Top 5 tips for handling your au pair’s curfew

Lots of host parents wonder about setting a curfew for their au pair since it’s their first time thinking about a curfew since they had one themselves. Here are a few suggestions:

1.      Bring up the topic during the interview process. Ask the candidate if she has a curfew and what time she needs to be home and how she feels about having one in theU.S.

2.      Explain to your au pair why a curfew exists – it is important for her to be well rested and prepared for her child care responsibilities.

3.      When determining a curfew, keep in mind her age. If she is on the younger side, an earlier curfew might make sense. If she is older, she might need a little more freedom.

4.      Consider a reverse curfew – setting a curfew a certain number of hours before she starts the next day.

5.      Think about where you live – if there are lots of activities in your area that don’t start until late, you might need to set a later curfew.

For more advice on setting a curfew for your au pair, watch my Au Pair Answer Mom video on the topic.

Top 10 ways an au pair can help a military family

In honor of Military Appreciation Month, our military host families and the au pairs who provide childcare to families in the military, here are not 5 but 10 ways an au pair can help a military family.

Quality childcare

All au pairs are carefully screened and trained and families receive attentive year-round support from local childcare coordinators. Cultural Care Au Pair goes above and beyond the strict guidelines that regulate the au pair program set by the U.S. Department of State.

Extra pair of hands

An au pair can provide extra help in the home in addition to childcare. Assistance with light household duties, homework help, and driving to children’s activities is particularly helpful following a spouse’s deployment.

Flexible scheduling

The flexibility of the au pair program allows families with unpredictable work schedules and non-traditional hours to set a schedule that works for them.

Assistance with moving 

Having an extra set of hands gives parents additional time, energy and freedom for packing, organizing and all the logistics involved in getting ready for a move.

Help settling in

When everything else is changing – home, school, friends, job – having consistent childcare can make the transition to a new place smoother for everyone.

Staying connected

An au pair can help children stay connected with deployed parents through daily activities such as letter or email writing, craft projects, and video conferencing.

Peace of mind

Knowing that their children are being cared for at home by a trained, experienced au pair allows military personnel to concentrate at work and focus on the job at hand.

No waiting list

Like many day care centers, military Child Development Centers (CDCs) often have long waiting lists. Families can apply for an au pair and welcome a child care provider into their home in eight weeks and sometimes even sooner.

Network with other military families

Cultural Care Au Pair is proud to serve more military families than any other au pair program. Interested parents can be connected with other military families who have welcomed an au pair into their home.

Military discount
Cultural Care Au Pair is proud to support our military and honor their commitment by offering military families military discount which includes a $75 application fee waiver and a $500 program fee discount.

Top 5 ways an au pair can expose your child to a second language

One of the great benefits of bringing an au pair into your home is exposing your family to another language. Since one of your au pair’s goals may be to improve her English while she’s here, it’s important to establish mutually agreeable guidelines so that both your au pair and your family are making the most of the cultural exchange experience.

1. Simply by hosting an au pair, your child will be exposed to words and phrases in other languages and gain an appreciation for other parts of the world.

2. Agree that your au pair will speak her native language during certain hours of the day and can practice her English with you when you’re home. 

3. Arrange for her to give your children a language lesson at a certain time each week – maybe your au pair can create pictures or flashcards of words in her language.

4. Make books in other languages available to your au pair, which you can usually get through your local library, so reading time can be enriched with language.

5. Ask your au pair to sing songs in her native language with the children. Music is a great way to learn a language.

For more good advice about welcoming your au pair, watch my Au Pair Answer Mom video.

Top 5 ways to make your au pair feel welcome

Once your au pair arrives, it is important to make sure she feels welcome. Here are some tips to make her feel at home right away:

1. Send a card or care package to the Au Pair Training School in NY to show her that you’re excited she’s here.

2. Have your whole family greet her at the airport or bus stop with homemade signs and balloons.

3. Make sure her room is clean and inviting. Maybe leave a small gift — body wash and lotion, a pair of pajamas or a local treat. 

4. Take photos from your au pair’s photo collage and put them into frames so she immediately feels at home and surrounded by loved ones.

5. Prepare a home-cooked dinner with your immediate family for your first evening together.

For more good advice about welcoming your au pair, watch my Au Pair Answer Mom video.

Top 5 things to look for in an au pair application

What are the things you should look for in an au pair candidate’s applicaiton to make sure it is the right fit for your family?

1. Childcare experience. This should match up with your own personal needs and family make up.

2. Driving experience. This, too, needs to match with your family requirements, depending on where you live and what type of driving your au pair will be doing.

3.  Letter and photo collage. These will say a lot about her character and personality. Through her letter, you should be able to get a sense of her motivation for becoming and au pair and what is most important to her.

4. References. If you need someone who can take charge of a very hectic and busy household you should look for signs that an au pair is a leader and can made decisions easily. If you are looking for someone to nurture a newborn, perhaps an au pair with a softer, gentler profile is a better fit.

5. Something that makes the right candidate stand out. A special activity, sport, qualification, personality trait, or just how she answers a certain question. When you see it, you know it’s a good fit for your family.

Top 5 unexpected benefits of hosting an au pair

These are things that you might not realize you can also enjoy as a host family!

1.      Affordable cost. The weekly cost of hosting an au pair is just $350. And that’s per family not per child. If your au pair works 45 hours per week, your hourly cost comes to just $7.80 an hour. Many babysitters charge at least twice that much!

2.      Exposure to a different culture. Au pairs come from all over the world, and they bring their language and customs with them. Some au pairs help their host children to speak another language fluently; others simply share recipes, songs and holiday traditions with your entire family. It’s a great way to learn about the world.

3.      Help with laundry, meals and room pick-up. Au pairs can help with household duties related to the children. It is so nice to come home and be able to PLAY with your kids instead of worrying about what they were going to eat or wear the next day.

4.      Date night. Au pairs can work up to 45 hours per week. And the best part is that they work on schedule you decide. If you still have extra hours leftover before the weekend, use them on a Saturday night so you and your spouse can enjoy dinner and a movie. When was the last time you did something like that without worrying about the hassle of finding and paying for a babysitter?

5.      Lifelong friendships. The relationship you build with your au pair often lasts long after your au pair returns home. Gaining an extended family that spans the globe is more rewarding than you can imagine!

For more information on unexpected benefits watch my Au Pair Answer Mom video.

Top 5 tips for spending time with your au pair

1. There is no magic formula to determine how many hours you should be spending together each week.

2. Host families should invite their au pairs to participate in family events that take place on a regular basis — family meals, movie nights, and weekend activities.

3. Families should also invite their au pairs to celebrate holidays with their family and extended family.

4. What you invite her to do beyond holidays and family events is up to you but it is always nice to include her as much as possible. This will vary by au pair and family depending on personality and interests.

5. Be sure to make time to sit down each week with your au pair to discuss how the previous week went, what’s on the agenda for the upcoming week and just to catch up.

For more good advice about spending time with your au pair, watch my Au Pair Answer Mom video.

Top 5 tips for interviewing an au pair

Here are some things to keep in mind when preparing to interview an au pair candidate:

1. Print out a list of questions you want to ask and topics you want to cover. Cultural Care will provide you with a list of sample interview questions. Be sure to ask all the questions you need to make an informed decision.

2. Remember to keep in mind time differences and find a time when you have a full 30 minutes of peace and quiet so you can focus on the conversation.

3. Speak slowly and articulate. Speaking and understanding English is more difficult over the phone than in person.

4. Ask the au pair candidate open-ended questions to be able to assess her English speaking-ability.

5. Schedule a follow-up interview. There are always other questions you think of once you get off the phone and a second interview allows you to get to know each other better.

For more good advice about interviewing an au pair candidate, watch my Au Pair Answer Mom video.

Top 5 ways to welcome your au pair

Many host parents, especially parents who are new to the program, wonder about the best way to welcome their au pair.

1. Send a package to your au pair at the training school which might include pictures drawn by the kids, a handwritten note from you, family photos, homemade treats, or a phone card. 
2. For the greeting at the airport, encourage your kids to make handmade signs if they are old enough. Make sure to give her a big hug once you finally meet in person for the first time!
3. Make sure your au pair’s room is ready and welcoming. Small gestures will go a long way in making your au pair feel comfortable. Flowers, balloons, and brochures about local things in your community.
4. Give her a gift of a new pair of pajamas and some nice bath things.
5. Take some of the photos from your au pair’s application and put them in frames in her room. It such a nice feeling for her to walk into her new room and see pictures of their family and friends back home.

For more good advice about welcoming your au pair, watch my Au Pair Answer Mom video.

Top 5 differences between an au pair and a nanny

Although many people use the terms au pair and nanny interchangeably, there are important differences between these two types of caregivers.

Here are the top 5 differences between an au pair and a nanny:

1. Au pairs are, by definition, young people from overseas who travel legally to the U.S.to care for children on a cultural exchange visa. Nannies can be anyone employed to care for a child in its own home.
2. Nannies can work part-time, full-time or even overtime. Au pairs working conditions are regulated by the U.S. Department of State, so there are rules that must be followed. An au pair can work up to (but no more than) 45 hours a week, 10 hours per day.
3. Nanny fees vary widely depending on if they are part-time or full-time and where you live. Most resources quote from $400 to $600 per week. Au pairs are paid a set weekly stipend of $195.75, as dictated by the U.S. Department of State. When an agency’s fees are factored in, the total weekly cost is about $350.
4. Some nannies are professionally trained and are in the field as a career. Others become nannies as a temporary way to earn money while they decide on college or other career paths. Au pairs are not professionally trained but many of them have hundreds, even thousands, of hours of experience as babysitters, tutors, kindergarten assistants, camp counselors and sports instructors.
5. Nannies are employees. Au pairs are not considered an employee but rather an extended family member. The term au pair means “on par”.

Stay tuned for next Tuesday’s Top 5!