Au Pair vs Nanny

[Little Chicken]

Hi all,

I have a business which I have to return to work to part time and I am going through the process of deciding which service is better, Au Pair or Nanny? My husband and I have decided to chose a live-in carer so our 15 month old daughter is in her own environment, comfortable and safe and I would really love to have a carer that would become apart of the family, come away on holidays with us etc. Yes, a bit like a Nanny Fran (without the whiny voice of course) haha :).
Does anyone have any experience or advise for me in which way I should go?

[FearlessLeader]

if you primarily want the person to do sole care child care (ie with you not around) then you'll want a nanny. An au pair is really just a second set of hands and shouldnt do more than a few (depends on their visa if they're from o.s) hours of babysitting a week, from memory between 8-12 hours like if they were watching the kids for a couple of hours after school. It's better to think of an au pair as a second set of hands whereas a nanny you can very confidently leave them in charge a lot longer

[Faithy]

Oh! I'm super jealous!! I would love to have someone to do exactly what you've suggested (except the living in bit), but to do the housework, dinner prep and looking after bubs would make working life lovely!