Au Pair Search: It's a Match!

The process of finding an au pair is moving forward. We’ve made a match with a young woman from France, and she'll be joining us sometime in September.

Most au pair candidates now post videos along with their essays and I found them really useful in getting a quick first impression to help narrow down the list. I ended up talking via Sk.ype with three candidates (you can interview up to 3 at once); two from Germany and the one from France. I focused most on my assessment of their qualities and maturity.  The first German girl was very likable but I don't think we would mesh well so I didn't bother doing a second interview.  Then I spoke with the French girl and we immediately had a good rapport. I was still very much interested in speaking with the second German girl but could not get in contact with her (I later found out she was out of town and did not have access to email). I continued to speak with the French girl and it was looking like I would ask her to match but then I finally heard from the German girl, and I interviewed her, and as I suspected it went very well. They both had a lot of positive qualities and little if any negatives, so maturity became the deciding factor in favor of the French girl. At 23 she is 5 years older than the German girl who is 18 and fresh out of high school. If the French girl had decided to match with the other host family (she can be interviewed by maximum of 2 families at once), I would've been happy going with the German girl.

I asked the French girl (I'll refer to her as AV) if she would like to match with us, and she said yes. We had to mutually decide to match with her and she with us.  Now she’ll have visa details to sort out ahead of her arrival. We won’t meet AV in person until she arrives in the USA.

While we wait for AV to arrive I need to get busy getting her room and bathroom set up. I don't know her personal style so when she arrives we can go shopping for bedding & pillows. Her room has a bed, dresser, desk, and TV. I will give her my old laptop (I'm getting myself a new one!) and a cell phone for us to stay connected. Did I mention that I enjoy shopping?