Au pairs make light work of child care and other chores

With a new financial year upon us, the interest rate spectre lurking and fuel costs reaching their highest levels ever, it might be time to consider some alternative child care options The Au Pair may well be the answer to many a desperate parent’s prayers.

In the seventies and eighties when long day care centres, child care benefits and paid maternity leave weren’t even a glint in a parent’s eye, the Au Pair was a popular choice. Generally a foreign speaking student looking for work experience and cultural exchange with a host family in an English speaking country, the Au Pair offered parents a way of affording child care and domestic help with the added benefits of having a live in babysitter, language teacher and cultural diversity.

Now in the "noughties" with dual income being the norm, longer working hours, higher child care costs, fuel and travel expenses, the Au Pair is once again proving a very viable alternative to the more conventional child care options and with all the foreign students currently in Australia for World Youth Day, now might just be a great time to grab yourself a good one!

Wendi Aylward, Managing Director, AIFS Au Pairs Australia believes Au Pairs are an option well worth considering for many Australian families: "Welcoming an au pair into the family is not only an affordable alternative to conventional childcare options, but also very flexible and safe, says Wendi. A reputable au pair agency will ensure that the girls are matched with families based on their personality and experience. Our candidates are rigorously screened before leaving their home country to ensure they have no criminal history; they must be proficient in English and have adequate and recent childcare experience".

Au Pairs are often students on a foreign university exchange programme or simply young people on a GAP year or looking for work experience in another country for a year or two.

For around $200 dollars a week pocket money and full board with the host family, they will provide around 30-40 hours child care per week, including a few hours undertaking other household duties such as general cleaning/ironing and tidying, grocery shopping etc.

With child care centres now charging between $60 and $100 per day in fees, the Au Pair seems a great option when you consider travel expenses to and from child care, time constraints of working/child care centre hours and sick days / public holidays that still must be paid for in child care centres.

The Au Pair also offers:
  • Potential foreign language tuition – pre-school age children are hugely fast in learning a foreign language
  • Cultural exchange/diversity
  • On tap child care - babysitting and your friends will be very grateful too!
  • Additional companionship for children and parents
There are of course a few downsides:
  • Au Pairs may not wish to stay for more than 6 months to a year with a family
  • They are not deemed “approved child care” and therefore the host family will not be able to claim child care benefit or child care tax rebate (same goes for nannies)
  • They may not bond with the family or be homesick or may simply just not "work out"
To find out more about Au Pairs click here.
 
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