Car Access
We’re having a bit of an au pair/car situation and would love advice from other host families.
When interviewing au pairs, we were very clear that we would not need anyone to drive our children. My husband and I both work from home and can handle school drop-offs, activities, etc. ourselves. Most candidates were completely fine with that setup.
The au pair we ultimately chose did mention during interviews that she’d like the opportunity to get a license while here, and we told her we could potentially consider that for personal use only we have no previously offered car access. We honestly didn’t go super deep into the details at the time because it was a small part of the conversation, and we thought being clear that no childcare driving was required was enough and would deter her from the expenses and time to get a license.
Now that she’s been here a few months, she’s saying car access is a “must have.”
The issue is:
- Our only vehicles are newer (2025+) and extremely expensive to insure.
- She’s 19 and has less than a year of driving experience in another country.
- The insurance increase would be very significant, and we’re also nervous about liability/risk given her limited driving history in general let alone none in the U.S.
Part of why we feel conflicted is that she didn’t have a car at home either, so it’s not like she’s adjusting from being highly independent with a vehicle previously it feels like she wants to drive on our dime and said when she gets home she will not have a car.
We do try really hard to provide good perks and flexibility:
- $200/month Uber stipend
- We live ~2 miles from a train station
- Equinox membership
- We cover toiletries, groceries, protein powders, specialty foods, high end steaks, makeup, etc.
- We frequently drive her to/from the train station so she doesn’t always have to spend her stipend
We genuinely love her with our kids and want her to be happy, but we also don’t want our evenings/weekends revolving around transportation, and we can’t comfortably justify the insurance costs and risk of adding her to our vehicles.
Has anyone dealt with something similar? Did you find a compromise or solution that worked well? We briefly considered something like a Vespa/scooter, but even that still involves insurance/costs and honestly makes me nervous too.