Congrats on the baby! We just had our second one about a month ago. Quick tip, buy one of these as it will improve your quality of life significantly for the first 6 months of parenthood:
It was a game changer for us and you can rent/sell once youāre done having kids so the upfront cost will mostly be offsetā¦
We got one of the halo bassinets that has the noise and motion stuff built into it from my parents as a babyshower(well, pseudo since there are not babyshowers to be had right now) present, so hopefully itāll suffice.
Thereās pros and cons to either approach. Neither one is definitively better or worse than the other
If itās your first, my advice would be toā¦ err mostly ignore advice. Do what works for you. There are so many ways to raise a child. If youāre a conscientious person with the intent to be a parent, it is extremely unlikely youāre going to mess up your child
Itās my first and my wife is a nurse so 3x14 hour days a week. I work from home mostly but donāt think I really want to be responsible for a new born on my own for those 3 days and try to work at the same time. Iād rather not send a baby away to day care so I was thinking an aupair would be the best route.
Everyone I know who has/had an Au Pair (when I lived in DC it seemed like everyone who had a kid in 2005-2015 - fewer people here in SoCal but still many) - they ALL came from Eastern Europe on a Visa. All of them.
Iām sure some are some sitting around not working, but everyone I know who had one sponsored them to come over, which doesnāt seem to be happening right now.
Are they full service au pairs? Asking for a divorced single parent friend.
PM me about the Lesbian love triangle between 3 Au Pairs when I lived in DC (which involved one overstaying their Visa, the largest type of immigration violation the US both has and frequently ignores). One of the least hot things Iāve seen.
Actually Iāll correct the record: a Dr friend here in SoCal has a male Au Pair from Colombia. So I guess Central/South America Must also have a pool of 20-somethings willing to put up with American parents.
We have used one for 3 years and really like it. Our kid gets one on one care, hours are flexible. If you have 2-3 kids in an expensive city, it makes financial sense too.
Yeah Iām in an aupair Facebook group. Thereās a lot that are already in the country. I imagine no new ones are coming over in the next few months. I wonāt need one until beginning of 2021 anyway. If thereās still a quarantine then I prob wonāt be able to afford a baby let alone an aupair 
I know you pay their room and board but i already have an inlaw suite so thatās easy. They seem cheap. $200/week? Is that around what you paid? I guess thereās agency fees as wellā¦
Yes Iām sure my wife would want a not so attractive 22 year old Colombian living in our house. Haha
Yes, agency fee is around 8k per year. Pay to the Au pair is $195.76 a week plus food, a room and $500 a year towards a college class. Some give the AU a car as well, we donāt since we live in a walkable part of LA.
I guess I could hack a car for the aupair once the kid is older and they need to be driven places!
Not true. My friend had a very nice one from Brazil for many years
You are correct (per usual)
We must mine all second-world nations for 20-somethings who will be live-in babysitters.
One financial aspect I will add is: daycare bills stop the day your kid enters K or pre-K depending on what you have in your city/town.
Au pair, OTOH, can become part of your household. Helps around the house, ferries kids to school and after-school activities, etc etc. it can be hard to wean yourself off that help. Without realizing one day you wake up and realize you have teenagers and still have an au pair (true story of someone I know).
Not if you paid for advanced babysittingš All that money is down the drain once you hit the public school system.
IDK if there is a worse trope about parenting in this country than the supposed big, bad wolf of public schools.
I work with a woman who has 3 kids, youngest is in like 7th grade, and this. Sheās now āthe nannyā but was āthe au pairā and since Mr and Mrs both (usually) travel for work, they make good use of the help at home.
I know quite a few Filipino au pairs. Taiwan has a smaller community too iirc, as my family here in the US had one in SoCal.