Childcare woes/Aupair

Shefwedfan

Sorry if this is wrong forum but really not sure where else to look. My wife is due back into work in the next few weeks and we cannot find childcare anywhere. Have tried rollercoaster/mindme etc etc but to no avail.

Everyone seems ok till they hear about the 10 month old and don't want to bother. Or the fact our 4 year old needs to be picked up at 12 each day from Nanoira.

Any other website that would be good?

I am just wondering are there any companies set up that will do the whole Aupair thing for you? so you give details and they set up everything? I have registered on Au Pair world etc but not sure how to set it up

shesty

We found ours on schooldays.ie.When our second arrived, we used the same person again, but school is going to need some adjustments.She is in preschool, but it is a bit of a distance away and minder doesn't dive.We have managed so far but when one is in JI and the second is in preschool, we will have to juggle a bit(no 3 is also due soon). So we are looking at a combo of after school care in the preschool (which provides it, and a pick up service from the local primary school), one day where grandparents pick up, one day where I take parental leave and maybe then just 1/2 days where the minder does the pickup.Could you look at something like that?

Shefwedfan

shesty wrote: »

We found ours on schooldays.ie.When our second arrived, we used the same person again, but school is going to need some adjustments.She is in preschool, but it is a bit of a distance away and minder doesn't dive.We have managed so far but when one is in JI and the second is in preschool, we will have to juggle a bit(no 3 is also due soon). So we are looking at a combo of after school care in the preschool (which provides it, and a pick up service from the local primary school), one day where grandparents pick up, one day where I take parental leave and maybe then just 1/2 days where the minder does the pickup.Could you look at something like that?

We are looking at options, my wife is taking parental leave so it is just 2 days a week. This rules out most minders as they want more hours.

Unfortunately my parents live too far away to help and I won't mention my wifes side but lets just say its not an option.

My wife is talking about trying to reduce to 1 day a week for a year or 2 and I take them for that day but this will take a few weeks to set up and not ideal long term

The plan was to try and get one person to look after them all but it might be that we have to get minder for smaller 2 and just after Nanoira for eldest, she will be in gaelscoil in September anyway

i know u know

Where are you located. Maybe an add up in a local shop or in the local newspaper might get you someone

Moonbeam

Try childminding.ie .
I would love to mind those ages but moving soon.

Shefwedfan

i know u know wrote: »

Where are you located. Maybe an add up in a local shop or in the local newspaper might get you someone

Thanks, I have done all of the following.....

Cakerbaker

Maybe a local Facebook parenting group?

Shefwedfan

Cakerbaker wrote: »

Maybe a local Facebook parenting group?

Done

Childminding.ie is only one I havent tried


The bloody website is awful slow....

Cakerbaker

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Done

Childminding.ie is only one I havent tried


The bloody website is awful slow....

I remember the search myself, it’s tough. We were looking for 2 days at the start but like you say most childminders want more days than that which is understandable so we ended up putting him in a crèche that did a 3 day option. We only had the 1 though so didn’t have the complication of the collection from Naoinra.

Shefwedfan

Cakerbaker wrote: »

I remember the search myself, it’s tough. We were looking for 2 days at the start but like you say most childminders want more days than that which is understandable so we ended up putting him in a crèche that did a 3 day option. We only had the 1 though so didn’t have the complication of the collection from Naoinra.

As the days of the week can change the creche doesn't want to know. They want us either to give set days or put them in for the full 5 days which would be astronomical money:mad:

shesty

No winning is there....you would think that only needing part -time childcare would be making your life easier, but no.The flip side being fulltime costs a fortune.Very frustrating.

Cakerbaker

Shefwedfan wrote: »

As the days of the week can change the creche doesn't want to know. They want us either to give set days or put them in for the full 5 days which would be astronomical money:mad:

Have you tried chatting to any of the parents at the Naoinra? There maybe someone there who hasn’t done childminding before but might be happy with some extra cash for 2 days a week? I did find that some of the people who were willing to do the shorter weeks were parents who didn’t want the full time commitment. In my case those people all lived a bit away from us so would have added a good bit onto our already long commutes so it didn’t work out.

lazygal

Au pairs aren't supposed to provide more than about 20 hours a week of work. Given all the cases coming down the track about au pairs being exploited and being awarded money I don't think it's a viable child care option.
Have you tried schooldays.ie? That's where we found our minder.

Moonbeam

Are you looking for a nanny(in yourhome) or childminder (in theirs)?

Shefwedfan

Moonbeam wrote: »

Are you looking for a nanny(in yourhome) or childminder (in theirs)?

Well it doesn't matter. Before the person minded in their house but we had a smaller house. That person got a job so she is gone

Even for Aupair we have granny flat section which they could use and kind of away from rest of us if they wanted.

At this stage we would take anything. One woman had said she would take them, first in her house and then in ours. We had agreed everything and then she rang and said she had better offer:mad:

lazygal

You might have to suck it up and pay more if you want specific hours. We pay more because we need someone to work around our non-standard work hours. Of course someone who wants more work will take a better offer.

shesty

I suppose also consider would you need to provide au pair with a car or is the school.within walking distance?Also maybe ask naionra for suggestions-any parents they know of available or after school care that other kids use?

martinr5232

Shefwedfan wrote:

Well it doesn't matter. Before the person minded in their house but we had a smaller house. That person got a job so she is gone

If they mind in your house they are your employee so you have to pay tax prsi and holidays. Something to bear in mind plus the extra heating and electricity you would use.

Shefwedfan

lazygal wrote: »

You might have to suck it up and pay more if you want specific hours. We pay more because we need someone to work around our non-standard work hours. Of course someone who wants more work will take a better offer.

Did I post that I wouldn't pay more?

What I said is I wouldn't pay for 5 days in creche when the requirement is for 2 days. Don't see anything unreasonable about that? Do you?

I paid my previous childminder more because it was different days, as mentioned she got job and left.....I offered more for her to stay but she wouldn't as she wanted to build a career for herself.....

ectoraige

How many hours of work per week would be needed?

ectoraige

lazygal wrote: »

Au pairs aren't supposed to provide more than about 20 hours a week of work. Given all the cases coming down the track about au pairs being exploited and being awarded money I don't think it's a viable child care option.

What's not viable about it? All you have to do is pay them properly, 20 hours per week at minimum wage works out at around €115, including PRSI, if you're providing board + lodgings. Obviously there'll be more costs in shopping, heat, and electricity.

Providing manual handling training costs about €50, and any light domestic duties expected of an aupair should be low-risk. The only real unknown is whether your home insurer decides to increase your premium for having somebody working in the house.

The problem in the courts lies in people keeping domestic slaves, and calling them aupairs. I know people who worked as aupairs who had their passports taken from them by their host family, and who worked up to 70 hours for very little pay. There has been huge exploitation, and those who did it should be punished. That doesn't mean however that aupair model for childcare is unworkable, far from it.

st1979

We have used au pair world in the past and found it good. You got to do the work yourself on finding an au pair. So forget about saying you are wanting a company to do it all for you. Any one I know with bad au pair experience used an agency. They were given a choice of one to pick from. You are looking for someone to join your family which is more important than looking for someone to join your company.

We are on probably 5th or 6th au pair now. And we have had some really great people many of them stayed for a year.

My wife hates me saying this that au pair world looks to me like a dating site. In that you need to send out lots of invitations to chat and see what comes of it. She would spend hours looking up the perfect au pair and agonising over which of the 3 were the best before sending a message. Then I would look at the profiles and see that all 3 were perfect and everyone else taught so too. And they had a 100 invitations and only replied to 2 or 3. These are like the supermodels unattainable.

I hate seeing all the bad headlines about how au pairs been treated and because of that some will try to ban this system. Most of our au pairs leave as it's time to get a career and they are able to do so because of their improved English and newly acquired independence and when they leave are in tears.
Most of the girls it's their first time away from home.

Think what can you provide your au pair. For us it's every weekend off. If they go away for the weekend abroad they may not be back till Monday night. That's fine too. We insure them on a car and fuel in it. Find nearest English classes for them where they make friends with other au pairs.

We now have got au pairs by reference from existing au pair.

Hitman3000

ectoraige wrote:

What's not viable about it? All you have to do is pay them properly, 20 hours per week at minimum wage works out at around €115, including PRSI, if you're providing board + lodgings. Obviously there'll be more costs in shopping, heat, and electricity.

20 hours at minimum wage is 115 a week? The most that can be deducted for board is 54 euro. I think you may wish to revisit your figures

lazygal

ectoraige wrote: »

What's not viable about it? All you have to do is pay them properly, 20 hours per week at minimum wage works out at around €115, including PRSI, if you're providing board + lodgings. Obviously there'll be more costs in shopping, heat, and electricity.

Providing manual handling training costs about €50, and any light domestic duties expected of an aupair should be low-risk. The only real unknown is whether your home insurer decides to increase your premium for having somebody working in the house.

The problem in the courts lies in people keeping domestic slaves, and calling them aupairs. I know people who worked as aupairs who had their passports taken from them by their host family, and who worked up to 70 hours for very little pay. There has been huge exploitation, and those who did it should be punished. That doesn't mean however that aupair model for childcare is unworkable, far from it.

We employ a minder in our home and the going rate isn't minimum wage, employers PRSI on top and insurance adds up.
I don't know anyone who registered as an employer when they had an au pair. Plus it isn't supposed to be a model for child care. It's a cultural exchange.

lazygal

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Did I post that I wouldn't pay more?

What I said is I wouldn't pay for 5 days in creche when the requirement is for 2 days. Don't see anything unreasonable about that? Do you?

I paid my previous childminder more because it was different days, as mentioned she got job and left.....I offered more for her to stay but she wouldn't as she wanted to build a career for herself.....

Jesus no need to get so defensive.

beechwood55

Aupairs are not suitable for the sole care for very young babies and preschoolers. You need to get experienced minders for that age group.

ectoraige

Hitman3000 wrote: »

20 hours at minimum wage is 115 a week? The most that can be deducted for board is 54 euro. I think you may wish to revisit your figures

Bad fingers, I meant €151!

Shefwedfan

The reference to a company to find Au Pair is because we have no idea where to start.

We are not looking at Au Pair to reduce costs or anything. Everyone we have talked to have said because of the situation we are in the Au Pair would probably be best option. They would not be required to work weekend and max would be 2 days per week.

We rang Nanny agency today, even she wasn't pushing their service, said we could pay the fee but she wasn't sure if even after paying the fee anyone of their nannys would be interested, didn't fill us with confidence.

maxsmum

2 or 3 day creche will be your only option and if the days change of course they won't take the kid. I know it's hard trying to cut down to part time and get childminders too but honestly the options you're offering are just too difficult.
We both work full time and it's so easy knowing creche is there for us always open and never lets us down. Money wise things are better and the child is happy out and full of beans.

ectoraige

lazygal wrote: »

We employ a minder in our home and the going rate isn't minimum wage, employers PRSI on top and insurance adds up.
I don't know anyone who registered as an employer when they had an au pair. Plus it isn't supposed to be a model for child care. It's a cultural exchange.

Recent cases have shown in the absence of aupair-specific legislation, host families do need to register. Yes it is a cultural exchange, but it is based around helping out in the home, and that does include caring for the children. It's just not supposed to replace childminders, it suits families that have part-time needs, which the OP seems to have.

RiseToMe

Hi OP,

My wife recently returned to work and we faced the same issue. I worked both for myself and for somebody else and in the end I cut right back and just do the childminding myself. There isn't a whole lot of options out there unless you need full time care.

Shefwedfan

RiseToMe wrote: »

Hi OP,

My wife recently returned to work and we faced the same issue. I worked both for myself and for somebody else and in the end I cut right back and just do the childminding myself. There isn't a whole lot of options out there unless you need full time care.

Thanks, it is looking like that alright

pwurple

We had 3 au pairs, all three from aupairworld.net. One didn't work out, she just had no interest in being an aupair, misled us, and only wanted a place to stay in order to meet her irish boyfriend. She only lasted a week.

The other two girls were real dotes, great with children, and they loved babies. Our first au pair was when our youngest was 6 months old.  I highly recommend aupairs, I think it's great for the children to have that exposure to other ways of life, the au pair gets a fab experience, and you get some flexibility hopefully. Both of my daughters still speak bits of Spanish and Portuguese and have experience with foods and cultures, skype with our au pairs families etc. We've been to visit them in their home countries as well. Overall loved it (bar that one misstep)
Obviously don't exploit anyone. For your own sake as well. They are looking after your children for goodness sake, the last thing you want to do is have a gripe with them. Other girls would come to visit our au pair, and some were very upset about how they were being treated.. having their wages docked for using a tea-bag, or being expected to walk miles in the rain to pick up children from school instead of given a Leap card for the bus. 
You do need to do the legwork yourself. Yes it's hard work, you have to interview a lot of people to find someone who suits your family. An agency can't do that for you. But it's well worth it for your children. Besides, it's not that often. Our first au pair stayed 2 years, the other one was a year.

st1979

Previous poster is right it can be a very positive thing for host family. I sometimes get foreign students to work for a month on the farm and like an au pair they live with the family. We as a family I think become less insular and that can only be good for the kids. Big change and worry before you get the first au pair. And truthfully if there is not an economic benefit to me I would not have got the first au pair or farm student. And for the people who are against this system. What way do they recommend the foreign au pairs or farm students to get work and learn which helps them further their career.
My last au pair is now working in Dublin in a crèche renting a 3 bed flat in a dodgy area with 6 others. And after paying her ridiculous rent and bus fares and food she will not have the disposable income she had as an au pair. But it's a new chapter in her life and she is very excited.

yellow hen

I've never had an au pair but we do keep students during term time and I whole heartedly agree with the previous poster about being less insular as a family. Other benefits we found were that we were generally more organised around mealtimes etc and ate better and more broadly. The kids always adore the students and just see them as an extension of our wider family.

Shefwedfan

Quick update, spent last few weeks on Au Pair World to no avail. Last week was concerned so signed up to Cara International.

Today got an offer which looks good.....just wondering if anyone has used Cara before? Thanks

jlm29

I’ve never heard of Cara OP, but one other thing you could do if it doesn’t work out is stick an ad on local radio, depending on where in the country you are. I know it might only be an option if you’re rural/semi-rural.
I know of a few people who have found childcare through radio- usually people who need very part-time childcare, and it’s generally been older middle aged ladies (sorry for generalising, but the demographic who might be listening to regional radio!!) who haven’t been working outside the home, families reared, looking for something to do and glad of the extra cash.

Shefwedfan

jlm29 wrote: »

I’ve never heard of Cara OP, but one other thing you could do if it doesn’t work out is stick an ad on local radio, depending on where in the country you are. I know it might only be an option if you’re rural/semi-rural.
I know of a few people who have found childcare through radio- usually people who need very part-time childcare, and it’s generally been older middle aged ladies (sorry for generalising, but the demographic who might be listening to regional radio!!) who haven’t been working outside the home, families reared, looking for something to do and glad of the extra cash.

We live on Dublin border, address is not Dublin but Eircode is :P

Local radio would probably be classified at 98FM or FM104:D

jlm29

Probably wouldn’t have the same success rate as tipp fm!

spaceHopper

We got our first child minder from the local magazine my wife put an add in. She was in the 50s with two grown up children and was happy with 3 days. It might be better if you offered 3 days a week and could fix one or two of them. You might get more bites

pwurple

When you say You had no luck on Au pair world... as in no interest, or no one applied that you liked? We had hundreds of responses any time we used it, had to keep hiding and unhiding the profile to manage it. I am surprised if you got nothing at all.

Maybe it is the location, we are in cork city, and a lot of them already know someone nearby so they have a safety net.

Ask the other parents around has to be your best bet. There could be some network there that maybe you have not discovered yet.

Shefwedfan

pwurple wrote: »

When you say You had no luck on Au pair world... as in no interest, or no one applied that you liked? We had hundreds of responses any time we used it, had to keep hiding and unhiding the profile to manage it. I am surprised if you got nothing at all.

Maybe it is the location, we are in cork city, and a lot of them already know someone nearby so they have a safety net.

Ask the other parents around has to be your best bet. There could be some network there that maybe you have not discovered yet.

We got some applications but all from outside EU so I was recommended to stay in EU due to work visa etc

We then started to contact people direct, Germany & Poland first, then rest of EU. Anyway that has come back said not interested.

I am not sure it is because we have looked for a drivers license? we dont smoke and asked for someone that doesn't smoke as well.....apart from that nothing out of norm.