We hired an Au pair using Cultural Care in re-matching process from other family. Au pair was allegedly infant qualified, with over 2500 hours of infant care listed in her profile.
She was supposed to take care of our baby girl when she turns 3 months and 6 year old boy; however the au pair did show any neither capability nor willingness to provide desired childcare.

Cultural care did not properly screen the candidate. LCC and Program director were mostly irresponsive to our complains throughout our 8 week hire of the au pair, as well as afterwards. Cultural care thus knowingly placed untrained, inexperienced, unstable, neglectful and delinquent (placed my cell phone into the oven and destroyed personal property when fired) individual in our family. We have also reported a theft to the police that we believe our au pair committed against our property.

We only received about 45% of funds paid to the agency, although we requested a full so called special refund. If service provided by an unqualified and unstable person who damaged and stole our personal property does not warrant a special refund then we do not know what would - a physical harm to a child?

Financial, emotional, physical drain are among the unfathomable, shocking experiences we had with this Group of People who, at the heart of it all, places total strangers, who's character, background, and intentions are the last thing the Reps focus on, under the roofs of trusting, exhausted, devoted and vulnerable Families. To consider affording this Agency, instead, just send a bunch of airline tickets to young, strangers, don't bother asking them anything about themselves, for you'd then know the same amount - truthful amount as we did, and bring them to live under your roof, in the most private, intimate and sacred part of your world and pray.

After reading many of the complaints here made by host families, I just had to correct some of the generalizations.

I am currently an Au Pair in my second year. I’m from Australia so I speak perfect English, can’t really comment on the language barrier problem. However there is so much I can comment on.

I was completely upfront in my application. I was a 19 year old, with a driver’s license who had just finished her Diploma in Children’s Services (the Australian equivalent to a preschool teacher.)I had my fist aid certificate, I had worked part time at a local child care centre and ran a music program for baby’s and tot’s at the local library. My teachers, work colleges and local Libran all wrote references for me and were contacted by Cultural Care.

I was contacted almost everyday by the Sydney Cultural Care office to see if I needed any help with my application or visa process. I was asked to proved ‘a working with children cheek’(a background cheek, specific to child related incidents), a copy of my license, passport and school certificates. I also had to tally up by child care hours and have this signed by the guardian or the program director of the centre. I was happy that they were so thorough because I assumed it meant that the families would undergo a similar screening process.

It was a very expenses process and in the end I paid about $5000.

After speaking with my host mum only once over the phone we were matched. We emailed back and forth a few times in the 4 months before I left for the states and they seemed like a perfect fit. Four children 2 boys and twin baby girls, the seemed very excited to have me coming and it made me far less nervous.

When the day finally arrived to leave I was completely ready, I had been given the name of another Australian girl who would be flying over at the same time as me and we meet at the airport.

After a very long flight (23 hours to LA and then 6 hours to NY) we were both tired, we collected our bags and made our way out to meet the person that was supposed to be holding a sign with our names. It was around 1am at JFK airport and there was no-one there to meet us, nothing was open and the only people were creepy taxi drivers. We thought we would give whoever it was time, maybe they were running late, by 2.30am we found a payphone and called the emergency line we had been given. The women on the other end, informed us someone would be there to get us when the other girls arrived from China as it is an hour trip to the school and it would be silly for there bus driver to make two trips, quickly checking the arrivals board we discovered that the next flight to arrive from China was at 4am.

So after a 29 hour flight and sitting in an airport for 3 hours we finally arrive at the Au Pair training school. Lets just say it is what I have been told is the normal collage experience for people who live in the dormitories. No doors on the showers, uncomfortable beds, and horrible inedible food. I had been told to expect this so was not really fazed. However I was highly disappointed with the waste of time that the classes turned out to be. I understand that for most of the Au Pairs English is a second language, however for myself I found it torturous. It was basically 3 days of being told not to shake babies and don’t sleep with your host dad.

On the last day of training school a trip into NYC was offered for an extra $40. All the Au Pair’s went excited to finally see some of America. The tour was so fast we barley had time to see anything and as we were getting of the bus at the Time square the guide was hurrying us so much that I was pushed from behind and myself and 3 other girls feel out of the bus onto the dirty sidewalk. I knew right away that I was really injured. I couldn’t straighten my knee and informed the chaperons (Two collage aged girls, I’m assuming they got extra credit for doing this.) that I couldn’t get up. The bus driver and one of the male Au Pair’s helped me back onto the bus, which is where I sat for the rest of the tour. The bus driver looked t my leg and told the chaperons that I should go to the ER. The both said ‘no’ and that I could see the nurse when we got back to the school. The nurse who gave me some ice wrapped in toilet tissue and said it should be fine in the morning. (I spent the first 3 months limping after my LCC took me to the emergency room and we found out that it had been dislocated.)

When I finally arrived in Massachusetts, we were greeted by an LCC (Not my LCC) and the Host Family’s, however my host family was no where to be found, they called and called my host mum but she didn’t pick up, in the end the LCC drove me the 40min to the town I would be living in and dropped me at my new house (notice here I say house not home) my host mum’s babysitter answered the door, informing us that my host mum was out for the day. I went to bed that night. In the basement with no window and no heat.

I didn’t want to let this bad start affect my out look but things only got worse. My host mum would only talk to me if she was giving me orders, and I would work 13 hours a day every day, even taking the babies with me on my day off, because if I didn’t have them they would be left in the play pen all day. My host mum would often come home in a bad mood and take it out on me and the kids. When I told my LCC how bad it was she told me it was just an adjustment period and I would soon settle in.

By then I was in love with the kids and just didn’t bother complaining anymore. Because even if I did complain it seemed to fall on def ears. Cultural Care was impossible to contact the same for my LCC. I lived in a small town with only two other Au Pairs close by, and was very lonely, my host mum wouldn’t talk to me and the only human contact I had all day was with babies. I feel I became a totally different person, and not for the better. I become very introverted and shy and would never stick up for myself and I never felt at home there.

I lasted out a year (only because I loved those kids) and my host mum had the nerve to ask if I would consider extending with them for another year. I spoke to my LCC and she informed me that my host mum had never had a complaint about me and said she loved having me as part of the family. I had never felt part of the family except maybe as the equivalent to the family dog. I chose to extend but wanted a different family, this was the hardest decision of my life because I loved those kids so much and I really think they loved me too, when I told them that I wasn’t going to be there nanny anymore the eldest boy through himself at me and beg me not to go. I was very torn up, but I felt like I couldn’t keep living like this.

After telling my host mum that I wasn’t staying she became very mean, she would make nasty comments about me, in front of me to her friends and told people she had fired me because I was terrible with her children. So when I received a match for a new family I was very excited.

I was matched with a family just outside of NYC and as I was living close we arranged to meet. I have never been so shocked in my life. The family picked me up from the train station, it was a very cold day and the children had no coats on and no shoes, on the ride to there house the children didn’t wear seatbelts and were throwing toys around the car, while the mother and father agued in the front.

When we arrived at the house I started looking for the cameras because I was sure I had to be on one of those ‘practical joke shows’. There were no drapes on the windows, just towels tacked up, the Au Pair slept on the fold out couch in the living room (which is against the rule, Au Pair must have there own room) and the whole place smelled like cigarettes. After getting back home that night I could have almost hugged my mean host mum.

I was finally matched with an amazing family in NYC and feel very much apart of the family. They have asked me to stay on for another year, but not as part of the Cultural Care Program. If anyone ever asked me to recommend Cultural Care I would laugh in there faces. Do not let your children leave home to become slaves. Cultural Care will not look after them!

I understand that some host families have had bad experiences with Au Pairs but we are not all bad, just like all host families are not all bad. I think it comes down to the fact that Cultural Care just wants there money (from both the host families and Au Paris) so they don’t screen correctly and once you are in the program they have there money they no longer care.

I also forgot to mention in the first part:
*I was never paid for the extra hourse which was around 12-15 extra hours a week, and also, since our weekly pay was 139 and something at that time my host mom would give me that EXACT amount of money including the coins. Even though I have worked extra hourse she couldn't give me 140$ but instead she would give me 139 dollars and few cents. That was just FUNNY and SAD at the same time.
*I was also told that my BREAK was when kids were taking the nap, but during my so-called "BREAK" I would have to do laundry or clean the kitchen/play areas.

Now, I was matched with another family and since they lived an hour away from the first family, the host mom suggested that we should meet. She told me that they had an au pair who has left 2 days after the arrival for no reason. I decided to meet them. They had 5 kids (one of them special needs) and even though I indicated in my application I would not care for more than 2 kids and that I would not care for special needs child, my LCC convinced me to give it a try, so I did so. The host mom explained to me and to my LCC that the child with special needs has a delayed speech problem, and since I didn't consider that so "big" I didn't see a reason why to not accept the family that seemed nice. I moved in with them and everything seemed great. But then the real picture started to show off: the child with speacial needs was taking pills on daily basis and was also very agressive to everyone, and since they were wealthy he had a psychologist coming to their house to work with him. I found it strange for a kid with delayed speech problem to go through all that but well, I tried not to worry too much. But the problem become more than obvious when he started hitting me and his sibllings and yelling and often was sent home from school because of violence to the teachers or peers. Then I finally found out the truth but not from host parents, I found it out from another au pair who was friends with the au pair before me. She told me that a boy had authism and I was completely SHOCKED! They had hidden that "LITTLE" fact from me. Despite that, I wanted to stay because the kids were really cute and I thought it would be okay. But then, the host mom would come home with her girlfriends and their kids and 2-3 days a week I would be in basement with 6-7 kids while they are upstairs talking and eating lunch. Then they took me to vacation and I knew I was gonna work and that it wasn't really vacation but well, I didn't expect I would be left alone with 9 kids two evenings/nights in a row! NINE! N.I.N.E (my 5 host kids + 4 of their cousins). Then after we came back, my host parents went to vacation again while I was supposed to stay with the kids and my host dad's mother would help out. Everything was okay when I was alone with the kids but the she came and everything turned into a nightmare: she was yelling at me, humiliating me, telling me awful things such as: " i see in your eyes that you're evil" and the story got OVERBOARD once again when she KICKED ME OUT OF THE HOUSE and told me SHE WOULD CALL THE POLICE TO KICK ME OUT THE NEXT TIME. I could only take my bag and call my friend to pick me up while I was in tears and shaking. My host parents were supportive at first and apologized but then two weeks later and ONE day before I was supposed to go home to a 7 days long vacation my host dad CALLED me that morning to tell me that they DON'T NEED ME ANYMORE and that they had already contacted the LCC to come that day and do the EXIT interview. I couldn't believe what I was hearing: ONE DAY BEFORE I'M SUPPOSED TO GO HOME ON VACATION THEY ARE KICKING ME OUT?!?! The real shock came during the exit interview with my LCC in which my host mom said that reason why they don't want me anymore is: I GAVE THEIR KID PILLS WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION AND I WASN'T TRUSTWORTHY PERSON, AND I HAD NO COMMON SENSE and I WASN'T A DRIVER which didn't work for them! I just looked at her. Didn't say anything because I was in shock I was just nodding my head in disbelief. I couldn't believe that a person can be SO MEAN! SO MEAN! The story gets even creepier when I leave to go home and then I get a phone call from Boston while I was in my country to COME BACK IMMEDIATELY because " YOUR HOST MOM CALLED US AND SAID THAT SHE HAS NO ONE TO TAKE CARE OF THE KIDS AND THAT YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO STAY SO LONG(1 week) and you should come back ASAP.!" I freaked OUT and told them that I was not even coming back to the USA because the whole thing is a freaking CRAP. Then they changed their tone and told me that they would discuss it with my host mom. In the meanwhile she was emailing me and threatening me to come back, if not, she would not give me my stuff back. 3 boxes of my stuff that was in their garage because I obviously had to pack my stuff ALL NIGHT. Oh yeah, I should probably mention that the host mom told me she would take me to the trainstation when I was leaving to the airport but then she called me 15min before the train was leaving and told me she is with the kids in the park and that she can't make it to take me so I should take care of transportation myself. I ran out of the house freaking out and then the neighbor gave me ride. I mean, seriously, I couldn't believe all those thing were happening to me. Finally, the agency told me I should come back and I would be placed with another family. I came back from my home country and there was no one to pick me up at the JFK airport at 10PM so I had to take the train and then a cab and spend a night in freaky hotel in a bad area because I didn't have money to pay a better hotel. Finally, the next day someone picked me up. And it wasn't even my LCC, it was some other LCC that I didn't know from before.

I had two au pairs through Cultural Care, both of them were recycled from other families. Through my bad experiences I've learn that Cultural Care uses children of hardworking families to get to their parents pockets and steal their money. They don't properly screen candidates, they even coach them to lie, and they don't care about anything else but making a profit. They will knowingly place untrained, inexperienced, unhealthy, neglectful and delinquent individuals in the heart of innocent families, to look after their children without an ounce of remorse. This agency deserves to have their license taken away forever, and the people that work for it should not be allowed to work in any field that involves children and families. Cultural Care doesn’t care about children and families.