What’s the best way to vet an au pair ?
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Had to do this many times and learned some hard lessons. I would start by checking with the company you’re using (there are only so many qualified via the state dept). Then ask what region and type of au pair you’re targeting as there are some things to be aware of when it comes to those companies and how they target. Ex: cultural care basically has a chop shop in Buenos Aries that targets 20 something’s with no experience to get them into America. They’re all still a business with business needs to fill a resource to a client at the end of the day.
FaceTime calls are the easiest. Ask questions about home life, what they want when they get here, try to give them the best idea of their day to day as well as their living arrangements. Try to check for what you think may be a red flag. As an example, we were duped by a girl from Austria who hid all her sleeve tattoos. Turned out she just wanted to escape her parents and party when/wherever possible.
Overall, you’re taking on an employee, a roommate, a foreign exchange student, and in many cases a teenage child by first world standards who you have to help and teach the ways of life. It can get cumbersome. I taught a girl from Iceland how to change a tire, a girl from Austria how to get her SS card and drivers license, a girl from South Africa how to not be a racist, and many more lessons via cultural care au pair.
There are also au pair social media groups you can join and see what their biggest issues are (a lot of complaints about host homes really), but it will also give you an idea of who you’re working with.
My best experiences were rematches; girls who had bad experiences with current hosts and needed a better situation. They wanted to work and they loved kids, but just had a bad start. Hope that helps.
Honestly, if I could redo it all and had the money, I’d stick to regular day care.
Happy to chat costs and comparisons also. I still have my old spreadsheet somewhere.