⏱ Reading time: 2 min.

Pros and Cons of Hosting an Au Pair: Is It Right for Your Family?

Do you wish to have a 36h day to get everything done? If you are a parent, you probably do. Being a parent is a full time job and if you are additionally professionally active - congratulations, you deserve a PhD in physics for space-time bending.

Jokes aside, hosting an Au Pair will be the right solution for you family under one condition:

you have a spare room for the Au Pair. Beside this, there is literally no obstacle keeping you from hiring an Au Pair and enriching your family life.

In this article you can learn more about advantages and disadvantages of the Au Pair program.

You are looking for a childcare solution for your kids, but neither nursery, nor nannies and babysitters suit your needs? Maybe hosting an Au Pair will be the right solution for you! An Au Pair is a young person who is interested in living with a Host Family for some time abroad, looking after the children and getting to know the local culture. As everything, the Au Pair program has its own pros and cons.

Pros of hosting an Au Pair

Flexible time. As the Au Pair lives with your family, you have the flexibility to assign responsibilities to her/him any time of the day upon your necessity within the maximum allowed number of working hours.
Cultural exchange. Your family will get to know more about another country and culture. You will also raise the cultural awareness and tolerance in the children.
Another language. Your family has a chance to learn another language by hiring a native speaker.
Variety of tasks. In addition to childcare, an Au Pair can help with some light housework (though he/she is not a cleaning lady or a nanny).
Cost efficient. An Au Pair is often more affordable than a nanny or nurseries. Learn more about the cost of hiring an Au Pair.

Cons of hosting an Au Pair

Loss of privacy. As the Au Pair will be living with the Host Family, the family’s privacy will be influenced. It will take a bit of time to adapt to a new person.
Cultural gap. It takes some time for an Au Pair to adapt to a new place and country. It will also take time for your children to accept a new person. Sometimes the cultural gap is bigger than expected or the Au Pair might feel homesick, thus the Au Pair contract might be terminated earlier.
It’s not professional childcare. The main goal of the Au Pair program is cultural exchange, hence most of the participants belong to different profiles and do not necessarily have any professional childcare skills.
Specific requirements. The Host Family needs to provide an Au Pair room, full board and other conditions that are foreseen by the Au Pair Program.
Organizational efforts. As a Host Family you will need to provide all required support and documents for visa, insurance, registration and other formalities.

If you think that Au Pair Program is the right solution for you and you meet the program requirements, start looking for an Au Pair now.
Free Registration as Family

How long does it take to find an Au Pair?: It depends on several factors. Make sure your profile is full and interesting for other users. Make sure that you meet the Host Family requirements set by the Au Pair program. Be active and contact about 10-15 Au Pairs per day. If you follow the three tips above you can find a suitable match within one to four weeks. Check out our Host Family guide for more advice and ideas on how to find an Au Pair faster.

What are the requirements to host an Au Pair?: There are three most important requirements: the Au Pair accommodation, full board and monthly/weekly sum of pocket money. We recommend to go through the full list of requirements for Host Families. If you meet them, you can register as a Host Family today and find an Au Pair that matches your criteria.

Can Au Pairs work more than 45 hours?: No. Every country has its own regulations for how many hours/week the Au Pair is allowed to work, and they correspond to a specific monthly pocket money. In some countries, like the USA, this includes extra babysitting hours. In other Host Countries it depends on the agreement between Au Pair and Host Family.

Do you check your users?: Yes! Although we can’t interview them personally as an online matching agency, we do our best to check as many details as possible. Nonetheless, AuPair.com follows the same rules as many other Internet communities. To ensure that you are in touch with a real, reliable person, arrange a video-call and ask about all the important details in person. If you ever feel uneasy, contact us! We will be glad to share our feedback about any user if you find him/her suspicious.

Is AuPair.com reliable?: Yes, we are! AuPair.com is a registered company located in Cologne, Germany. If you have any questions you can always reach us via e-mail (info@aupair.com) or phone. Since we provide customer support in different languages you can have a look at our phone numbers in different countries here.

How can I find a candidate that is already located in my country of residence?: Some Host Families need support very promptly. Therefore, we often get the question how to find candidates on our platform who are already located in the family’s country of residence and want to change Host Family.

To do this, you need to:

1) go to the dashboard menu on the left side after logging into your profile

2) click “Search” and then “Search criteria”

3) select for the option "Candidates currently living in" your country of residence

4) select "all” for the option “Nationality“

5) tag the box “Save preferences” and click on “Find”

6) make sure that your “preferences” match your search criteria