To prospective Host families… Being a very busy family struggling to juggle our family, careers and live in general,  we recently were asked by friends whether we ever considered taking on an Au pair.  Being a woman, and trying to be the so called 'Superwoman', who can actually manage kids, a marriage, work, the house, a social live and all the rest, I first felt that I would be failing in my quest and also originally thought people would think I am lazy. 

Mulling over the concept over the days to come, I realised that my live is currently all about quantity and not much quality - not to mention the fact that my kids are not getting much quality from me either. I am usually tired by the time I pick them up from day care, a quick stop at the shop for dinner, getting home only leaves enough time to start dinner, shortly followed by the bath and bed routine and then of course the house awaits.  My quality time with the kids and my husband was consumed by chores that can actually be taken care of by someone else… come the weekend, social affairs end up being stressful as the kids needs well deserved attention, the house needs cleaning and the washing pile is ever growing. 

So, encouraged by my husband... I started researching the whole Au Pair idea…It all sounded too good to be true, I can get help with the house and shopping in general, the kids will actually have quality relationships, I will win time to spend with the children and my husband and overall I could be less stressed which would make everyone's life easier.  

An added bonus, with the ECE 20 hours free, this arrangement will be cheaper that our current day care option.  So we made the decision to embarked on finding the right "new addition" to our family…The usual approach Au Pair link takes is to recommend a few profiles to you based on your family situation and requirements.  You consider them, select those you want to interview, if successful in the interview, you make an offer, if not some more are suggested for consideration.  Au Pair Link suggested 3 candidates to start off with however being me, I always feel I have to do the ground work to make the best informed decision.  In choosing candidates to interview, this meant considering pretty much as many profiles as possible.    As such I set out to review all the profiles on offer on the Au Pair link website and subsequently advised my contact at Au Pair link whose detail profiles I would like to receive. 

The contact at Au Pair link was very patient, responded to my lists of suggestions with professionalism and provided appropriate information where relevant.   To make a long story short, I ended up interviewing two candidates and made an offer to one that was proposed to me by Au Pair Link in the first go.  Go figure…  I am happy because I felt I tested the ground, Au Pair Link is happy since they made a placement, and our Au Pair is happy as she was packing her bags to join us in September.  Personally I learned out of the experience…  Au Pair Link has done this many times, they are professional in their approach, their processes work well and I for one have gained confidence and respect for their procedures.  They asses the family, the candidates and by the time they make a suggestion, the candidates are all pretty much solid options.  Moving forward I will be more than happy to just work with those proposed and make my selection from there.  After all, they are the experts at this process.

Eckard Family