How to find a great au pair for you and your kids

So long as parents understand that the au pairs are not professionals, that they are supervisors or companions, then it can be inexpensive childcare. But the girl’s personality must suit the family dynamic, writes Helen O’Callaghan.

THERE was the au pair who put the children’s clothes away half-damp, the one who sat between the parents every night watching TV, and the one who came to get away from her family in France.

Parenting websites abound with ‘horror’ au-pair stories. Around 10,000 families in Ireland use au pairs. It can feel like crossing a frontier, inviting an unknown young woman from another country into the bosom of your family to look after the people most precious to you — your children.