want.

When these au pair businesses are legally required to disclose their stats (national and local) on their website, they can't "just tell" you anything they want.

There's a good reason these numbers are kept secret......

I don't think you understand statistics, PP. So what if every agency published their statistics for the percentages of au pairs that go into rematch or return home in a year. What do you think that tells you about the agency? Not a lot, really. Why? Because there are several possible reasons au pairs go into rematch that have little or absolutely nothing to do with the agency. So, these percentages can't really tell you how successful an agency is. In fact, it's about as useful as a percentage of overall matches.

If you want to know how successful an agency is, you need a lot more information than this, and contrary to your earlier post, "everybody" does not have the "right' to this information.

Rematch stats have *everything* to do with your agency, as the agency PICKS both the au pairs AND the employers. No one is looking for zero rematches, but the more you have, the worse it looks. That is clear.

They may pick the au pairs and HFs, but they do not MATCH them. So, unless you know *why* every rematch occurred, you can't extrapolate on the "success" or quality of an agency simply from the number of rematches. So, no, what you think is clear isn't, if you know the first thing about statistical analysis.

Agree with the PP who said that peer support/peer pressure play a significant role in rematch. I've been a host mom for 4.5 years now, on our 4th AP, 5th is about to arrive. I see rematch waves - both within a family and in the surrounding area.

They can egg each other on: we had a group of APs at our house, they were discussing one AP's situation. AP was in a new host family, and clearly there was communication disconnect. HF needed to give AP a clear advance schedule - instead it was a kind of play it by ear daily situation. While some APs were approaching this with good advice ("you need to talk to HP"), others were like ("that's wrong! you should demand a schedule, it's your right! and if you don't get it, rematch!"), ratcheting up the conflict. This was a brand-new AP, just arrived, and I'd heard an out-all-night-drinking story about this AP (not on duty), so undoubtedly there was more to the story.

Another thing I've seen is a HF who previously had several successful matches go through a wave of rematches - 3 in a row. Partly bad luck, but also I think new AP replacing the rematching AP is oriented to throw in the towel easier/faster, especially if there is overlap. For this reason (and others), I avoid overlapping new and old APs. Clean break is best.

For the record, I've had 4 APs in 4.5 years. No "rematches" but one mutually-agreed early departure.

HM of seven au pairs, two rematches here. I think some LCCs will tell families what they want to hear - such as the LCC that says it's the same habitual rematching families skewing their statistics. It may be true for her cluster, but then why isn't she working harder to get the families out of the program? Surely she knows other clusters where that isn't the case, or she isn't networking well with other LCCs (also possible). Why would you ever sign up for an au pair if you think you'll rematch? They - through whatever formula their company uses - get paid more if they have more families.

Anyway, as the 12 time host mom with 6 rematches says, the agencies do let through women that shouldn't be au pairs. We had one too, and rematched quickly once it became apparent. Our second rematch happened once our au pair realized we weren't kidding when we told her while interviewing that our house was smaller than other host families' houses, but we'll include her in everything we do. She requested rematch to "trade up", a fairly common occurrence.

How does the LCC that says it's mostly repeat rematching families respond to questions about "trade up" rematches initiated by au pairs? Whether it's to get a nicer house/situation or to get a better schedule (let's face it, we'd all like to be paid a full stipend to chauffeur a couple of 5th and 7th graders to after school activities in the close-in New York suburbs), there are au pairs that take any family that is interested then rematch once they get here.

Anonymous wrote:30 to 40% seems right to me, based on my many years of being a HM and hearing about all the rematches from my AP.

I'm confused why agencies will not share the numbers. How else can you really compare the agencies/clusters, and make an informed choice?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP raises good point. But can't really look at it that way. Many families leave the program have a couple unsuccessful attempts. The families with only 1 in 8 rematch stayed in program and clearly have great screening skills.

5 APs, no rematches here. Our LCC said in general it's the same families going into rematch multiple times. It's not her call, but she feels many of there habitual offenders (families ) should be asked to leave the program.

which agency are you with?

I am the host mom with 6 rematches and 6 successes (but I also always had a challenging job, 45 hours always, and first little kids and then lots of little kids - I now have 4! Half of my rematches could have been passable au pairs if they had easier gigs). Most of my rematches came from one agency (Interexchange), in fact with Interexchange my record was 1 success and 4 rematches, two of whom should never have been au pairs; needless to say I am not going back to them, because I feel the quality of their pool was lacking at the times I was matching, and I feel they didn't send home the au pairs who really needed to go home and not be passed on to another family. But that was years ago (I last was with them in early 2011) so things may have changed.