Au pair wanted - and the older the better

Published on Thursday 14 July 2011 16:35

Germans are ditching student child minders for senior citizen carers, with the country's army of fit and healthy pensioners preferred to gap-year students.

Child care recruitment agencies are saying that families now prefer them to young women.

"Family living in Australia with two children aged four and two seeks German replacement granny for three to six months," is one recent advert.

"Older women aged between 50 and 70 are often better than young ones because they have more life experience," says Michaela Hansen, 50.

he runs an agency Hamburg called Granny Au Pairs.

"Families are keen to take on serious and reliable women who will know how to look after a child and be strict when necessary," says Hansen.

The ideal granny au pair is a mixture of Mary Poppins and Mrs Doubtfire, say agency heads.

On her website Mrs Hansen advertises: "Granny Au Pair makes a dream of going out into the wider world come true for women over 50. Whether as a granny in a guest family or working as a volunteer in a social project this is for you and proves long trips abroad are not just for young people any more. A foreign stay as a Granny Au Pair is like an adventure in time, but with security."

Since the end of last year she has placed senior ladies in positions ranging from Canada to Australia, India and America.

Such women are showing themselves to be remarkably flexible. Most of them are widows with comfortable pensions who do not mind relocating within Germany - and especially abroad.

Christa Gassmann, 72, left her home in Hanover this week to begin a three-month stint with an emigre German family in Manitoba, Canada. She took a high school course in English before she left to help the children with their homework.

She said: "People want responsible people for their children, people like me who have lived a bit."

Most of the women set their own terms and conditions with the families who hire them. In Mrs Gassmann's case it includes food, board, lodgings, some spending money and the use of a car.

The Senior Expert Agency agency in Bonn said pensioners no longer wanted to watch game shows or play canasta. Julia Haun, of the agency, said: "More went abroad to work as au pairs last year than ever. They do not see life stopping at retirement."

Sociologist Martha Berger, in Munich, said: "This use of older people is a trend we have seen in Germany for some time and I am not surprised families are seeing single senior women as a valuable resource for them.

"BMW has opened a factory designed for the ageing worker. There are openings for 400,000 skilled workers in Germany. Neither apprenticeships nor immigration can plug these gaps so people who felt the world had stopped turning for them are finding a new value that is good for their mental and physical wellbeing."

A magazine survey last month found 68 per cent of people who would consider employing an au pair would prefer a "mature" person to a student or young girl.