Au Pair, Of Course!

We have tried every childcare situation out there. Standard daycare, in-home daycare, nannies, babysitters and after-school care. For the past 10 months, though, we've had an au pair, and I have to say that this is the best solution yet.

We do the standard au pair program which includes 45 hours of care a week. There is an upfront fee of $7,345, and then we pay her a weekly fee of $160 (the actual cost is $157.95, but that just seems tacky). When you average it all out, the weekly cost is $309. (less than $7/hour). Yes, our food costs have gone up (but part of that is the economy). And yes, we have someone living with us, but it's been terrific.

We are lucky to have a good house layout for an au pair.

We have a finished basement that includes a bedroom and a full bath, so Paty (our au pair) has her own private space. She eats dinner with us almost every night, but as you'd expect from a 25 year old, she isn't interested in spending THAT much time with us, so most of the time, we hardly know she's around!

The kids love Paty, and are so incredibly comfortable with her. PLUS, we have the flexibility of using our 45 hours any way we want. For us, this means a split schedule. She starts working at 7am (allowing us to get out of the house without much stress), has both kids at school by 8:20, and then starts working again at 11:30 when Max gets out of preschool. A split schedule like this would be really hard to accommodate with a standard nanny, so we are thrilled. We also have most of our Saturday date nights covered (she gets one full weekend off per month).

We are just starting to get applications for next year's au pair, and it is super exciting. I can't wait to welcome someone else into our home, and I am so thrilled to have found this solution.

This is an original post to Chicago Moms Blog.