Aupair or Granny Aupair Update.

I wrote a post  in July 2012 titled Aupair or Granny Aupair. At the time, I was preparing to return to work unexpectedly and I was trying to decide what type of carer to get for our son.
I joined all sorts of sites and started communicating with all sorts of people online. I was uncomfortable with the idea of welcoming someone I didn't know into my home to take care of my son, and even though I had two people on my short list, I was nervous.

Candidate 1 was a Spanish young lady who sounded good on paper; she had lived in Germany before she wrote and she could speak German. After a skype session where neither of us could understand the other, it was clear that we were only going to employ her under extreme circumstances. That's apart from the fact that she was expensive.

Candidate 2 was a lady in her fifties. She had worked as a nanny and was very experienced, she said. The kids she watched were getting big and she was looking for the next role. The lady was exquisite and very nicely dressed and wore a hat. A real life Mary popping, only older. The minus was that she wanted to be paid "black" so tax free and to be honest something about her just did not sit right with me.

I was beginning to develop a high bp on the issue and reconsidering returning to work when on the advise of a friend, I went to the local child care agency. I explained the situation and I was given a name. I was told that the lady loves Africans, which immediately caused me to raise my eyebrows and decide not to have anything to do with her, as people who make such declaration in my experience are not usually all there.

 After considering our options again, we decided to give her a call. We were traveling, so we made an appointment for the weekend. when we met, we liked her, but we weren't sure. We were going to be entrusting our 5 and half month old to her care after all. Granted I was going to be working from home, but still I would have to travel sometimes and I wasn't sure.

When I visited her home and she casually said " oh and if you need to travel, I will go with you and the baby. I like to travel and explore the world.". At which point I burst into tears. I knew we had found our lady and I know it could only be God answering my prayers. And did I mention that she lives 5 minutes walk max. from our flat?

A few weeks after I started work, she went with my kids and I for 2 weeks to the UK. She has been God sent and has become a third grandmother to our kids. When my son started preschool, we asked her to stay on afternoons and she has! She isn't really strict with the kids and my strong willed daughter will sometimes walk all over her, but that's really the only negative thing I can say. I am glad I have someone who loves my kids with her whole heart, glad to be the bad cop sometimes. That's the job of a mummy anyway 😃

She is 62, unfortunately widowed a few moths before we met her, so we are as vital to her as she is to us. She even wants to come over during the weekend and sometimes goes to church with us. She is really creative and does lots of arts and crafts with the kids, learns rhymes and shares it with them, cooks if we ask her to etc.

We are really blessed to have her. If you are looking for someone to look after your kid, I cannot over recommend this kind of arrangement to you.
Has anyone else had an experience with a "granny- Aupair"?