How young is too young for au-pairing?

sevenofthorns

Hi, all! Just looking for a few opinions on how young would be too young for a girl to go au-pairing internationally with a reputable agency. I plan to apply for au pair jobs in France to improve my language skills before the oral, and I hope to study languages at third-level, as well as save up some money for college.

I'm seventeen years old, will be doing my leaving cert in 2017. I'd have a fair amount of child-care experience, for example minding younger siblings before and after school while my parents were working or looking after cousins and neighbours in the evenings. These would have been in the 2 - 12 year old age bracket, I'm afraid I have limited experience with infants. I have basic first-aid training from modules at school and experience at home, but I plan to find a course to get some proper qualifications before I would go au-pairing anywhere. I have a provisional Irish driving license, and I speak intermediate French and rudimentary Spanish and Italian.

Would you feel comfortable having a seventeen year old as an au pair, or should I wait a year until I'm eighteen? Would your concerns be related to immaturity, inexperience, etc.?

CelticRambler

Seventeen is too young. The French take the age of majority very seriously when dealing with "outsiders" and anything to do with child minding is heavily wrapped up with rules, regulations and insurance.

I'm just about to hit the road, so can't get into a discussion right now, but for what you want to get out of it, I'd strongly recommend you get involved in festival volunteer work. You'll meet a whole range of different people and get a much richer vocabulary (+ stories to tell in your oral) than sitting with a couple of toddlers all day.

I can get you involved in one trad music festival (July 14-17 + two or three days either side prep/clear-up) if you're interested, and point you towards others for dates before and after. No pay, but very little cost either (petrol money to get from one to the next and food for the days you don't get a free lunch!)

lazygal

I wouldn't hire a 17 year old for anything more than babysitting when the kids are about to head to bed. OP, minding children during a working day is stressful and can be challenging. I think you should try to build up some work experience and then if you want to do au pairing try it in a few years. Anyone I know who uses an au pair goes for someone 21+, usually with a few years of college and life experience behind them, who are on a gap year to learn english.

pwurple

My cousin aupaired in france for a summer when she was 17, and it was a bit of a disaster. the family treated her quite badly, leaving her for 6 days a week, 14 hours a day with the children and giving out stink when they got home if the laundry wasn't done... Withholding food if chores were not done. Crazy stuff, and she put up with it for too long, partly because of inexperience I suppose.

When i was looking for an aupair myself, i had a minimum of age 23. To be honest, I think if someone is looking for 17 year olds, they might take advantage of the aupair not knowing what it's supposed to be like.

You can also work in france in tourist resorts, or work here in ireland to get enough money for some backpacking.

Neyite

The biggest drawback from what you've described is possibly the driving.

A provisional licence doesn't exist any more. What you have is a learner permit, and all that does is allow you to practice on a road with a fully licensed driver. Back when I got my licence, it was a provisional, and you could present it at a checkpoint and the Gardai wouldn't give a hoot about you driving alone on it. But Ireland was unusual in that regard and thankfully the law has changed now in line with other countries. But still, a lot of countries require a full licence for more than a year or other novice restrictions such as being over 18 so do check those out in your destination country. I think that even if you were a newly qualified driver, I'd be a bit hesitant to have my child in the car with you as the driver - that's no reflection on you, by the way. Just a new licence, combined with your young age, plus driving on a different side of the road than you practised on, would be a concern.

Kids can drive you cracked. While its grand and enjoyable even to babysit for a few nights a week or a long weekend, its a very different ball-game when you are far from home, from your own home comforts, and full time minding someone else's kid (in whatever parenting style they dictate). Plus if you were my relative, I'd be concerned that the host family would pile more work on you than they are supposed to and that you'd feel isolated and stressed and what should be an interesting and rewarding experience for you would turn into a nightmare.