Why we ask families for a weekly schedule, and how to fill it in

Ask ten families why their last au pair arrangement ended and six will say the hours stopped working. A new lecture timetable, a second job, a sport that moved to Thursdays. Personality rarely ends it. Hours do.

That is why the family profile on Au Pair Nation asks for a weekly grid, not a sentence. Monday to Sunday, from and to. It takes a minute, and it changes what you see.

What the grid does

Every au pair fills in the same grid from their side: the earliest they can start and the latest they can finish on each day. When you look at your matches, we compare the two.

• An au pair who can cover every hour you asked for scores the full fifteen points for schedule and gets the reason “Available all the hours you need” under their name.
• One who covers most of it, say four of your five afternoons, scores less and shows “Covers most of your hours”.
• One with no overlap at all, like a Saturday-only student when you need weekday afternoons, is removed before you ever see them.

Fifteen points out of a hundred is the same weight we give to shared languages and to experience with your children’s ages. Hours matter that much.

How to fill it in

Put down what you need, not what you’d love. If you need 13:00 to 17:30 on school days, say that. Asking for 07:00 to 19:00 “just in case” filters out good people who could do your real hours.

Include the drive. If school finishes at 13:30 and the au pair has to be there, the day starts at 13:00. If you get home at 17:30, the day ends at 17:45.

Leave days blank that you don’t need. A blank Saturday does not count against anyone. It simply isn’t scored.

Use the notes field for the exceptions. “Fridays end at 15:00”, “longer days in school holidays”, “one late evening a month” belong in the notes, not the grid. Au pairs read them before accepting a request.

Tick evening babysitting if you’ll need it. It is a separate question, and au pairs who said yes to it get a small bonus when you did too.

What au pairs see

Au pairs do not see your grid until you send them a request. Matching happens on our side. When they open your request, they see your household profile including the hours, so there are no surprises in the first chat.

If your hours change

Edit your profile under What you need. Matches refresh within a few minutes, and the scores move with them. Families who move from “afternoons” to “mornings” in January often find a different group of au pairs at the top: the students whose lectures run in the afternoon.

Fill in your grid honestly, and the people at the top of your list are the ones who can actually be there.