The " Au Pair " Solution !

It is a fact of life that many working women with a family can not find a vacancy in a child care facility and that costs are rising rapidly while wages remain stagnant.   For some strange reason, a solution that is common in Europe seems to be a lost opportunity in Australia.

Hiring an " Au Pair " delivers a benefit to both parties.   A young woman from a foreign country gets bed and board and pocket money in return for looking after a working woman's children and doing household chores. The usual arrangement is at least one full day off each week, hence there is a great opportunity to perfect use of the English language and see the sights and experience travel at low cost.

Young women looking for au pair work can gain entry to Australia by way of a " working holiday visa " and this is part of our youth exchange programme - but it is strictly limited to those under the age of thirty.  It is suggested that we should widen this opportunity to accept a " Granny Au Pair " answer by way of introducing an appropriate visa category.

Extension to mature age au pairs delivers many benefits.   They are less likely to want to " party " than young people and they bring a world of experience from rearing their own children - and retired people are equally keen to travel and experience the lifestyle of other countries.   There are certainly mutual benefits in opening child care to mature people who have the ability to deliver wisdom and experience, but who otherwise may not be able to afford the benefits of travel.

Not only would this ease pressure on child care places.   Many retirees are much more affluent than the young and we could expect their spending to improve our economy.   There seems no valid reason why it could not be used to resolve a problem that is denying many Australian women the opportunity to return to the workforce because of child care problems.

There will be the usual down side of those over staying visas and personality clashes, but it is a completely new concept to the Australian way of thinking.   We will solve the problems of the twenty-first century with new answers to old problems - and mature au pairs breaks new ground.   It certainly deserves at least a fair trial !