Finding good quality child care can be difficult and expensive these days. Sometimes when you work from home you have to employ someone to take care of your children.

Sending your children to daycare is always an option, but you lose time driving them there and picking them up. Plus they are not longer at home which may be one of the major reasons why you work from home.

Hiring a nanny is something to look into, but that is usually the most expensive child care option. A nanny may charge around $600 a week to watch your children for 45 hours.

An option growing in popularity is to hire an au pair. According to a recent article on CNN.com there are more than 22,000 au pairs working in the United States.

Au pairs are young foreigners allowed to provide live-in child care and take classes for up to two years — unlike nannies, who generally are already in the United States and caring for children as a career. Under State Department rules, au pairs work up to 45 hours a week. The aides, who must be at least 18, get room, board, and stipends.

The French name and globe-trotting nature might give it a rarified image, but many families say they hire au pairs for down-to-earth reasons: flexible hours, relative affordability, convenience and individual attention.

The US State Department administers the au pair program. They work with twelve approved agencies to match families with an au pair. A family must pay a fee to the agency that goes toward training, travel, and medical insurance for the au pair. There is also a weekly fee paid to the au pair depending on the amount of hours worked.

Families that have employed an au pair say it is like adding a new member to the family and a cultural exchange all in one.

Do you need child care in order to work at home? What is your child care solution? I can see that an au pair may be a great solution for many families.

Warmly,
Mia