AuPairs
While the least common choice for childcare, as compared to Nannies, baby sitters or daycare, an AuPair can be a wonderful addition to you and your child’s life if you are very busy and need someone to be there 24/7. In many cases it also affords your child the opportunity to learn a second language as many au pairs are from overseas.
Au pairs typically are young students from a foreign country who has a reciprocal and caring relationship with their host family. They are usually women who can provide childcare and lighthouse keeping. Au pairs can work with a family in the United States for up to one year. There are services that pair up host families and au pairs. They provide services like other career agencies. (see below for more info.)
HOW CAN I FIND THE BEST AU PAIR FOR MY NEEDS?
Given the unique requirements in hiring an Au Pair, it is best to go through a service that provides background checks, provides resumes for you to review and allows you to screen information online before you begin the interviewing process. We recommend this route for several reasons. 1) It will save you time and yield many good, qualified candidates, 2) These services are inexpensive considering the value you receive (checks, resumes, upfront info, reviews) and 3) national, online services have much larger databases of people and will not try to send you someone who may not be good fit (like small agencies might).
WHERE CAN I START?
We recommend you take a look around both of the following services:
SitterCity.com (Discount! Try this code when you register at Sittercity and get 10% off instantly!)
You can test the services by their free search to get an idea of the amount of potential candidates you will have near you, and to see if the amount of service they provide is right for you. If you’d like to read our reviews of these two services, please see the following page for details:
