Au Pairs

Someone I know in Hamilton has had an Au Pair for a while now.
I remember her talking about it and thinking WOW what a fab idea.

Of course my mind went into overdrive with the 'What If's'

• What if we had the space
• What if we had the spare room
• What if we had the 2nd car for them to use

Of course nothing ever came of it, but it was a nice wish/thought

Back at Easter time, some very close friends of the family were talking about childcare and I of course mentioned Au Pairs. They too could see the wonder of this situation if you had the space etc. The drop in stress that came with knowing your children were home each afternon and not constantly in care. That someone was going to vacuum your house for you and you didn't have to worry about it when you got home from work. Plus the washing was folded and they may do a little housework too.
Well, when we called into their house last week, low and behold they had gone and done it.
Say hello to our Au Pair they announced.

Man was I jealous.
So I spent 24 hours racking my brain to see how I could make it work for us??
It won't, it is just not suitable for us, sadly. Well it is suitable if we want to add extra rooms on the house, if we want to totally rearrange the house and buy a 2nd car.

But someone else mentioned to me that they had heard of students from the local university childminding.
So maybe I will look into getting a student to care for the boys 2 afternoons a week, that would mean that with my 1 day off a week the boys would go to after school care 2 days a week and have 3 days a week at home after school.
I like the idea of them being here at home, having a nice afternoon tea, having someone sit down with them for 15 minutes and working through their homework with them.
Having them be able to go on a play date without having to plan it 2 weeks in advance so I can cancel after school care.
The thought of someone else vacuuming the house for you and maybe cleaning the bathroom occassionally, man I can feel the stress just flowing out of me...!