With so many choices of childcare, it can be difficult for parents to make such a big decision for their child and family.
An au pair is a young person from abroad employed by a “host family” to provide live-in home-based, childcare. Au pair education and care is focussed on providing a stable and secure environment for children in their own home, ensuring each child gets the full attention and support they need in their early years of life.
Here are 7 reasons why you need an au pair and how it will work for you.
- Flexibility.
Before an au pair joins your family, you negotiate your working hours with them. This can meet the needs of busy families who might also work shifts or need care outside of normal daycare hours. You can decide with them when you want them to work as long as it’s no more than 10 hours per day. What this means is that you don’t have to worry about getting them ready for preschool while you need to get ready for work. You don’t even need to worry about getting stuck in traffic in those peak hours as your au pair can have pickups and feeding sorted. No rush. No stress. - You have more time.
When part of the au pair‘s role includes duties such as making the children’s breakfast, dressing them, and cleaning up after them, it’s an opportunity for you to spend more quality time with your little ones. It opens up more time for you to sit with your children and share what happened in each other’s day. An extra pair of hands to help around the house can sometimes be a lifesaver. - It’s more affordable than you think.
Hiring an au pair is more affordable that you think. It works especially well for families with multiple children because the au pair cost-model is per hour and not per child. You could be saving hundreds of dollars per week if you have two or more children under five years old in childcare centres. In addition to this, the au pair wage is offset by board and lodgings, meaning you pay less for what it might normally cost because you’re providing them with accommodation and necessities. With Au Pair Link, you can gain access to WINZ subsidies or 20 Hours ECE for 3 and 4 year olds. - Dedicated care in a safe and secure environment – your family home.
The recommended adult to child ratio from the Ministry of Education for early childhood education (ECE) centres is one adult to five children (under two years old) or one adult to a maximum of eight children (over two years old). An au pair, who’s already developed a close relationship with your child by living together, provides dedicated one-on-one care. This means your child feels safe in their familiar environment, surrounded by familiar people and he or she is being watched all the time and every stage of their development is being supported.
