The attraction and benefits, for parents to employ au-pairs, are many. The flexibility, the perception of customised personal attention that is easily adjustable, the familiarity of someone who is from your neighbourhood and matches your family’s ethos and status in close contact with your children, relatively cost-effective as au pairs combine both driving and care using their personal vehicles and related costs and for some quite a status symbol to have in your employ.
However, this option is not without downsides that are worth considering. Hiring an au pair can add a multitude of additional stress and has unexpected risks and responsibilities that parents may not have considered.
Many au pairs are not trained in early childhood development and this can result in little to no afternoon enrichment. Rather make the right choice and choose a service offering an aftercare programme with developmental support intentionally designed with the kinds of activities children undertake. A multisensory approach, with the ability to accommodate a variety of children of different ages and stages, learning styles and interpersonal connections.
It is important to note that when you, as a parent employ an au pair, you are taking on the responsibility of employing someone, which comes with many employer obligations.
For instance, you should register this person (au pair) for UIF and you have a formal employment contract with this person. As an employer, you should have performance management policies in place and you need a proper job description for the person. You are taking on the burden and responsibility of an employee and with that, all the risks in terms of accidents and injuries – so, workman’s compensation.
Apart from that, have you thought of all the risk elements of taking on an employee who’s going to be driving a vehicle? Do they have a driver’s licence and a Public Driver’s Permit required when carrying passengers for business? Most importantly, how comfortable are you with their level of experience as a driver when transporting your children from place to place?
Professional aftercare and holiday care programmes are reliable, structured and enriching alternatives to employing an au pair. These programmes are designed to provide a safe environment where the children are supervised and educational and play activities are tailored towards the developmental needs of the children.
When children are well cared for by qualified staff, flexible scheduling and a programme, such as the Club Engage REACH programme, offer you a solution for your child’s care without added worries and stress. The REACH programme fosters social and cognitive development and incorporates quality play which is important for children as it builds cognitive skills and growth in problem-solving ability. In short, it enhances children’s development and well-being.
Furthering the issue of your children’s safety, au pairs usually don’t have first and CPR training, which puts your child at risk should anything serious happen to them. Teachers and after-school care employees, certainly those at Club Engage, have this training and qualifications, and parents need not worry about the safety of their offspring.
Au pairs are a “flight” risk as for most of them it is not a career it is simply a stopgap during their study years. They take these jobs as temporary – mostly students midway through their studies trying to make extra money. You are essentially bringing someone in to look after your children who see their role and the role they’re fulfilling as temporary and transient – that’s a double-whammy.
When choosing an au pair over an established after-school care facility, as a parent you need to consider issues such as how you will resolve problems and poor performance. There is no manager, they don’t report to anyone and are not part of a formal infrastructure. So where do parents take complaints and grievances and how do you address quality and performance improvements?
In extreme cases of negligence, au pairs themselves are not insured. If there was negligence under their watch there is no opportunity for claiming it, except for getting extremely litigious and potentially ruining someone’s life through lawsuits. What is your recourse in terms of negligence?
There are simply too many unanswered and new questions and concerns when you are looking at hiring an au pair versus a trusted and established after-school childcare service. The research, personal vetting, time, work, and effort needed to find a possible candidate is already daunting before you consider the risks and stresses on top of that to deal with. Working parents simply don’t have the time or energy to deal with that when they can simply opt for going with an accredited and trusted child-care service.
Caring for your child involves more than just arranging for someone to pick them up after school, drive them to extracurricular activities, supervise homework, and prepare a sandwich for lunch.
When your child attends a professional aftercare and holiday care programme, you can be confident that your child is in a safe, caring and stimulating environment. This means that you can go through your day with less stress about the safety and security of your children.
